a s ian arc h it ect u re + u rb an is m : : a s s ig nmen t 2 C h e n g q i +
J o e l
W a n g
( s 3 7 0 5 4 8 1 )
H u z z e y
( s 3 4 2 2 5 4 0 )
N a n k i n g ( N a n j i n g )
Emergent Architecture :: Data mining and algorithmic approaches to architecture allow for a complex study of many layered information to lead mapping and design. This information is both highly ‘real’, based in evidentiary data, and abstracted, overlapping with Expanded Field in the evidencing of invisible factors behind the immediate environment. Emergent techniques are valuable for mapping (observing) present conditions, forces and change, however its basis for design is more tenuous. The ‘objective’ claims of quantitative data lend an apparent virtue to its language but this abstraction means designs are often alienated from the human condition and rely on stopping decisions to position concrete moments which then appear devoid of the qualities from which they were taken; projects have a predominantly speculative value. Urban Environments :: The direct observation and drawing of spatial and cultural conditions concerns the structural environment of a place, speculating in a concrete manner by critically employing objective methods to balance the observer ’s subjective view. Separating and highlighting, by diagrammatic or normative views, layers of human activity and built or topographical frameworks, the typologies of situation, gives a clarity and descriptive concreteness to representation and design. The affectation of a grounded ‘total’ view these methods provide is improved by greater speculative complexity and self-critique, avoiding misconceptions of typology as teleological, but, due to a determined concreteness, can become static and miss the phenomenological qualities of a situation; losing in depth and reality (intersection and change) what is gained in legibility and certainty. Expanded Field :: Beginning from subjective observation of a place positions the overlap of expanded field methods with Urban Environments, separating from there with a particular orientation towards ephemerality; time and duration, storytelling and phenomenology. The focus on the momentary and changing quality of apparent structures gives layered depth to representations but is often at risk of diverging into introspection and abstracted poetics. This risk is sometimes evidenced by a preoccupation with fetishised experiential characteristics, rarefied conditions, over other less attractive social and environmental structures, and by an abstract language which suffers, as with Emergent methods, from attempts at concreteness in design. Despite this the representational layering and intersections of time and space can describe well an experiential situation and its underlying conditions without reductive attempts at certainty, provided an awareness of the limited subjective view.
place where
京
moments
南
all
3.
4.
in time
1/20,000
occur.
5.
:: Chengqi Wang & Joel Huzzey
topography
Nanking (Nanjing) Jiangning Nanking
And maps can really point to places Where life is evil now: Nanking; Dachau.
Jiankang
names
Yingtianfu Jiqing
Zhon gsha n East Road 中山 东路
Jinling Shengzhou
W.H Auden, In Time of War
“And the more the new city settled triumphantly into the place and the name of the first, the more it realized it was moving away from it, destroying it no less rapidly than the rats and the mould. Despite its pride in its new wealth, the city, at heart, felt itself incongruous, alien, a usurper. And the shards of the original splendour that had been saved were now preserved, because people wanted to reconstruct through them a city of which no one knew anything now.”
Baixia Jinling Danyang Sou th Roa d 中山 南路
Jiangzhou
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
Jiankang Jianye
Zho ngsh an
Nanking had been the capital of the new Republic of China for a decade when Japan began its imperial invasion of Shanghai in 1937. Shanghai fell quickly to the Japanese offensive and by December of that year troops had advanced overland to the ancient walls of Nanking. The capture of the city took a just days and in the seven weeks following the Japanese occasioned a regime of absolute brutality and destruction. Most of the city was razed and 260,000-350,000 civilians, roughly half the population, were tortured and slaughtered by the cruellest imaginable methods. The Nanjing Massacre, the Rape of Nanjing, is comparable to the violence inflicted on Jewish inhabitants of Nazi Germany, and its scar on the city was total, “the Yangtze river ran red with blood for days.” Nanjing is now a metropolis of 8.2 million people which expands well beyond its pre-war bounds. There is a memorial for the war victims, and many ancient fragments which survived are avidly preserved, but also repaired and reconstructed. The ancient past city is recreated in its commercial present for the imagination of inhabitants and visitors, but the ghost of a terrifying modern history lies under its pavements. Given the breadth of destruction and recent urban growth these memories of place are well buried. While the stories of war are kept alive in documentary accounts a more attractive past is preserved in the urban fabric; a tourist brochure city of historic canals and walls alongside today’s skyscrapers and retail franchises. This is an investigation of the physical and social site of a city, the memories beneath the surface, shown by overlaying two particular points in time; Nanjing in 1937 and Nanjing now. Photographic mapping recognises the landscape of war behind the city as it is, perpetual sites as places of social and physical duration, set within the many pre-existing layers of topography, building and culture.
1.
:: massacre sites. :: city walls / existing :: waterways present
2.
:: major streets present
C I T Y CENTRE 1/2,000
:: waterways 1937 :: major streets 1937 :: north
ION PO PU LAT G E C H A N
C I T Y SQUARE
3.
5.
monuments
19 1 1935 93 35 5
Changing in the city
square map moments against popula-
tion and social flux; pre-war airraid
warnings, Japanese watchtowers, a
Communist ‘people’s house’, to the
present statue memorialising president
1M
Sun Yat-sen of the ‘Nanjing decade’.
560K
1 1937 93 93 37 7
4.
1 19 1937 9 937 37 37
550K C I T Y CENTRE
1 1938 93 9 938 3 38 8
197K 9 7K
C I T Y SQUARE
19 1 1940 9 940 40 4 0
615K
1 1942 94 9 4 42 2
640K
19 1 1964 96 64 4
1.6M
1 1983 98 9 8 83 3
2.1M
1 19 1987 9 87 87
2.4M
Bibliography ::
Chang, Iris (1998). The Rape of Nanking. London. Penguin Books
Zhang, Xianwen (2016). The Japanese Invasion of China. Shandong. Shanong Pictorial Publishing
1 1997 99 99 97 7
5.3M
Ping-chia Kuo & Zeng Zungu. Nanjing. Encyclopædia Britannica. April 13, 2016. https://www.britannica.com/place/Nanjing-China (accessed May 06, 2019)
Maps: from Madrolle's Guide Books. Northern China, The Valley of the Blue River, Korea. Hachette & Company, 1912.
2018 2 20 0 18 8
8.4M
1937 ::
U.S. Army Map Service. Nanking 1945. both from University of Texas, Historical Maps of China. https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/history_china.html (accessed April 20, 2019)
Sectional topographic studies of the city’s environmental situation, between
of
2.
Yangtze river and Zijin mountains, marked by the ancient walls, and the names given
N A N J I N G
it since the Period of Three Kingdoms (220AD); suggesting the many-layered
qualities
1.
place where
京
moments
南
all
3.
4.
in time
1/20,000
occur.
5.
:: Chengqi Wang & Joel Huzzey
topography
Nanking (Nanjing) Jiangning Nanking
And maps can really point to places Where life is evil now: Nanking; Dachau.
Jiankang
names
Yingtianfu Jiqing
Zhon gsha n East Road 中山 东路
Jinling Shengzhou
W.H Auden, In Time of War
“And the more the new city settled triumphantly into the place and the name of the first, the more it realized it was moving away from it, destroying it no less rapidly than the rats and the mould. Despite its pride in its new wealth, the city, at heart, felt itself incongruous, alien, a usurper. And the shards of the original splendour that had been saved were now preserved, because people wanted to reconstruct through them a city of which no one knew anything now.”
Baixia Jinling Danyang
Zho ngsh an
Sou th Roa d 中山 南路
Jiangzhou Jiankang Jianye
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities Nanking had been the capital of the new Republic of China for a decade when Japan began its imperial invasion of Shanghai in 1937. Shanghai fell quickly to the Japanese offensive and by December of that year troops had advanced overland to the ancient walls of Nanking. The capture of the city took a just days and in the seven weeks following the Japanese occasioned a regime of absolute brutality and destruction. Most of the city was razed and 260,000-350,000 civilians, roughly half the population, were tortured and slaughtered by the cruellest imaginable methods. The Nanjing Massacre, the Rape of Nanjing, is comparable to the violence inflicted on Jewish inhabitants of Nazi Germany, and its scar on the city was total, “the Yangtze river ran red with blood for days.” Nanjing is now a metropolis of 8.2 million people which expands well beyond its pre-war bounds. There is a memorial for the war victims, and many ancient fragments which survived are avidly preserved, but also repaired and reconstructed. The ancient past city is recreated in its commercial present for the imagination of inhabitants and visitors, but the ghost of a terrifying modern history lies under its pavements. Given the breadth of destruction and recent urban growth these memories of place are well buried. While the stories of war are kept alive in documentary accounts a more attractive past is preserved in the urban fabric; a tourist brochure city of historic canals and walls alongside today’s skyscrapers and retail franchises. This is an investigation of the physical and social site of a city, the memories beneath the surface, shown by overlaying two particular points in time; Nanjing in 1937 and Nanjing now. Photographic mapping recognises the landscape of war behind the city as it is, perpetual sites as places of social and physical duration, set within the many pre-existing layers of topography, building and culture.
1.
:: massacre sites. :: city walls / existing :: waterways present
2.
:: major streets present
C I T Y CENTRE 1/2,000
:: waterways 1937 :: major streets 1937 :: north
4.
Changing
5.
monuments in the city
square map moments against popula-
tion and social flux; pre-war airraid
warnings, Japanese watchtowers, a
Communist ‘people’s house’, to the
present statue memorialising president
1M
Sun Yat-sen of the ‘Nanjing decade’.
560K
19 1 1935 93 35 5
C I T Y SQUARE
ION PO PU LAT G E C H A N
1 1937 93 93 37 7
3.
1 19 1937 9 937 37 37
550K C I T Y CENTRE
1 1938 93 9 938 3 38 8
197K 9 7K
C I T Y SQUARE
19 1 1940 9 940 40 4 0
615K
1 1942 94 9 4 42 2
640K
19 1 1964 96 64 4
1.6M
1 1983 98 9 8 83 3
2.1M
1 19 1987 9 87 87
2.4M
Bibliography ::
Chang, Iris (1998). The Rape of Nanking. London. Penguin Books
Zhang, Xianwen (2016). The Japanese Invasion of China. Shandong. Shanong Pictorial Publishing
1 1997 99 99 97 7
5.3M
Ping-chia Kuo & Zeng Zungu. Nanjing. Encyclopædia Britannica. April 13, 2016. https://www.britannica.com/place/Nanjing-China (accessed May 06, 2019)
Maps: from Madrolle's Guide Books. Northern China, The Valley of the Blue River, Korea. Hachette & Company, 1912.
2018 2 20 0 18 8
8.4M
p re se n t o ve rla y ::
U.S. Army Map Service. Nanking 1945. both from University of Texas, Historical Maps of China. https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/history_china.html (accessed April 20, 2019)
Sectional topographic studies of the city’s environmental situation, between
of
2.
Yangtze river and Zijin mountains, marked by the ancient walls, and the names given
N A N J I N G
it since the Period of Three Kingdoms (220AD); suggesting the many-layered
qualities
1.
1.
4.
7.
10.
13.
prese n t a t i o n : :
2.
3.
5.
6.
8.
9.
11.
12.
14.
15.
: : pa n e ls
1 ::
1.
N A N J I N G
2.
3.
南
京 4.
1/20,000 5.
:: Chengqi Wang & Joel Huzzey
:: 2
topography
Nanking (Nanjing) Jiangning Nanking
3 ::
Sectional topographic studies of the city’s environmental situation, between Yangtze river and Zijin mountains, marked by the ancient walls, and the names given of
place
where
all
moments
in
time
occur.
it since the Period of Three Kingdoms (220AD); suggesting the many-layered qualities
:: 4
And maps can really point to places Where life is evil now: Nanking; Dachau. W.H Auden, In Time of War
“And the more the new city settled triumphantly into the place and the name of the first, the more it realized it was moving away from it, destroying it no less rapidly than the rats and the mould. Despite its pride in its new wealth, the city, at heart, felt itself incongruous, alien, a usurper. And the shards of the original splendour that had been saved were now preserved, because people wanted to reconstruct through them a city of which no one knew anything now.” Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities Nanking had been the capital of the new Republic of China for a decade when Japan began its imperial invasion of Shanghai in 1937. Shanghai fell quickly to the Japanese offensive and by December of that year troops had advanced overland to the ancient walls of Nanking. The capture of the city took a just days and in the seven weeks following the Japanese occasioned a regime of absolute brutality and destruction. Most of the city was razed and 260,000-350,000 civilians, roughly half the population, were tortured and slaughtered by the cruellest imaginable methods. The Nanjing Massacre, the Rape of Nanjing, is comparable to the violence inflicted on Jewish inhabitants of Nazi Germany, and its scar on the city was total, “the Yangtze river ran red with blood for days.” Nanjing is now a metropolis of 8.2 million people which expands well beyond its pre-war bounds. There is a memorial for the war victims, and many ancient fragments which survived are avidly preserved, but also repaired and reconstructed. The ancient past city is recreated in its commercial present for the imagination of inhabitants and visitors, but the ghost of a terrifying modern history lies under its pavements. Given the breadth of destruction and recent urban growth these memories of place are well buried. While the stories of war are kept alive in documentary accounts a more attractive past is preserved in the urban fabric; a tourist brochure city of historic canals and walls alongside today’s skyscrapers and retail franchises. This is an investigation of the physical and social site of a city, the memories beneath the surface, shown by overlaying two particular points in time; Nanjing in 1937 and Nanjing now. Photographic mapping recognises the landscape of war behind the city as it is, perpetual sites as places of social and physical duration, set within the many pre-existing layers of topography, building and culture.
names
Yingtianfu Jiqing Jiankang Jinling Shengzhou Baixia Jinling Danyang Jiangzhou Jiankang Jianye
5 ::
Zhongshan S o u th R o a d 中山南路
:: 6
Zhongshan E ast Road 中 山东路
monuments
in
the
city
present statue memorialising president
Communist ‘people’s house’, to the
warnings, Japanese watchtowers, a
tion and social flux; pre-war airraid
square map moments against popula-
Changing
5.
1
Sun Yat-sen of the ‘Nanjing decade’.
5 6 0K 1935
C I T Y SQUARE
4.
ION P O P U L AT G E C H A N
7
7 ::
1.
:: massacre sites.
:: city walls / existing
2. :: waterways present
:: major streets present :: waterways 1937
:: major streets 1937
3. :: north
:: 8
9 ::
C I T Y CENTRE 1/2,000
1938
197K
615K
1940
1937
550K
640K
1942
19
M
:: 10
1
11 ::
C I T Y CENTRE C I T Y SQUARE
:: 12
1987
2.4M
5.3M
1997
1983
2.1M
8.4M 2018
1964
1.6M
13 ::
:: 14
15 ::
Bibliography ::
Chang, Iris (1998). The Rape of Nanking. London. Penguin Books
Zhang, Xianwen (2016). The Japanese Invasion of China. Shandong. Shanong Pictorial Publishing
Ping-chia Kuo & Zeng Zungu. Nanjing. EncyclopĂŚdia Britannica. April 13, 2016. https://www.britannica.com/place/Nanjing-China (accessed May 06, 2019)
Maps: from Madrolle's Guide Books. Northern China, The Valley of the Blue River, Korea. Hachette & Company, 1912. U.S. Army Map Service. Nanking 1945. both from University of Texas, Historical Maps of China. https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/history_china.html (accessed April 20, 2019)