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Self-Centered Urbanism Jeff Nader
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Diversity comes from asymmetric developments in the various stages of evolution. A single node of a city can be complex enough to be an independent micro-society, for example a slum area as an enclave or as an industrial “factory-Product City�a local part becomes the actual whole.
left : Shanghai, China Hutongs http://w w w.trippy travels.com/galler y/asia/china/Shanghai%E2%80%99s_old_city.JPG
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“Factory Product City� This is a mono-type city that revolves around the manufacturing of a certain group of products. The urban lifeline is also the product line, and the inhabitants are the workers, who with their families work on the same type of products. In the recent wave of urbanization this has become the most common type of city generation. A mono-type city is producing, while the city itself is also being produced by a specific product. It either has an integrated production line, or is within a region with a larger production framework. A factory-product city is always identified with its product, expanding and shrinking physically with export-market fluctuations elsewhere in the world.
left : map of chinese factories http://w w w.mapcruzin.com/free-maps-thematic/china_industr y_83.jpg
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Manufacturing #4, Factor y worker dormitor y dongguan, Guandong province, 2004 http://w w w.flower sgaller y.com/ar tist s/edward-bur tynsky/work/series/china#2796
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female dorm in a factor y in China http://i39.tinypic.com/igjgw y.jpg
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The logic of fractal science could be applied here to generate an urban subdirectory mirroring the structure of the root directory of the whole city, which is sometimes not much more than the subdirectory itself. Because of the correspondence between the local part and the actual whole, a node-to-node mirror image of a certain city part can be set up for taxonomy comparison.
left : Old City, Shanghai, China http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Shanghai%E2%80%99s_old_city.JPG
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Micro-society provides the potential for local metropolitan area to gain the integrity of a city and become the city itself. As the multidimensionality of china provides a spectrum of city typologies, there are always extreme cases in which a new urbanism can evolve from anywhere and almost anything: a sleeping dormitory city, army city, factory city, port city, village city, geometric city or even a construction-site city. It is not the extremeness of each single case, but the overall balance of the urban ecological system in which every starting point has the potential to be the center that constitutes a taxonomy of Chinese cities.
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“Event City� This is a city generated or strengthened by a specific mega-event, which provides a platform for the extraordinary injection of funds around the designated time and place of the vent, and where disproportionate resources are invested in order to maximize the energy of the event. Sometimes the physical resources and infrastructure produced are massive enough to generate a new city in itself, or to regenerate an old city. A related variation is the theme park city, which provides Arcadias of exoticism, where dwellers are only consumers and tourists instead of permanent residents.
left : map of the Beijing Olympic Sites http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Beijing_2008_olympic_venue.svg/2000px-Beijing_2008_olympic_venue.svg.png
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Google Aerial View of the Nest Under Construction http://derives.1.free.fr/olympics.jpg
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Wonderland Chenzhuang Village, China, http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wonderland121311/w02_RTR2V5FG.jpg
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“Vilage City� The village city is the physical product of the conflict between rapid urbanization and the urban-rural duality of the planned economy. Massive amounts of built-up infill are placed on rural land, which results in the collective construction efforts of the villagers, who build private houses on the site of their urban village motivated by potential rental income. This type of informal implosion provides affordable spaces for the poor immigrant labor force and creates a dense, chaotic or even terrifying urbanscape in the government-organized scene of a new city under construction.
left : Xian Village from the 16th floor of the Chun Du Hotel, Huangpu Dadao, facing southeast http://xianvillage.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/img_8090.jpg
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Blinking City, Hutong Stenctil, http://w w w.instanthutong.com/images/blinking%20city_stencil_instant%20hutong_11.jpg
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Urban Carpet , Textile, Fabric, 200x300x200cm, 2009 http://w w w.celesteprize.com/ar twork/ido:89729/
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“Geometric City” The plaza city (often empty) has the ability to process public activities such as gathering, inspecting, commemorating and exhibiting, so that the space expresses patriarchy and custodianship through the symbolism of its very conspicuous absence. The axis city (shown here) emphasizes the center of power and its extension. Its conscious expression of the government’s achievement becomes a critical tool in the reinforcement of the city’s identity and form.
left : Beijing Central Axis and it s ancient buidings around http://w w w.csstoday.net/y wpd/News/35057.html
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Tiananmen Square, Beijing China http://w w w.theprovince.com/cms/binar y/9101148.jpg
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