Porfolio 09-12

This portfolio is a collection of essays, researches, exhibitions and designs I accomplished in last three years

P

Prefix--

The transformation of the early 20th metropolis into the late 20th century megapolis changed the game of practice: new programs, new technologies, and an altered sense of scale provoke a reassessment of the limits of the disciplines. Our models of design practice have come up short; the profession’s definition is inadequate.

When scaled up, informed and appropriated, architecture, like any other complex assemblage, undergoes a change of state. “Prefix“ is alternation of status -- scale, time, environment -- and a cross-bred of categories -- architecture, civil engineering, urban planning as well as biology, agriculture and geography. Prefix’s answer is a synthetic, interdisciplinary approach., which evokes the long horizon of implementation and the necessity of strategic negotiation. “Prefix“ further critizes, expands, and finally transgress the once stable “root“ of the disciplines in manifold.

This pamphlet is a collection of essays, researches, exhibitions and designs I accomplished in last several years. It unites my attempts to challenge assumptions and provoke discussion with outlined strategies; It experiments an expanded set of design tools proper to the contemporary world; It amis to redefine the prefixes and stems, to restructure the disciplinary history of architecture, to recofigure the urban landscape.

Contents Morphology is a word formation. As is the case with derivational morphology, adding the prefixes changes, extremes, reverses the meaning of a base word.

Morphology I is a description and reflection on the concepts emerging out of the complexity and indeterminacy of architectures and cities thorough writings.

From Now-here to Nowhere | Essay 2009 Koolhaas’ Voyage

1

Tabula Rasa Revisited | Research Proposal Sample 2011

12

Teahouses in Chengdu | Research, Exhibition 2011 2011 Chengdu Biennale International Architecture Exhibition

18

Ephemeral Monuments | Essay, Research 2011 The Rapid Construction and Demolition of Grand Architectures in China

27

Behind Section | Synopsis 2010 The Inbuilt Logic in Architectural Paradoxicality

35

Morphology II unities the critically informed design works accommodating to the urban transformations as well as redirecting toward more interwoven, complex, and potent forms.

Undulating WetNet | Graduate Thesis 2009 Urban Design of Permenant Venue of Tianjin Summer DAVOS

43

Shadows of Shanghai | MIT-Tongji Joint Studio 2010 City Housing, Urban Morphology Workshop

48

Garden House I | Studio Work 2010

52

Space Intruder | Mansilla + TunĂłn Workshop 2010 Shanghai 2050. A Frame for Future.

55

Essays, Researches, Exhibitions

Morphology I Prefix Agr(o)-

Root

Relating to Farming

Aut(o)Self

Bi(o)Life

Infra-

Architecture Behavior Effect

Below

Environment

Inter-

Form

Micro-

Interiors

Mega-

Landscape

Non-

Polis

Between, Among Very Small Very Large Not

Pro-

Space

Before, In Front of

Pseud(o)False

Quasi-

Structure Surface

Similar to, As if

Super-

Extremely, More than

Syn-

Together, At the Same Time

Ultra-

Beyond

System Place Urbanism

Morphology I is a description and reflection on the concepts emerging out of the complexity and indeterminacy of architectures and cities through writings.

Concept

Pseudo- Architecture Syn- Effect

Ephemeral Monuments: The Rapid Construction and Demolition of Grand Architectures in China Essay, Research 2011

27-34

Behind Section: The Inbuilt Logic in Architectural Paradoxicality Case Study, 2010

35-38

Mega- Form Tabula Rasa Revisited Research Proposal Sample, 2011

12-17

Micro- Public Space

Teahouses in Chengdu 2011 Chengdu Biennale International Architecture Exhibition, 2011

18-26

Ultra- Surface

Non- Place Infra- Urbanism

Information, In Formation, Formation Abstract, 2009

40-41

From Now-here to Nowhere: Koolhaas’ Voyage Essay, 2009

1-11 Infrastructure Changing Shanghai Transforming Abstract, 2009

39-40

Non - : means not, e.g., Non-sense.

Non- Place is a space of temporary, transient activity as to not have to significance to be regarded as “place”.

Non- Place From Now-here to Nowhere: Koolhaas’ Voyage This essay tracks Rem Koolhaas’s voyage, from visionary to practitioner, recorded in the stunning S,M,L,XL. Reading the alterations in the architects’ tourism as well as his paranoiac-critical thoughts diachronically, the essay launches a discussion on how the concept of place is criticized, transgressed, and finally subverted from the perspectives of “history“, “scale“ and “context“. Moreover, in Koolhaas, the subversion of the concept of place is a physical and social accommodation to the experience of modernization.

(Diagram by ZHOU Jianjia) 1

Inner and Outer Voyage in S, M, L, XL

North America 4 2

5

6

5

Asia

3

1 Europe 5

1 2

Berlin, Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture, 1972 New York, Derlirious New York, 1978

3

Rotterdam, Boompjes TowerSlab, 1978-1982

4

Atlanta, Atlanta, 1987/1994

5

Paris, Mission Grand Axe, La Defense, 1991

6

Singapore, Singapore Songlines: Thirty Years of Tabula Rasa, 1995

2

Essay 2009

From Now-here to Nowhere: Koolhaas’ Voyage Introduction Among contemporary architects and ar-

chitectural and urban discourse, and to ex-

chitectural theoreticians, Rem Koolhaas

plore the potential in the perpetual trans-

is certainly one the most intriguing. He

formation -- of the contemporary world.

persistently challenges the the modes of thinking architects and planners employ in

Though published more than ten years ago,

the name of human scale, historica values,

S,M,L,XL (The Monacelli Press, 1995)doesn’t

form, and the like. He denies that place and

invalidate in its inquiry into the disciplines

identity are necessarily dependent upon

of architecture and urbanism. The book is

the past, whether this necessity is argued

a conglomeration of essays, fictions, dia-

in terms of the intellectual’s sophistication

ries, travel logs, projects, drawings, mod-

or popular consensus. He embraces with-

els, photos, cartoons, and newspaper ads,

out reservation the forces that shape twen-

while writings are embedded between

tieth century urban civilization, embrac-

projects as autonomies fragments rather

ing what many consider the dark side of

than supportive account. At this point,

global modernization. He has the ability to

one is necessarily reminded of “nomad

discern the sublime in the vulgar, hope in

thought” exercised by modern thinkers like

the terrifying, reason in the schizophrenic

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. “Nomad

condition of late twentieth century cities.

thought” operates the in smooth, open-

He searches for hidden laws in an over-

ended, flowing spaces where one can rise

whelming urban wilderness in an attempt

up from any point and move to any other.

to subvert the foundations of post-war ar-

It derives from that vagabond imagina-

tion of the savage heart on a constant in-

Berlin

ner and out voyage, aspiring to transcend the limits of experience and thought.

Born with Dutch traditions, however, Koolhaas first became known as the au-

Koolhaas’s inner voyage parallels his outer

thor of Delirious New York, applauding the

voyage: the book can be read as a docu-

very pragmatism of the city. Yet, as Fritz

mentary of his tour of the world over the

Neumeyer has suggested in “OMA’s Ber-

past decades and, and of his inquiry into

lin: The Polemic Island in the City” that

the condition of twentieth century ar-

it is “not New York, as one might assume,

chitecture and cities under the impact

but Berlin.”1 Driven by the sensing of “am

of politics, economics, and globalization.

enormous reservoir of resentment against architecture, with the new evidence of it inadequacies -- of its cruel and exhausted performances -- accumulating daily; looking as the wall as architecture, it was inevitable to transpose the despair; hatred, frustration it inspired to the field of architecture.”2 Koolhaas chose “The Berlin Wall as Architecture” as the theme for his final thesis project. One year later, in 1972, in an entry for Casabella themed of “A City with a Significant Environment” on which he collaborated with Elia Zenghelis, the thread of the Berlin Wall as Architecture reappeared, but this time took the form of a fiction about the city of London. Entitled “Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture”, the tale begins with a direct

3

allusion to the Berlin Wall: “Once, a city was

Exodus is to awaken the the sleepwalking

divided in two parts. One part became the

metropolis of London and to insert in its

Good Half, the other part became the Bad

inarticulate organism a social condenser

Half. The inhabitant of the Bad Half began

of “totally desirable alternative;”and yet

to flock to the good part of the divided city,

the tale exposes the dark side of such

[their flight] rapidly swelling into an urban

social perfection -- that architecture can

exodus.”3 The story describes an “artificial

function as an instrument for prisoning.

paradise,” a strip of land that runs through the center of London, “protected” from the

From the very beginning of his architec-

existing city by two walls along its perime-

tural career, Koolhaas abandoned the intel-

ter. Inside, the zone is subdivided into a se-

lectual foundation of “polite”architecture.

ries of identical squares, each with its own

Instead of a utopia conceive on the tra-

program, ranging from private allotments

ditional basis of “goodness”, Exodus is

to communal facilities, to reach a sparkling

wrought with “dirty realism”, revealing in

intensity that “would tempt the inhabit-

its psychological confrontation with the

ants of the subconscious London to es-

Berlin Wall the delirium, miseries and du-

cape into the strip in an impulsive exodus

plicity of the twentieth century metropolis.

-- and to become its Voluntary

Prisoners.”4 Sometimes, it seems that the discussion

Depicting a “paradise” which is “good”

of the concept of place, and many other

enough to attract the inhabitants of Lon-

architectural and urban issues of the past

don and thus turn the physical structure

decades, are more often than not moti-

of the old city into a pile of ruins, Exodus

vated by an unwillingness to accept this

is certainly a utopian vision, neither aims

new reality. The point of departure for

to expose the ills of contemporary cit-

these discussions is generally the historic

ies, as its historical predecessors did, nor

community, and the lamentation over

does it propose solutions to cure or re-

the loss and devaluation of traditional cit-

deem those

ills5.

The architecture aim of

ies has resulted in a state of mind that, in

Koolhaas’s words, is “fixed on what we have lost, wrecked with phantom pain.”6 But do we believe that in a world of change the global of our intellectual discourse is either to determine now things were in the past or how they should be on the basis of how they used to be? Should not our aim be to understand the way things actually are? What role can critical architectural and urban theory play today if current thinkings is unable to operate without the past as its frame of reference, any assessment of the present becomes no more than a prosecution list of what has gone lost. Even though the past is the source of identity and place, can we not take the loss of that past, the erosion of historic identity and the eclipse of “character”, as the point of departure for our comprehension of the present and the future?

Koolhaas’s urban discourse certainly addresses these and other similar questions.

Fig 1. Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture, entry for Casabella’s competition “The City as Meaningful Environment”, 1972

4

New York and Paranoiac-Critical

1.the synthetic reproduction of the paranoiac’s way of seeing the world in

Tourism

a new light -- with its rich harvest of unsuspected correspondence, analogies

Let’s flash back to Delirious New York, where

and patterns; and 2. the compression of

Koolhaas clearly refers to Salvador Dalí’s

these gaseous speculations to a critical

paranoiac-critical

method7,

a form of “ir-

rational knowledge” based upon the “interpretative-critical association of delirious

point where they achieve the density of fact: the critical part of the method consists of the fabrication of objectifying “souvenirs” of the paranoid tourism,

phenomena”. A method thus enables the

of concrete evidence that brings the

subject to pass from the “world of delirium”

“discoveries” of those excursion back to

to the “plane of reality” through the discov-

the rest of mankind, ideally in forms as

ery of now and objective “significance in

obvious and undeniable as snapshots.8

the irrational.” In other words, what is given is irrational, delirious, and insane, and paranoiac -- critical activity transforms the “de-

This interpretation of the paranoiac critical

lirium of interpretation “ from the “patho-

method reveals one of the surgical scalpels

logical phenomenon” of paranoia into an

Koolhaas uses as his journey around the

adventure of poetic discovery which leads

world continues from Berlin to New York

finally to a conquest of the irrational.

and from Atalanta to Singapore to cut with precision at the “delirium” of the metropo-

It is in Delirious New York that Koolhaas

lis and its new condition in late twentieth

clearly refers to Dalí’s paranoiac-critical

century -- often on a deep subconscious

methods. For him, paranoiac-critical meth-

level. Not surprisingly, while Manhattan is

od is a sequence of two consecutive but

used in Delirious New York as “a model to

discrete operations:

outline fundamental attributes of highdensity, high-rise urbanity”, embodied in the Downtown Athletic Club9, what is called the Culture of Congestion is hardly

to be understood as physical congestion

“USA: post-modernism triumphant. Eu-

alone. It is above all a programmatic den-

rope: historicism on the rise -- the ‘new’

sity which can be mostly precisely illus-

superseded, maybe forever? USA: free-

trated by the “exaggerated extrapolation

dom from context. Europe: context is

of an essentially unconscious Metropolitan

everything. USA: everything big. Europe:

landscape”10, known as the “City of Captive

everything small.”12 Then in 1979 an event

Globe”, which he conceived before writing

intervened which put aside the dilemmas

Delirious New York. “ Devoted to the artificial

altogether: Koolhaas was invited to do a

conception and accelerated birth of theo-

project in Rotterdam.

ries, interpretations, mental constructions, proposals and their infliction on the world”, Koolhaas wrote, the City of the Captive Globe is the capital of Ego, “where science, art, poetry and forms of madness compete under ideal conditions to invent, destroy and restore the world of phenomenal Reality”11.Here the metropolis, or the Culture of Congestion, is a rigid chaos in the form of the grid in which each block represents an independent island with unique laws, a maximum agglomeration of different value -- architecturally as well as ideologically.

Koolhaas returned to Europe in the late 1970s to teach at the AA in London. His return was not without dilemmas:

Fig 2. Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, City of the Captive Globe, 1972

5

Similar to OMA’s Berlin, Rotterdam was once a historic center and was known for its own specific modernity between the wars. Then everything has been suddenly destroyed by the war. The city was rebuilt, but never regained its pre-war urbanism. In fact it was considerd a model city in the late 50s and early 60s because of its open center and perhaps above all the Lijnbaan, a linear shopping center by Bakema. Rotterndam later became a “gigantic problem“, its open centers was filled with closed blocks in the name of urban renewal -- as the IBA wrote on its banners, to make the city more “urban“. In this regard, Rotterdam manifests the situation in Europe in the age of the “Reconstruction of the European City.”

Koolhaas’ view of Rotterdam at that time was quite different. For Koolhaas, not only did the city’s unique quality depend precisely on the openness of its center, but, as in the case of Berlin, its richness stemmed from the prototypical sequence of its mutation and destruction. Koolhaas’s strategy of operating in the present and the protagonists for the reconstruction of European cities hardly based on pre-twentieth cen-

Fig 3. Rem Koolhaas and OMA, Boompjes TowerSlab Project, 1980

tury history. Whereas the “Reconstruction

is no longer that of figure - ground contex-

of the European City“ in the name of his-

tualism. Nor does the clinical inventory of

tory sets out to erase the most significant

the actual conditions of each site have the

fact of history(the world wars), twentieth

same objectives as contextualism.

century Europe is, in Koolhaas’ eyes, ridiculously beautiful “for those who can forget - for a fleeting moment - the arbitrary delusion of order, taste and integrity.” When returning to past is dismissed for practical reasons, the alternative is find inspiration in such a dry, factual analysis of the site.

In the case of Rotterdam, “it was the banal conditions of water and traffic, together with the reductive inventory of modern typologies, that triggered the imagination”.13

This position was expressed in architectural form in OMA’s project for the Boompjes TowerSlab. With this project, the dilemma between postmodern “historicism” is transcended. Yet, the second dilemma, that of context and non-context, remains unsolved. For even in the “terrifying beauty of the twentieth century”, where “each architectural doctrine contradicts and undoes the essence of the previous one as surely as day follows night“. Certainly this context

6

Bigness Beyond Context

big and the small. Beyond a certain scale, Koolhaas declares, architecture acquires

Yet “context”remains an architectural is-

the properties of Bigness which jettisons

sue, perhaps because of the simple fact

the “art” as well as the “morality”of architec-

that any building is located on a specific

ture. Bigness transforms the organization-

site. Site conditions can be understood in

al, structural and interior/exterior relation-

terms of a formal os spatial matrix, but also

ships of architecture. Bigness renders what

interms of the configuration of service and

traditionally can be controlled by archi-

supply on the site or the flow of human

tects or planners uncontrollable. Bigness

and capital forces through it. Regardless

discards urban contexts. Bigness breaks

of those conditions, and whether a build-

“with scale, with architectural composition,

ing’s surroundings are traditional or mod-

with tradition, with transparency, and with

ern, the site will one way or another have

ethics -- the final, most radical break: Big-

an impact on the building. The assertion

ness is no longer part of any urban tissue.

of context in this sense suggests both an

It exists; at most, it coexists. Its subtext is

unreserved acceptance and an imagina-

fuck context”14.

tive approach to reality in all it messiness and unpredictability -- an attitude which

Here, the theme of Bigness echoes with the

seems to be part of Koolhaas’s strategy in

structure of S,M,L,XL. The title indicates the

many cases. In the heart of urban chaos he

content: architectural materials are organ-

aspires to imagine nothingness, claiming

ized by size, both in terms of the scope of

that “where there is nothing, everything

building construction and the scope of the

is possible. Where there is architecture,

thinking involved -- or rather the magni-

nothing (else) is possible.” In a sense, it is

tude of the subject matter in question.

this longing for nothingness that leads him to transcend the dilemma of context or non-context simultaneous to, or rather as a result of, surpassing the dilemma of the

In his manifesto of Bigness, Koolhaas focus-

If Bigness transforms architecture, its

es on the issue of large-scale buildings and

accumulations generates a new kind of

the architectural and urban consequences of such building. This issue has haunted architectural and urban discourse in recent decades, resulting in a contextual mode of

city...Bigness no longer needs the city: it competes with the city; it representes the city; it pre-empts the city; or better still, it is the city. 15

thinking, the notion of human scale, and the like. These strategies aim to criticize, break down, or simply avoid the Big. Kool-

Unmistakably, Koolhaas has left the tradi-

haas goes in the opposite direction. He

tional concept of the city far behind. What

fully accepts the architectural and urban

the city was no longer the primary concern;

consequences of the Big, treats it as a theo-

nor is what the city should be. Dismissing

retical domain(as indicated by the capital

these two questions, he tries instead to

B), and explores the potential. In so do-

discover what the city actually is. Again he

ing, however, he is concerned not merely

went to America to find possible answers.

with the size or scale of building projects,

“Sometimes it is important to find what the

which range from the small Villa dall’Ava

city is -- instead of what it was, or what it

to the extra large at Euralille, from his later

should be. This is what drove me to Atlanta

Y2K House to Casa da Musica, a urban -

- an intuition that the real city at the end

scale music hall directly blew up from Y2K

of the 20th century could be found there....”

House. Nor is his interest primarily the di-

So begins Koolhaas’ writing on Atlanta, an

lemma of context or non-context as such.

outstanding example of the America city

Beyond breaking with urban contexts, Big-

which, in Koolhaas’ view, “reveals some of

ness has urban implications which can only

the most critical shifts in architecture/ur-

be comprehended in terms of the concept

banism for the past 15 years.”

of the city it self.

7

Atlanta - Bigness

downtown”. The cumulative result of all the atrium building is that “downtowns, a

Like many other American cities, Atlanta is

cluster of autonomies”16. Consequently,

actually more a vast region than a city; and

what seemed to help rehabilitate and

like almost all American cities it once had,

stabilize Atlanta’s downtown actually ac-

and in a sense still has, a downtown. But in

celerated its demise in two ways. First, the

the 1960s and ‘70s, while the downtown

traditional concept of the streets as an out-

area of many other great American cities

door space no longer makes senses: even

lying a deep state of despair, downtown

when the street space remains, the actual

Atlanta was being revived and in fact thor-

life of the city now occurs within the build-

oughly rebuilt. For Koolhaas, this rebuild-

ing. Second, the downtown having been

ing of the downtown area was not urban

atomized, its autonomous particles could

renewal in the usual sense; it was “a virgin

go anywhere: “now all is city, a new per-

rebirth: a city of clone” characterized by

suasiveness that includes landscape, park,

an accelerating redevelopment catalyzed

industry, rust belt, parking lot, housing

by architect/developer John Portman. He

tract, single-family house, desert, airport,

started by rebuilding one block ar a time

beach, river, ski slope, even downtown”.

to form a comprehensive urban system

Or, conversely, “Atlanta is not a city; it is a

in which buildings are connected to one

landscape”17. And this has been exagger-

another by bridges and skywalks. One es-

ated in his book “shopping guide” which

sential element of this new urban system

describes a seamless transition between

was the architectural device, reinvented

floors with the implement of escalators.

by Portman, which he called the “atrium”.

Portman’s atrium is a huge glass-roofed

Atlanta’s new urban - or rather, as Koolhaas

interior space surrounded by hotel rooms,

puts it, “post-urban” -- landscape is a case

office cubicles, restaurants, and all sorts of

of Bigness par excellence. Koolhaas himself

facilities. Each atrium becomes “a replica

makes no secret of the significance of this

as inclusive as downtown itself, an ersatz

case in OMA’s history, stating that it was the

shock of the Bigness of the New World(s)

Kwinter’s observation is perfectly accurate

that made what was implicit in Delirious

insofar as Koolhaas’world journey is restrict-

New York explicit., especially against the

ed to Europe and America. But beyond the

background of Europe. It need hardly be

New World, the development of modern

mentioned that its most explicit expression

Asia provided another new territory (thus

comes with the “Manifesto of Bigness”. And

his use of the plural “New Worlds”) through

as far as the concept of place is concerned,

which Koolhaas comes to explore the con-

it is cleat that Koolhaas’ endorsement of the

dition of Bigness, this time along with the

new urban reality in Atlanta discards con-

volatile process of global modernization.

cepts derived from traditional cities, and

The outcome is his writing on Singapore,

traditional European cities in particular.

an Asian city which in just thirty years

As Sanford Kwinter notes, nothing in Kool-

has developed from a traditional village

haas’ intellectual production better verifies

into a modern, late twentieth century city.

this elaboration from New York to Atlanta: In Koolhaas, the concept of “America”

Fig 4. Atrium in Atlanta

has always loomed large. It has served not only the enormous aesthetic ends, but has played a major role in generating both the novelty and the radicality in OMA’s work (especially in the primarily European context with which they have dealt)... For Koolhaas, America, although deeply studied and assimilated into his work, has always strategically been kept at a “dangerous” - and therefor creative - distance; it has been constituted and skillfully maintained as the necessarily ragged, mythical gateway to the destabilizing, novelty - introducing outside.18

8

Singapore - Tabula Rasa

Nonetheless, the desire to envision nothingness led him to employ an interpreta-

In what sense is Singapore a testbed of

tion of the tabula rasa approach in OMA’s

Bigness for Koolhaas? Certainly not in the

project for the re-development of La

sense of its physical size or population;

defense in Paris, which in the European

rather in the sense of the Bigness implicit

context, this project will remain entirely

in the global process of modernization:

theoretical. But in southeast Asia, where

“Bigness, through its very independence

cities leap from the nineteenth century

of context, is the one architecture that

straight into the twenty -first, the short-

can survive, even exploit, the now-global

age of building space exacerbated by

condition of the tabula rasa”. Historically

the exponential growth of urban popula-

or beginning

tion and living standards, has the tabula

anew from a clean slate, is not a new phe-

rasa approach to urban planning been

nomenon of modernization. It first hap-

practiced in reality to an historically un-

pened, in fact, in Europe. Haussmann’s

precedented extent. Is what we see hap-

boulevards, Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin,

pening in Asia an unexpected product of

and Ludwig Hiberseimer’s housing pro-

a Pandora’s box first opened in Europe. or

ject for downtown Berlin all exemplified

will Asian modernization mature in its own

the tabula rasa approach in various ways.

right to transcend the dilemmas between

This attitude soon came to be regarded

tradition and modernization that seem

as the worst sin of modernism, a sin to be

to have been so painful for Europeans?

speaking, tabula

rasa19,

eradicated at all costs. Thus, as Koolhaas describes it, “the city of Zurich has found

The contributions of non-western sources

the most radical, expensive solution in re-

to the post-war architectural and urban

verting to a kind reverse archaeology: layer

discourse have been numerous. More of-

and layer of new modernists -- shopping

ten than not, however, these contributions

centers, banks, vaults, laboratories -- are

have tended to form an anthropology of

20

the past. Koolhaas’ writing on Singapore is

constructed underneath the center.”

fundamentally different, an attempt to in-

Generic City

troduce a non-western source, in Koolhaas’ words, in an “ecology of the contempo-

From Singapore - and in fact from Atlanta

rary”. He writes that “Singapore is incred-

as well - there is only one step left to the

ibly ‘Western’ for an Asian city, the apparent

Generic City, the synthetic reproduction

victim of an out-of-control process of

and compression of urban facts or “souve-

modernization.” In this sense, “The ‘West-

nirs” into an urban form that is ideal from

ern’ is no longer our exclusive domain. Ex-

the point of view of the paranoiac-critical

cept perhaps in the regions of its origins,

method, and as obvious and undeniable

it now represents a condition of universal

as snapshots to the rest of mankind. The

aspiration. It is no longer something ‘we’

Generic City is by definition multi-racial

unleashed, no longer something whose

as well as multi-cultural; it is located in a

consequences we therefore have the right

tropical climate; its business is clearly man-

to deplore; it is a self-administered process

ifested in the form of downtown towers;

that we do not have the right to deny -- in

its urban life is concentrated to shopping

the name of various sentimentalities -- to

center; airports are its city gated, where

those ‘others’ who have long since made it

both hyper - local and hyper - global com-

their own.”21

modities are available; it is New Towns in Fig 5. OMA, “Tabula Rasa Revisited”, Mission Grand Axe, Paris, site expansion over time, 1991

an endless repetition of the of the same simple structural modele; the Generic City is formless, a “free-style” assemblage of three elements - roads, buildings, and nature. It is the final death of planning. What is more, in this the city of tabula rasa, the cycle of interdependence between history and identity is completely severed.

This placelessness, this loss of character

9

and identity, is perceived as never-increas-

the stylized Asian“villages, Chinese gar-

ing worldwide phenomenon today. The

dens, the reconstruction of various kinds

road to modernziation seem to make the

of temples, tower buildings with “Chi-

conflict between universal civilization and

nese roofs” that have soon popped up

established national cutlture even more

throughout Singapore. In Singapore or the

overwhelming, in that the task of survival

other generic cities, the physical appear-

and adapting a well-established cultural

ance of cultural heritage and ethnic iden-

heritage to new conditions was entirely

tity is sooner overwhelming than absent!

ignored in the rush to modernization in Singapore and many other places in Asia, or completely irrelevant, in that since the “cleaning of the slate“ almost nothing has survived to be adapted to the new settings. Thus identity is more sorely needed than ever. In the Generic City, it is no surprise that as soon as a hint of of identity is discovered, it is utilized to the maximum.

Just like what has happened in Singapore: Even during the past thirty years of pursuing tabula rasa development in its pure form, the hunt for identity and character in Singapore has never ceased. What’s more, in the age of consumerism, when global consumer culture strives for not only the consumption of goods but the consumption of identity and history, which indeed has far-reaching physical consequences.

It engenders the cultural subversions like

Fig 6. Singapore

Conclusion

-- flows of capital, flows of human beings, flows of work. If the essence of the super-

There are two grounds for the concept of

modern city is its loss of a sense of a place,

place: what a place was in the past and

this loss is not pre-designed but a conse-

what it should become in the future. The

quence of late-capitalist modernization.

paranoiac-critical tourism of Koolhaas’ Generic City constitutes the “archaeologue

The subversion of the concept of place in

of the 20th century, ” utilizing unlimited

Koolhaas must be seen in relation to the

plane tickets rather than the shovel of the

epistemological ad economic changes

traditional archaeologist22, and disregard-

since the nineteenth century with which

ing questions of what place have been or

the experience of modernization can be

should be. Koolhaas simply by focusing on

summed up. Jonathan Crary has suggest-

the present, by looking into what places

ed that one is brought to “what Manfredo

or cities actually are in a rapidly changing

Tafuri called the coming to terms with ‘the

world, launches discourse in which the

anguish of urban dynamisim’ -- the precari-

foundations for the concept of place are crit-

ous psychic and social accommodation to

icized, transgressed, and finally subverted.

the relentless processes of destruction and creation through which the city mutates

For Koolhaas, the new conditions of ar-

according to the shifting requirements

chitecture and urbanism emerging have

of capitalism“23. Perhaps nowhere is this

not only changed the very concept of of

“anguish of urban dynamism“ more over-

the city, they have rendered urbanism as

whelming than in the leading figures of

a profession in its traditional sense imprac-

the Modern Movement. For Howard it is

ticable, and made the struggle between

“a peaceful path to real reform“; for Le Cor-

order and chaos meaningless. In other

busier, “revolution can be avoided“ when

words, the chaos and disorder of the cities

the chaos and injustice of nineteenth - cen-

are not designed to be so but because they

tury cities are conquered by the harmony

are the outcome of real forces in operation

and beauty of the contemporary city. The

10

urban utopias of Modernism are never

chitectural as well as urban, ideological as

fully realized, and the anguish of urban

well as moral. What is left to explore is not a

dynamism is never fully overcome. Early

matter of what things were or should be but

Moderism’s urban ideas and the modern

what things actually are. To Koolhaas’s ex-

environments created in accordance with

hilaration, urban development now tends

them have been a new source of anguish

to run its own course, putting planners in

ever since. This holds true for Europe as

a postion of powerlessness. And yet “since

well as America.

it is out of control, the urban is about to become a major vector of the imagination.

What then is the relationship between

Redefined, urbanism will not only, or most-

Koolhaas’ architectural and urban thinking

ly, be a profession, but a way of thinking, an

and the Modern Movement? On the one

ideology: to accept what exists.“24

hand he is known for paying persistence homage to the modernist tabula rasa strategy and to the paradigmatic dimension of the Siedlungen and Broadacre City. Yet this homage is never overshadowed by the fear of chaos or the uncontrollable forces of development. Koolhaas’ is a die-hard Modernism that embraces the consequences of late -- capitalist modernization, spectacular as well as relentless, and entirely free from angusih. Koolhaas accepts the new condition. Change continues with or without our consent, change is a pure “given“, and thus in itself is value - free. If we are to understand the new urban condition, we must first do away with all preconceptions -- ar-

Notes 1 Fritz Neumeyer, “OMA’s Berlin: The Polemic Island in the City”, Assemblage 11:28(1990) 2 Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 226 3 Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 5 4 “Exodus/1972”, Architectural Design, 47-5(1977)328 5 Demetrios Porphyrios, “Pandora’s Box”, Architectural Design, 47-5(1977)357 6 Koolhaas, “Understanding the New Urban Condition”, GSD News Winter/Spring 1996:13 7 Franklin Rosemont, ed,. What is Surrealism? Selected Writings, by Andre Breton (New York: Monad, 1978)136 8 Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York(New York: Monacelli Press, 1994) 238 9 Architectural Design, 47-5(1977)319 10 Architectural Design, 47-5(1977)331 11 Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York, 294 12 Rem Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 517 13 Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 206-8 14 Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 495-502 15 Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 514-15 16 Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 839-43 17 Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 850 18 Sanford Kwinter, “Flying the Bullet, or When Did the Future Begin?” ARCH+ 132 Jun3 1996 19 Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 515 20 Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 1249 21 Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 1013 22 Koolhaas, S,M,L,XL, 1263 23 Jonathan Crary, “Notes on Koolhaas + Modernization“, Any 9 (1994) 24 Koolhaas, S,M, L, XL, 969, 971

11

Plan Obus for the Corniche of Algiers, Le Corbusier, 1930

Mega - : means very large, e.g., Mega-structure.

Mega-form is a certain kinds of horizontal urban fabric which owns the form-giving potential in endless land settlement nowadays.

Mega- Form Tabula Rasa Revisited: A Strategy into the Contemporary Urban Landscape Recalling the notion of Tabula Rasa, specially its operative expertise in designing large-scale tract, this potential research proposal intends to explore tabula rasa as a stratagem in contemporary urban environments. Given the circumstances of current post-disaster reconstruction and land settlement pattern, following composite paragraphs attempt to construct a framework for exploring the remaining possibilities in this large-scale approach by addressing topics in terms of impetus, means and potentials, as both a revision of modernist operation and a opportunity for moving it forward.

12

Research Proposal Sample 2011

Tabula Rasa Revisited: A Strategy into the Contemporary Urban Landscape Subject Recalling the notion of Tabula Rasa, specially its operative expertise in designing large-scale tract, this proposed research intends to explore tabula rasa as a stratagem in contemporary urban environments. Given the circumstances of current post-disaster reconstruction and land setFig 1. New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward in its post-Katrina State

tlement pattern, following paragraphs will explore the remaining possibilities in this large-scale approach by addressing topics in terms of impetus, means and potentials, as both a revision of modernist operation and a opportunity for moving it forward.

Fig 2. Tokohu, Japan after 312 Tsunami

Context

ative, even speedy stratagem, which brings one to the approach of tabula rasa -- the

Natural violence prevails in erasing city fab-

notion of a new beginning, starting from

rics: the depopulated streets of post-Katri-

scratch, an intervention from the early

na, the chaos and ensues after devastated

twentieth century which could be said to

Haiti 2010 earthquake, and the swampy

display the similar characteristics.

grids of Tohoku, Japan after a March 12 tsunami leveled nearly all of its buildings. The

In

radical erasure leaves a highly polemic and

S,M,L,XL(The Monacelli Press, 1995), Kool-

traumatized place; the ghostly remains of

haas pays persistent homage to the mod-

the disasters’ aftermath sit at this fulcrum,

ernist tabula rasa strategy through the

where both what was once present and

redevelopment of La DĂŠfense in Paris.

what is now absent so as what is yet-to-

The project, however, will remain entirely

be-determined are apparent.On the other

theoretical, based as it is one a not realis-

hand, along with the volatile process of

tic premise in European context 1, the Old

global modernization, the raising of mod-

World for Koolhaas. Then the territories

ern Asia provides a new territory for urban

opened up by slates cleaning certainly

development. The leap forwards of Singa-

means New Worlds2: a lack of preconcep-

pore and Shenzhen, Asian cities which in

tions, an ability to start fresh, an freedom

just thirty years have developed from tradi-

to think anew legitimated by its indeter-

tional villages into modern, late twentieth

minate constraints and programs. May

century cities, call the traditional logics of

this genre, once regarded as the failure of

earlier urbanism evaporated.

twentieth century urban development,

his

provocative

conglomeration

still be viable as a physical as well as culWhile separated by the geographic posi-

tural stratagem for mediating the crises

tion , by the type of crises involved and by

of contemporary urbanizations and post-

the extent of construction, these empty

catastrophic recoveries?

sites necessitate a programmatic, perform-

13

Possibilities

Initiated upon the obsolete or the catastrophic, the large scale plannings nowa-

3.1 Clean Slates

days share the material utopian objectives

Architects have long imagined that a tabu-

as their historical precedents: a better

la rasa, a version of nothingness, was better

place, decent buildings and clean streets.

than somethings, where urban forms like

However,current tabula rasa approach can

symmetrical grids can be superimposed

be distinguished from its historical prec-

over an infinite, acquiescent land. Histori-

edents by dating a fundamental shift as

cally speaking, tabula rasa, or beginning

opposed to utopia articulation; in other

anew from a clean slate, is not a new phe-

words, an attention to the space of human

nomenon of modernization. Haussemann’s

occupation as opposed to the order and

boulevards, Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin, and

power dominated by a technocratic ges-

Ludwig Hilberseimer’s housing project for

ture. It is intrinsically grounded, and thus

downtown Berlin all exemplified the tab-

resists homogenizing approaches to carry

ula rasa approach in various ways. Le Cor-

out. What’s more, the de facto stratagem

busier in Chandigarh or Oscar Niemeyer in

of tabula rasa is not a chronology of steps

Brasile -- these places suggest architecture

facilitating a ideal outcome but a model

can create urbanism magically out of thin

sustained by change itself, opens to con-

air. The two realized schemes cited stand

tinuous reinvention.

for more than innovation; they embody the utopian possibility that modernism brought to its tasks in India and Brazil at a particular historical moment. However, this infatuation of geometry, beauty and efficiency soon came to be regarded as the worst sin of modernism, a sin to be eradicated at all costs.

3.2 From Obliteration to Memory

to the larger sites, along with a special raft

Tabula rasa could be had not only in terra

foundation designed to stabilize the tall

nova, but within existing cities as well,

buildings in the swampy Chicago soils.

where the coupling of nostalgia and a des-

Moreover, that hiatus sparked further con-

perate urgency to forget creates a paradox

solidation of buildable parcels, the refine-

those charged with construction.The cli-

ment of high-rise building technologies,

ché version of reminiscent of the past has

and the accumulation of investment capi-

grown less resilient over last few decades.

tal that instigated a radical urban restruc-

Then, will tabula rasa approach in its own

turing4.

right to transcend the dilemmas between past and future despite physical appear-

Once the Plan Voisin was attacked for its

ance to the contrary? Or it is?

brutal destruction of Paris’s architecture heritage of the past, even taken as an fal-

In the case of Chicago, deliverance did fi-

lible archetype of so many disastrous plans

nally arrive in the form of innovative archi-

that others subsequently carried out, al-

tectural departures such as steel from and

though Le Corbusier’s work from the 1920s

urban visions like that of the skyscrapers.

has mellowed into respectability. While

The Great Fire of 1871 reduced Chicago to

Le Corbusier defended this project a “tra-

ashen rubble, recounted by scholar Ross

ditionalist” continuum other than futurist

Miller, Chicago’s leaders saw tremendous,

assault as the tradition of Paris meant a

unprecedented opportunity in the rub-

series of revolutionary breaks with custom

ble. Steel frame, fireproofing materials and

to him5. Thus, the tabula rasa condition is

technique together with Siemens’ inven-

productive, potentially, of its own form of

tion of electric elevator paved the way for

architectural and urban invention where

the development of the tall office build-

the history of the city has already unaware

ings during the late

1880s3.

Miller farther

pointes out that Chicago architects also invented wide fenestrations that adapted

conceived.

14

Fig 3. Plan Voisin, Le Corbusier, 1925

Fig 4. Dongsheng District, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, China, 2011

3.3 Placelessness vs Place Creating

ly isolated, free-standing large-scale tracts,

Is what we see happening in proliferation

the de facto emergence of large vacancies

of Asian urban models an unexpected

present us with alternative strategy as far

product of a Pandora’s box first opened

as future urban development is concerned:

in Europe in early twentieth century. In

the place creating counter-thesis of tabula

emerging metropolises, which cities like

rasa, integrated into a site, as a distinctly

Singapore and Shenzhen leap from the

place-creating potential depending not

nineteenth century straight into the twen-

only on programmatic complexity but also

ty-first the shortage of building space ex-

the capacity to provide public domain. It

acerbated by the exponential growth of

potentially involves a more directly dialec-

urban population and living standards has

tical relationship with place than the more

the tabula rasa approach to urban plan-

abstract, formal traditions of modernist

ning been practiced in reality to an histori-

avant-garde projects allow.

cally unprecedented extent. Thirty years’ tabula rasa has almost bulldozed the irregular topography into a flat datum to predicate the rationalization of construction6; it has almost entirely erased the cultural past -- almost nothing has survived to be adapted to the new setting. The original village now but a wreck floating in an ocean of hygienic newness, either from a physical or a socio-cultural point of view, aspires to a condition of absolute placelessness7.

Instead of the non-place agglomeration of the contemporary urban environment invariably made up of the ill-related, relative

15

3.4 Summary

Methodology & Objectives

Seen from a ventage point, all these possibilites indicate that a tabula rasa offers not

Tabula rasa is neither a solution nor a goal;

a experimental site for utopian dreams,

it is a open-ended process of radical incre-

but an opportunity to question old rules,

ment, a catalyst for change. The violent

a catalytic potential for productive future.

erasure never leaves behinds a blank slate

Perhaps this change is triggered by the

but a highly polemic one where politics,

transformation of the early twentieth-

nature, memory, economic interests, and

century metropolis to into the late-twen-

opportunity vie for power. This research

tieth-megalopolis: new programs, new

aims to re-theorize the modernist polemics

technologies, and an altered sense of scale

in academic discourse meanwhile exploit

provoked a reassessment of the limits of

tabula rasa as an alternative stratagem for

architecture and urbanism8. Unlike the

the endless land settlement in contempo-

conventional urban plan practice, which

rary megalopolis. The expected outcome

still operates on a context basis, tabula rasa

of this study should be a culminated the-

is possibly in repositioning itself from the

sis that deals with the potential topics ad-

role of exception to that of new paradigm.

dressed above, discussing how the notion is historically conceived, evaluated and mutated.

The research approaches the relationship between Tabula Rasa and the transformation of megalopolitan landscape on a conscious level, from the dual perspectives of ‘diachronicity’ and ‘synchronicity’, to produce a critical reading. The first part investigates the historical projects and texts constitue the understanding and

definition of “tabula rasa”. The ‘diachronic’

Besides, the research results will be dis-

perspective analyzes the process of Tabula

seminated through forums to reach to a

Rasa stratagem formed at different histori-

broader audience, to engage in dialogues

cal stages of social structure and ideology

among architects, students and policy-

-- including Plan Voisin(Le Corbusier, 1922-

makers on the increasing interest of urban

1925), Broadacre Cities(Frank Llyod Wright,

issues. Another component will, hopefully,

1932-1959), Plan Obus(Le Corbusier and

be an documentary exhibition about Tab-

Pierre Jeanneret, 1930-1935). The second

ula Rasa.

part is devoted to the contemporary cases which extend the debate of this stratagem, namely Mission Grand Axe, New town of Melun-Senart in OMA’s early stage, the recoveries of New Orleans (Make it Right,

16

2007-2009) and Tohoku from shock and New Towns development thriving in Asia in the rush of urbanization. Thus they constitute another form of ‘synchronic‘ settlement. The criticality that tabula rasa posses is derived from its simultaneous temporal depth and spatial breath: theorizing the findings from specific in depth of analysis of critical case, then advancing such stratagem by contextualizing with other general cases. Moreover, an underlying comparative reading of these two parts is expected to establish by linking the historical issues and contemporary topics together.

Fig 5. Plan Obus for the Corniche of Algiers, Le Corbusier, 1930

Resources

cism, and further discussion addressed within the broader contexts of the glob-

Centering on the area of History, Theory

al, social and political environment, etc.

and Criticism of Architecture and Ur-

Those courses provide indispensable

banism, the study will employ multiple

theoretical and methodological underpin-

analytical techniques concern the design

ning of the study while construct diverse

methods, architectural criticism and other

strands for debat. On the other hand, part

fundamental concepts and issues.

of my early research have been written into essay published in TIME + ARCHITEC-

An holistic and interdisciplinary perspec-

TURE as the featuring essay for its issue

tive will be adopted in the study. The

on extremes in architecture and urban-

reading

“Megaform/Megastructure”

ism in China. “Teahouses in Chengdu”(co-

in contemporaries recalled by Kenneth

worked with LI Danfeng) exhibited in 2011

Frampton9

of

and “Metabolism” currently

Chengdu Biennale International Architec-

revisited by Japanese young architects10

ture Exhibition themed as “Garden City” is

shed a different light on the mediation of

a reflection on China’s rush for moderniza-

history and contemporary. Not only be-

tion from a micro aspect.

cause they share similar sense of scale, but also the historical idea evolving in the larg-

All these research, writings and exhibit-

er cultural and intellectual backgrounds --

ing, in addition to the collaboration with

technical, aesthetic, social, economic.

academic institutes (Tongji University, Tokyo Institute of Technology) and architects

The intended curriculum will accommo-

would be instrumental for me to fulfill the

date introductory courses and seminars

further research.

concerning research methodologies, writing on architecture and core courses like history and theory of architecture and urbanism, contemporary theory and criti-

Notes 1 In Koolhaas’ “Tabula Rasa Revisited”, he commented Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin as “the harshness, the shock, the obvious insanity, but at the same time the incredible eloquence” and imagined a new beginning as “What would happen if, especially in Europe -- we declare every bilding in the entire zone that is older than 25 years worthless -- null and void -- or at least potentially removable?”, S,M, L, XL (New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995), 1103-1105 2 Rem Koolhaas, S,M, L, XL, 503 3 Ross Miller, ”Out of the Blue: The Great Chicago Fire of 1871,’ in Out of Ground Zero, ed, Joan Ockman (New York: Prestel Publishing,2002), 46-62 4 Dana Cuff, “Tabula Futura Imperfecta: The Architecture of Disaster,” in Fast Forward Urbanism: Rethinking Architecture’s Engagement with the city, ed, Dana Cuff and Roger Sherman (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011), 75-93 5 Robert Fishman, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier (New York: Basic Books, 1989), 205-213 6 Kenneth Frampton, “Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance,” in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, ed, Hal Foster (Port Townsend: Bay Press,1983), 26 7 Ibid. 5 8 As Kenneth Frampton and Stan Allen puts it in “Scale -- Megaform”, in Landform Building: Architecture’s New Terrain, ed, Stan Allen and Marc McQuade (Lars Müller Publishers), 192-250 9 Kenneth Frampton, “Megaform as Urban Landscape”, in Landform Building: Architecture’s New Terrain, ed, Stan Allen and Marc McQuade (Lars Müller Publishers), 238-250 10 “Tokyo Metabolizing: Koh Kitayama, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Ryue Nishizawa” , Japanese Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2010

17

Animated Articles in Teahouses in Chengdu http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzM3ODMyNjQw.html

Micro - : means very small, e.g., Micro-organism.

Micro- Public Space is an attempt to take even the smallest space that is offically public and to add individual layer to it as making use of the space.

Micro- Public Space Teahouses in Chengdu Exhibited in 2011 Chengdu International Binnale, this work, “Teahouses in Chengdu“ is mainly based on the documentation and survey of over 100 teahouses in Chengdu.

Sprawling over Chengdu sidewalks, public parks and scenic spots, teahouses have been recognized as the key image even the microcosm of Chengdu. Yet with the arising of modernized public creation spaces, the teahouse, however, is still the most pervasive culture to local. Years of modernization didn’t immediately destroy older urban and agrarian life rhythms; in contrary, the persistence of the teahouse exemplified the vitality of Chengdu’s popular culture.

Thorough recording the teahouse in Chengdu temporally (from day to night) and spatially (from urban to rural), this proposal unfolds the scene of this relaxed life style in today’s Chengdu, while tries to interpret this micro public space in the exhibition area.

18

with LI Danfeng | 2011 Chengdu Biennale International Exhibtion | Chengdu Industrial Civilization Museum

Teahouses in Chengdu

From Macro to Micro Compared to other Chinese cities like Bei-

form”. Whereas in Chengdu, this “reform”

jing, Shanghai or Shenzhen, Chengdu is

mainly refers to the physical level, namely

certainly understudied, not only because

“destroy the old” (vernacular city sections)

of its inner land geographical location,

and “establish the new” (new suburban

but also its relatively backward economic

areas). With new fabrics piercing into the

development. This, however, doesn’t de-

historical city sections and large-scale

celerate the city’s great leaping towards

operations reclaim those once farmland,

metropolisation. “Garden City” is the lat-

city is, at present, in the middle of a deep

est slogan summarizes the direction of

transformation in its physical structure that

Chengdu city radical development, while

affects strongly the way its habitants use

consciously distance the itself from the

the city. This “garden dream” in particularly

other “second-tier” cities in character: ag-

is shared by the collective, but another mi-

riculture abundance, plain fertility, and

cro remark of “garden” in Chinese, a lifestyle

leisurely locals,where hectic pace usually

of determined leisure, is dismissed here.

associated with urban life is hardly evident.

Perhaps the latter ideal is best illustrated Unmistakably, the wish-image of Chengdu,

by the street life in Chengdu : an expansive

either from an architectural or a socio-

space that accommodated from all sorts

ideological view, was espoused from the

of people is a major arena for public life. In

urban utopia endorsed by Ebenezer How-

this street life, any visitor to Chengdu can-

ard, which is “a peaceful path to real re-

not fail to notice the numerous teahouses

that line the city streets, parks,strands, or

ing in a space shared with someone else.

any proper or improper places. By com-

Teahouses in Chengdu is quite another

parison, the teahouses, much smaller pub-

story. In early 20th century, many Chengdu

lic space, undoubtedly serve primarily as a

residents lacked access to running water,

place for leisure and social discourse for at-

and water in many of the wells around

tracting people for all trades. Yet they also

the city had a bitter alkaline taste, so s

assume almost all of the roles of the street,

top by the teahouse was important for

from market place to stage. With everyone

many people. So important, that being

sipping on small cups of their favorite tea

located near a teahouse could push an

while chatting, talking business or playing

apartment’s rent up significantly. Although

mahjong, the micro “garden dream” means

with profound changes, by adapting to

small, but at the same time individual.

the shifting and political environment, ultimately it is the Chengdu teahouse that survives as the central sociocultural

Micro Public Space

institution of urban life, as vital as ever,

What is public space? If all the people gath-

ter, entertainment islands are created.

where several chairs and tables in clusering are just customers instead of partici-

19

pants then certainly it is not a public space.

Expect the commonly understood lei-

In another word, peoples‘ participation is

surely class, people patronize the tea-

the measure of public space. Take shop-

houses in Chengdu can be classified into

ping mall as an example, it appears to be

three groups. First are those who use the

public space, where people gather, talk

teahouse as a theater, such as local opera

and relax, but in fact, people involve are

performers and storytellers. Second are

just guests, either share any responsibil-

those who use the teahouse as a place

ity to maintain the space nor come into a

to transact business, such as merchants,

social network. In subtext, being in a gath-

fortune-tellers, doctors, and artisans. Third

ering space is different from participat-

are those who use the teahouse as a mar-

ket, such as peddlers of food and sundries.

of the salon.” Like the European coffee-

Also pedicurist and barbers provide their

house, the Chinese teahouse was an arena

services in the teahouse despite hygiene

where opinions were shared and other

regulations.The most interesting people

froms of social communication take place.

are the ear pickers, who had over ten dif-

However, once you sit at a table in a cof-

ferent kinds of ear-picking tools to meticu-

feehouse, that means no one can share

lously pick, grip, scrape, or rinse ears. Their

the same table with you, thus there still

customers did not necessarily want their

remains a subtle difference between pri-

ears to be cleaned but instead sought the

vate and public. But in teahouses, every

kind of sensation produced by the process.

furniture is flexible, it means you can drag

Even the tea waiter who moves around

up the chair to any table or any cluster

the entire room is welcomed to join any

you are interested in and join the conver-

causal talks. Chengdu people also use

sation. Here, in a teahouse, the line be-

teahouse as reception rooms for meeting

tween private and public no longer exists.

friends. Because most common people live in very small quarters, they felt more comfortable socializing in a teahouse. All of them, regardless of background or social class, share a common public space.

Recalling Habermas’s definition, “public sphere” is not always a social and political sphere; sometimes it refers a physical space. As Habermas stated, “The line between private and public sphere extended right through the home. The privated individuals stepped out of the intimacy of their living rooms into the public sphere

Practice of Space

This observation is neither a delivery of the role of the design disciplines to bottom-up

Although teahouses can be regarded as

forces, nor a reform of messiness of exist-

counterparts of taverns, coffeehouses and

ing conditions. What is intriguing is less the

saloons in western world, they don’t fall

outcome or remedy of this phenomenon

into a universal pattern. Unlike the ones

but the implication of the phenomenon it-

occupy a certain location or built form,

self, as it alludes to modes of transgression

most of the teahouses are open-air, light

and rebellion against prevailing standards,

structure which coordinate the environ-

specializations and segregations, as it acts

ment in a amateur or maneuver way, los-

as a tool re-organizing a coordinated envi-

ing the strict definition of such categories

ronment, suddenly increases manifold.

as architecture, civil engineering, structure even street, parks , markets. According to Levèbvre, there is a natural opposition between the position of “space of representation” and the actual “representation of space”. Here teahouse becomes the third position -- a feedback created between how the space is planned and how it is actually used, just like a active tool. Thus, teahouses in Chengdu have the dexterity in adapting or resisting to the homogenizing thrust of state modernizing effort and survive as a lifestyle of determined leisure to today without a “master plan” or national template.

20

Fig 1.2 Teahouses in Communities Fig 3.4 Teahouses in Temples

21

Fig 5.6 Teahouses under Highways Fig 7.8 Teahouses under Highways

Fig 9.10 Teahouses in Parks Fig 11.12 Teahouses along Rivers

22

Fig 13.14 Teahouses in Scripture halls Fig 15.16 Teahouses in Markets

23

Fig 17 Process of Manufacture

Research Method

Material Date & Products

The research team is composed by I and

Photos |

my partner, and four junior students from

We took thousands and thousands of

Southwest Jiaotong University. We made

photos to make a quick and immediate

an initial list of places where teahouses

record of the initial discoveries. Photos

may attache to, places like parks, river

became the major documentation and

strands, streets, communities, etc., then

presentation material of this research.

brain stormed to make the list thicker. We flicked through Chengdu by various modes

Videos |

of transport and velocities and investi-

By montaging, defamiliarizing the pho-

gated different places to find those anon-

tos, we produced two video clips to pre-

ymous teahouses. Observation was not

sent those teahouse and their surround-

only focused on the teahouses, peoples’

ings. One is a moving scroll composed

activities and fancy articles, but also with

by the montage of the photos, in which

a “zoom out�: the informal teahouse and

the scenes are continuous, transiting

the surrounding environment together.

seamlessly from one place to another.

The other is an humorous record of the fancy articles appeared in teahouse, where those articles animate in a human characteristics. These two videos are displayed through TV in exhibition area.

Scene | The design of the exhibition area attempts to evoke and interpret the micro public space created in teahouse. Restrained by the exhibition area (3m*6m wall), we designed a axonometric linear drawing of a teahouse scene on the wall, while extended the part of the objects on the 2D wall to 3D space. Some objects like TVs, chairs and tables protruded out to become the real slender facilities where people can sit, linger and play with.

Children do like this place.

24

Notes 1. Di Wang, The teahouse: Small Business, everyday culture, and public politics in Chengdu, 19001950, Stanford University Press, 2008 2. Di Wang, Street Culture in Chengdu: Public Space, Urban Commoners, and Local Politics, 18701930, Standford University Press, 2003 3. Henri Levèbvre, The Production of Space, Wiley-Blackwell, 1992 4. Momoyo Kaijima, Junzo Kuroda, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Made in Tokyo, Kajima Institute Publishing Co. 2001 5. Steven Harris, Deborah Berke, Architecture of Everyday, Princeton Architectural Press, 1997

“Scroll” http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzM3ODQ3NDQ0.html Fig 18 Episode of Moving Scroll

25

Fig 19 “Teahouses in Chengdu” in Exhibition

Fig 20.21 “Teahouses in Chengdu” in Exhibtion

26

Disruption Scenes of Kunming Government Building, 2011

Pseudo - : means false, e.g., Pseudo-science.

Pseudo- Architecture is a facilitator whose aim is simply to get the job done. It is a temporal practice incorporates its own built-in obsolescence, a use-by date.

Pseudo- Architecture Ephemeral Monuments: The Rapid Construction and Demolition of Grand Architectures in China The Beijing Olympic Games has prompted the country to embark on a huge construction spree, all of a sudden, the ostentatious buildings like theaters and Stadiums spread all over China, even in distant small cities.

The aesthetics of the grand architectures represent revised attempts to “architecturalize“ the city in a speedy and programmatic way.

In the meantime, this eruption contrasts with the demolition of those once landmarks. Those great schemes, largley driven by the non-stop urban renewal demand, not only result the discontinuties in urban evolution but also call constant “undo“ and “redo“ into question.

(Diagram by ZHOU Jianjia)

27

with LI Danfeng | Ephemeral Monuments | TIME+ARCHITECTURE | 2011/03 | p36-40

Ephemeral Monuments: The Rapid Construction and Demolition of Grand Architectures in China Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical dia-

Opening

gram once recorded will never die.

-- Daniel Burnham

Once a typology of the city is set up as a de-

The aura of those cities soon faded with

veloping model in China, it can be general-

the closing of the events, however, the os-

ized through a centrally managed system.

tentatious legacies like Bird Nest and Water

And the genesis of most cities was created

Cube remained as assertions of the cities,

under the same patriarchal system, similar

remaining the magic which can stir men’s

forms of mass - produced urban operations

blood. In a condition that urban develop-

can be easily found even among distant

ment can be called indifferent ones, it is

and dissimilar cities. This time it is the im-

only through the images of those buildings

age - oriented Beijing Olympic Games bol-

that one city can distinct itself from the

stered the fever for spectacular architec-

other cities competing with. There churns

ture. The stepping events, 2010 Shanghai

out the massive architectural typologies

EXPO and 2010 Guangzhou Asia Games,

quickly: theaters, athletic areans, cultural

rendered the demand even more press-

centers, particularly when in immediate

ing. These events re-wrote the histories of

proximity to one another. They have be-

the cities as well as the fabrics, allowing for

come the most conspicious developments

speedy demolition and quick infrastruc-

within China’s urban fabric in the last sev-

ture connection.

eral years.

Methodology

Theater: A New Typology

The article aproaches the relationship be-

From the scope of urban development, the

tween grand architecture and urban re-

grid form realized in America was based

newal taking shape on a conscious level,

on “tabula rasa” concept generated from

from the perspectives of “synchronicity“, to

European modernist, a reaction against

produce a critical reading. These eruptions

the baroque city which simply pierced the

and distruptions occur immediately after

existing medieval fabric - as well as the

each other, co-existing in the same city,

ideal renaissance city. The richness later

and reflecting a series of urban upheavas.

stemmed from prototypical sequence of

Thus, they constiture a form of “synchron-

moving away from the grid cities inherited

ic“ emergence.

from Europe. In China, however, it is another story.

Grand archtiectures is a filter to read the reality of urbanization in counturies such

Quoting

as China. Their built-in obsolescene call

paste”approach, the urban functioning

Penelope

Dean’s

“cut-and-

the validity of “master plan“ into questions.

operations in China is more aesthetic co-

Grand architectures engender temporal

hered, with grids, axises, rotundas, plazas

urbanism, urbanism that instigates by act-

assembling an instant visual identity from

ing rather than reacting. As an alternative

a kit of parts. Here, hybrid aesthetics are

to classical long-term collective monu-

deployed as swift respondes to immediate

ments, the eruption of grand architectures

shortcomings and encapsulated in a single

in China operates in the immediate short

category “advanced”, eliminating the dis-

term: it is a de facto transitory design prac-

tinction in history, culture, function, etc.

tice that needs to be addressed, theorized

And there is no difference in the realm of

and exploited.

architecture: the enormous accumulation of built volumes provides testimony that new cities burgeoning in China have effec-

28

tively swollen to cities comprised of more

values of surrounding property, and the

and more architectural typologies.

increasing prominence of life quality, and

Paul Andreu’s “Eggshell” National Grand

ies. Though they are set on footing hints

Theatre in Beijing first triggered this fren-

as a tactical course: processes of urban de-

zy. As a matter of factness, for a very long

velopment, as ruthless as they can be, are

time, modern theater or opera house as a

most palatable when wrapped in a cushion

architectural typology as well as a culture

of culture.

the increasing prestige for the growing cit-

was unacquainted to Chinese people. Not to mention the regions leaped from tradi-

Fig 1. Sheridan Theater by Edward Hopper, 1937

tional villages to late-twentieth cities. To them, theater is not only another architectural form, it ensembles a brand new social space and life style. So different from the American urban scenes depicted in Edward Hopper’s “Circle Theater”, or “Sheridan Theater” (Fig. 1)where theater is an embodiment of public isolation or loneliness.

The theaters in China are more like scenic spots(Fig. 2), neither like the gathering space nor a public space. It is something can be visited and photographed, never it is something can be used, reasonable designed but mis-used.

Accordingly, the staging is perfectly choreographed. Owning theater serves as the medium for the message: the increasing

Fig 2. People in National Grand Theater

Eruption of Grand Architectures

million RMB, like Hangzhou Grand Theater (nine hundred million RMB for building

What has happend to the eruption of

cost). In this wave, even small cities and un-

theaters best illustrated the axiom: per-

developed areas are striving to this “theat-

manence is achieved through repetition.

ers on-rush”.

According to incomplete statistics(Fig. 3), over thirty theaters have been completed

Athletic arena is the counterpart of theater.

in China in last decade with at least seven

Beijing Olympic Games directly catalyzed

in 2007 and in 2009 the annual number

the collective desire for high standard are-

went to nine. Another ten theaters are un-

nas, hence another frenzy of athletic are-

der construction or in preparatory work.

nas arrive -- with over thirty 40,000 - seat

Most of those theaters are qualified as “na-

stadiums built in last five years, another

tional first-class” ones. What worthy to note

twenty in plan. 60,000 - 80,000 seat stadi-

is the scheme of National Grand Theater

ums are the ones prevail in large cities like

first came out in 1999, and took another

Nanjing and Tianjin. Named as “Olympic

seven years to accomplish the entire pro-

Stadiums”, those huge arenas are waiting

ject. Most of the theater work happened to

eagerly for the unlikely arrival of a truly

spring up during this period. Geographi-

magnificent event. The only problem re-

cally speaking(Fig. 4), theaters thrive in

mains is: future always arrives too late.

coastal regions, namely developed regions like Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River

These emerging patterns of urban con-

Delta. Pearl River Delta is home to high

sumption indicate just how effective sur-

occurrence of first class theaters including

real fantasies and mass spectacle have be-

Zhuhai Grand Theater, Shenzhen Grand

come as marketing tools for selling generic

Theater, Shenzhen Poly Theaters, and even

architecture. However, they also represent

more to name. On the other hand, afflu-

a deeper-rooted ‘coming out’ of Chinese

ent province like Zhejiang accommodates

urban pride that demands ever more spec-

several theaters which cost over hundred

tacular and different architectural designs.

29

Fig 4.

30

Fig 5. Grand Theaters Flourishing throughout China

31

Quick-fixed and short-term, the idea of

from both supplement and demand, the

“Bigness” as discussed by Koolhaas should

still shimmering buildings doomed to fall

not be taken literally; and architecture

into deep freeze. As a result, some of the

cannot take the burden of large-scale

buildings are abandoned like a cliché toys

programmatic needs unless it turns itself

of the cities and start to crumbling(Fig. 6).

into a shelter, no matter how articulated

Some have been sublet to other contrac-

its architectonics might be. In the case of

tors and ended in a “fantastic” abuses: the

the eruption of theaters and athletic are-

arenas are renovated into fish ponds(Fig. 7)

nas, architecture as well as parcel planning

or ranches, and the high-quality theaters

become program -- the planning of a new

are occupied by cheesy stripers. Once en-

sense of collective that directly challenged

chanting monuments of radical urbaniza-

disciplines from architectures’ conven-

tion utopia images finally descended into

tional dominance. Comprehensive wholes

absurdity.

as form, material, details are no longer interested, but realizable chunks meas-

Fig 6. Abandoned Taoyuan Stadium in Hunan Province

ured by scale, speed and visual identities.

After completion, nonetheless, the buildings will no longer top off at first place.

The impulses for Bigness has created its own feedback loop where high investment pursues even higher return. Finally those buildings price themselves out of the market by charging so high. Deferred management and maintenance is unmistakably problematic, what goes beyond is the languishing interested in performance or leisure activities. Without strut

Fig 7. Zhoushan Stadium Renovated into Fish Pond

Disruption of Grand Architectures

Then what cause the destroying and

Undoubtably, Event-city spectacles, such

ing Mckinsey Global Institute estimation

as the Olympic facilities in Beijing and en-

that over the past decade land sales have

tire themed towns, may have a lasting ef-

contributed to more than 60 percent of

fect in raising the standards of design and

some Chinese cities’ annual income is also

construction locally, but they also often

driven by profitable generic developments

have a limited shelf life, and require more

yielding tax income to the authorities.

sustainable architectural design solu-

However since there is no system of fixed-

tions. The reason to call those monuments

asset taxation in Chinese cities means that

“ephemeral” is they always tied to changes,

governments cannot raise regular prop-

in relation to time and/ or environmental

erty income, so reselling state lands has

conditions. Since they don’t have sufficient

become an ever more important means

time to be designed or developed, they

of raising funds for construction projects.

ended up without sufficient time to survive.

In this case, the master plan or scenario

building cities every generation ? Quot-

plan is no longer a chronology of steps Part of the demolition are due to the no-

facilitating a predetermined outcome but

torious construction quality in China,

a model sustained by change itself, open

speedy but poor quality. Part rely on the

to continuous reinvention. Thus China has

policy of reselling property. Though the

toped as the largest urban consumption in

endurance of major architectures and

the world with annual construction area

high rises are designed to range from 50

of 200 million square meters, at the same

years to 100 years, even the normal ar-

time, China has produced most architec-

chitectures are required to fulfill 50- year

tural wastes for its constant demolition,

service length. Even the civic architec-

both requiring almost endless quantities of

tures designed with exceptional safety

building materials and natural resources.

margins are easily sentenced to death.

Moreover, the assumption of monumental architectures’ permanence is shaken.

32

What has happened to Shenyang Wulihe Stadium well exemplifies the non-stop demand for urban renewal: The stadium, built in 2001 was so important to Chinese football fans and local people for it witnessed China’s first World Cup appearance.

Envisioned by new plan of turning the area into Shenyang central business district, the property was mortgaged for raising capital, and the glorious stadium faced demolition. The decision certainly called upheaval in public, thousands of football fans gathered in front of Wulihe Stadium in peril and attempted to persuade the authority. After several month protest, in a Sunday morning in 2007, however, the stadium was exploded into ashes, of course, under the banner of urban renewal.

Fig 8. Disruption Scenes of Buildings in recent years in China

Conclusion: Another Monumentality

As John Brinckerhoff Jackson puts it, “...No sooner was the Civil War ar an end than

“A monument”, as Alois Riegl opened his

there was a widespread desire to declare

essay, “in its oldest and most original sense

the Gettysburg battlefield a monument.

is a human creation, erected for a specific

This was something unheard of: an im-

purpose of keeping single human deeds

mense, populated landscape of thousands

or events alive in the minds of future gen-

of acres of fields and roads and farmhouses

1

erations.” In the previous cases tracked,

becoming a monument to an event which

though endowed with monumental ges-

had taken place there. It was in effect a re-

tures, failed to reactive the concept of res

construction of the environment. It was no

publica or collective investment anyway.

longer a reminder, it no longer told us what

It is necessary to complicate the notion of

to do; it simply explained the battle...” 2In

“monumental gesture” and “monumental-

subtext, the irreplaceable event is the cen-

ity” here.

tral value of “being monument”, or the essence of “monumentality”, without regarding of “intentional” or “unintentional”. The upheaval caused by the disruption instead of eruption brought up people together and recalled their collective memory. The logic of monument is turned upside down: fragility rather than permanence becomes its mark.

33

The story culminated in a true monument.

“Hua Monument”(Fig. 9) was designed and put up in memorizing of Chongqing Three Gorges Immigration. The surreal looking of “Hua Monument” imitated Chinese character “華” (means China). Invested in twenty million RMB, the civil engineering of the monument has almost accomplished.

However, Chongqing government never

Fig 9. “Hua Monument”in Chongqing Photographer: Nadav kander

succeeded in raising fund for its further interior decoration, thus “Hua” has been left as a “rotten-tail building” along Yangtze River for over one year. At the night before 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, “Hua Monument” got blasted(Fig. 10), followed by the collapse of permanence and utopian dreams. Monuments are performative.

Enforcing temporal pressure, they dictate and accelerate urban process. Monuments and monumentality are set with deadlines, they demand expediency; they inflict realization anxiety. With the dense dusts obscuring the sky, imagined and real, permanent and transitory bleed into one and another.

Fig.10. Explosiong Scene of “Hua Monument”

Notes 1 Alois Riegl, The Modern Cult of Monuments: Its Character and Its Origin, Oppositions 25 Fall 1982:24 2 John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Necessity of Ruins, and other topics(University of Massachusetts Press, 1980), 93

Reference 1 Dana Cuff, Provisional City (The MIT Press, 2001) 2 Hung Wu, Monumentality in Early Chinese Art and Architecture(Stanford Univeristy Press, 1995) 3 New Urban China, Architectural Design September/ October 2008

34

Spatial Relationsjip of Villa Stein

Syn - : in union, actng together, e.g., Syn-chronize.

Syn-effect is a mental sense evoked by the holistic expression of architectural structure, surface, material, etc.

Syn- Effect Behind Section: The Inbuilt Logic in Architectural Paradoxicality The inconsistency between facade and section embodies some architectures with paradoxicality. This article selects three typical cases(Murica City Hall, Turegano House and Goetz Gallery) for analyzing. Deviating from the normal planar view, the acts to cut these architecture models initiate alternative reading of the paradoxicality and reveal the inbuilt logic behind the section.

The strategy between the architecture and the “deceive“ perception endows architectures with dynamic complexity and has the potential to shortcut the postmodern approach to communication and environment engagement.

(Diagram by ZHOU Jianjia)

35

Case Study 2010

Behind Section: The Inbuilt Logic in Architectural Paradoxicality

Synopsis

The word “sect” comes form the Latin noun secta, meaning “path”. Recalling

“Section” as a mediating Agent

the etymology, one is easily reminded of the works of Gordon Matt-Clark: carving

With a facade reflecting its section re-

an empty suburban house with a power-

vealing and displaying the principle of

ful saw. His work not only interprets the

the interior of architecture has become

origin of “section”, but also inspires me

a cutting edge them nowadays. In some

to adopt a particular way deviating from

architectures, however, the relationship

the normal planar view to survey the ar-

between facade and section infers a cor-

chitectural sections. The exterior and the

respondence and disassociation. This

interior of architecture can present simul-

inconsistency aggravated the tension in

taneously in the status of “being cut”, thus

reading those works.

the inbuilt logic behind the section get revealed.

A section is an assemblage of dark spots on a plane. It maps the residual of a surgery on an object by a plane of incision. Each spot marks an instant of convergence of an axis of inscription with an axis of incision. The sectioned object undergoes permutations in a logical system of representation-a system of coordinates.

Fig. 1: Splitting by Gordon Matta-Clark, 1974

Such narration of architecture can be

Obviously Le Corbusier exhibited the in-

traced to Le Corbusier’s work, the Villa

consistency of interior and exterior with

Stein. In Transparency, Colin Rowe inci-

intention. The situation that contemporary

sively analyzed the discontinuity between

architectures faced is far more compli-

plan and facade, the spatial organization

cated, arousing tension in-between thor-

in plan and the horizontal emphasis on fa-

oughly. This articles selects three contem-

cade render the actual mass widely diver-

porary works (Murcia City Hall, Turegano

gent from the one expected by a viewer.

House and Goetz Gallery) for analyzing/

Systems in longitudinal and horizontal

By cutting those architecture models with

direction permeante each other without

different methods reveals the inbuilt logic

being disturbed; this perception initiates

behind the sections.

the interests of deciphering this work. For another canon work from Le Corbusier,

Fig. 2: Cutting of Second Floor, Villa Stein

Villa Carthage, the puzzlement was suggested by the succinct facade and free section behind. Considering conditions like ventilation and prospectives, Corbusier configured the floors in a staggered section which cannot be easily judged from outside.

Fig. 3: Axonometric Drawing of Villa Baizeau

Fig. 4: Cutting Axonometric Drawing of Villa Baizeau

36

Three Cases

This particular facade is capable of coexisting with the cathedral and the Cardinal Bel-

Murica City Hall designed by Rafeal Mo-

luga Palace, without making stylistic refer-

neo underlies the intriciating historic and

ence or concessions to its surroundings as

regional context the buidling has to face.

well as compromising the civic sense con-

Located in the prominent urban space,

veyed by the architecture itself.

a rhythmical facade/reable serves to concilitate the sequence of the site. The horizontal brands on the vertical plane do not refer to the actual positions of the slabs inside the building, the system of random pillars interupted by horizontal brands even aggravate this impression.

Meanwhile, the balconies and balustrades suggest the logic of actual floors stacking.

Fig 5.Shadow Texture of the Elevation Fig 6. Axonometric Drawing of Murica City Hall Fig 7. Cutting axonometric Drawing of Murica City Hall

Campo Baeza endowed the Turegano House with two different characteristics, behind the laconic facade is a complicated interior space organized by “light path“. The anonymous and abstract facade of this villa constrast sharply with the porous interiority. The whole villa works as vessel which attempts to cap-

37

ture the light. The blazing and bouncing trajectory of light can only be tracked by section.

Fig 8. Axonometric Drawing of Turegano House Fig 9. 10 Light Path in Turegano House

Goetz Gallery designed at the early stage of Herzog & de Meuron was inspired under the strict hight restrains of the site. At first glance, this gallery is deceived as a three - story box floating above ground.

However, entering into the gallery is only to discover the intriguing compostion: the building is actually bisected with one floor sunk underground. The “entrancelike“ glazing brand floating on ground works as the clerestory of the basement floor. The interior space is approached as another field where movement is experienced through spaces most of which are embellished by the play of natural and artificial lights, meanwhile eliminating the hierachry of upground space and

Fig 12. Composition of Goetz Gallery Elevation

underground one. Moreover, the illegible structure and detail pentrating the entire building.

Fig 11. Longitudinal Section of Goetz Gallery

Conclusion In these three cases, architects use the normal element reference such as slab, door, window, etc. to “deceive“ the perception of viewers. With the intervention of those references, inconsistency exists between the architecture we percept and the one it actually is. While, this strategy is fundamentally different from the way of treating “architecture“ as”shell”, with its exterior detached from the interior principle thoroughly. On the contrary, the paradoxicality lying in the cases were driven by responding towards special programs. or inbuilt logic. The tension between the truth and the perception endows archtiectures with dynamic complexity.

Fig. 13: Transverse Section of Goetz Gallery

38

Infra - : means below, e.g., Infra-structure.

Infra-Urbanism

Infra- Urbanism Infrastructure Changing Shanghai Transforming

In early-twentieth-century US, the changes in infrastructure affected notably on both physical city and urban culture. In particulary, the freeway system constiture the best example of the change in urban form as the result of changes in infrastructure.

It almost effects the same on nowadays Shanghai: rapid metro lines construction is prompting Shanghai urban expansion.

Illustrating by plentiful diagrams and graphics, this article explores how the expontential growth of traffic constructions including metro lines, giant transportation hub fundamentally changes the physical as well as spatial, cultural structure of Shanghai.

Thus, the duality of downtown-suburban or the ambit of large-scale urban area in terms of accessiblites, distance, density has been confused and undone.

(Diagram by ZHOU Jianjia)

39

40

Ultra - : means beyond, e.g., Ultra-sonic.

Ultra- Surface transcends the simple skin and bone metaphor in architectural forms. It is of further interest: the potential to connect the internal with the external.

Ultra- Surface Information, In Formation, Formation 41 Cooper Square New York by Morphosis

By introducing Mophosis Architect’s new work for Cooper Union for the advancement of Science and Art, Cooper Square 41 in New York City, this article briefly reviews how architects response to architectural programs and urban situations with geometry manipulation, that is, how buildings get informed and formed.

The article starts with the analogy of the “cut“ on the surface of 41 Cooper Square with Lucio Fontana’s “Spatial Concept“ series -- employing the technique of “cut“, the Italian artist endowed the 2D canvas with a 3D depth. In the case of 41 Cooper Square, the gesture of “cut“ not only connects the students to each other but also their vibrating urban environments.

41

42

Design Works

Morphology II

Un- Zoning

Ordos Nomadism City Oasifying Desertification BIG Design Competition 2010. 09 - 10

De- Agglomeration

Grand Theater, Zhuji, Zhejiang Province Project (Under Construction) 2011.03- | Area 30000sqm

Morphology II unities the critically informed practices accommodating to the urban transformations as well as redirecting toward more interwoven, complex, and potent ends.

Optim- Site

Shadows of Shanghai City Housing, Urban Morphology Workshop MIT- Tongji Workshop 2010. 03 - 05 Area 60369sqm

Intro/Extro- House

Undulating WetNet Urban Design of Permanet Venue of Tianjin Summer DAVOS Graduate Thesis 2009 03 - 06 | Area 420,000sqm

Garden House I Studio Work 2009. 12 - 2010. 01 | Area 980sqm

Invisible Tower Scheme Design Competition First Prize 2010.12- 2011. 01 Area 44870sqm

Minimal Highrise Housing BIG Design Competition 2010. 03 - 05 Floor Area 120sqm

Garden House II Artistic House Studio Work 2006. 09 - 11 Area 200sqm

Scheme Design 2011. 04 - 05 Area 660sqm

42

From Points to Lines From Lines to Points

Un - : means aborogate, e.g., Un-do.

Un-zoning encourages an emerging urban planning experiement rather than economic rationalism, which accommodates the programmatic diversity and life vitality.

Un- Zoning Undulating WetNet Urban Design for Permanet Venue of Tianjin DAVOS A different design is indispensable for a BIG plan.

In this 51.7 hectare huge project, the cliche zoning policies or is jettisoned. Instead, borrowing the inspiring idea from Frei Otto’s “Optimized Path System“ creates a undulating net accommodates all the diverse programmatic functions. This WetNet becomes a active tool, a structure of vagueness shaped by the complex forces, reciprocally, shaping its own urban system where wide landscape and manmade infrastructure, steadibities and contigenties, precision and elasticity bleed into one and another. This project propose a dynamic interplay between site, formal structure, and program.

43

with MA Yuanrong XUE Jun | Graduate Thesis Tongji University | 2009.03-06

Reference Branched constructions based on natural occurrences.

Figure A A grid connecting each terminal without any detours.

Figure B Average amount of detouring for all the routes.

Lengthened by extra 8%.

Figure C Economization of detouring (the extras), forming a network instead of a grid.

Analogy

Programs as Liquid

Paths as Network

Self Formation

08:00 Breakfast

09:00

10:00

11:00

Round Table Discussion 1

Round Table Discussion 1

Round Table Discussion 2

Round Table Discussion 2

Round Table Discussion 3

Round Table Discussion 3

Introduction

Round Table Discussion 4

Parallel Sessions

Introduction

Seminar

Introduction Conference

Seminar 1

Seminar

Seminar 2

Seminar 1 Seminar 2

Daily Schdule of Summer DAVOS

12:00 Plenary Session

13:00 Lunch

14:00

Frei Otto Experiment Calculating“Optimized Path System�

Neither dimension 1 nor dimension 2, But a heterogeneous assemblage of more dimensions.

The first step contains only geometry, no materiality, then materiality takes over during a stage of reshifting and the procedure comes to a halt in a state of full geometry again, but a geometry that is now not imposed on a material, but is the result of material interactions.

From Points to Lines

15:00 Round Table Discussion 1 Round Table Discussion 2

16:00 Round Table Discussion 1

17:00

18:00

Inaugration

19:00

20:00

Banquet

21:00

Evening Reception

Round Table Discussion 2

Round Table Discussion 3

Round Table Discussion 3

Introduction

Introduction

Plenary Session

Introduction

Seminar

Plenary Session

Seminar 1

Seminar 1

Seminar 2

Seminar 2

44

The Dry Net

Attempts in Defining the Path System Based on Site Nodes (1 Concentric Circles, 2 Connecting Lines, 3 Rotating Grid, 4 Excircles, 5 Perpendicular Bisectors)

360 degress

60 degrees

45 degrees

30 degrees

15 degrees

The Overall Planning & Interface Operation

Field Condition

Surrounding Influences

Site Condition

Penmetre Flows

Site Interaction

Visual Connections

In-ex Extrusion

Program Adjacencie

Road Contour Formation

Topography as Windscreen

In architecture flexibility has always been associated with the engagement of the building with events that are unforeseen, with an unpredictable or at least variable usage of space.

During modernism that flexibility often resulted in an undetermined architecture, in an averaging of program and an equalization even neutralization, of space.

A generalized openness always has the effect of neutralizing events and being unproductive, because the type of space is not engaged in the emergence of events themselves.

The Wet Net

Landscape System

+

Permanent Programs

+

Path Systems

= City Park

45

Physical Model

N

Plot Site Area: 51.7 ha Site Coverage: 30% FAR = 0.8-0.85 Green Area: 184,000 skm Total Building Area: 420,000 skm Conference: 100,000 skm Accommodation: 200,000 skm Parking: 3000

46

Master Plan

Perspective

47

Optim - : means not, without, e.g., Optim-ality.

Optim-site proposes that architecture or any other complex assemblages, rather than passively occupying a given site, works to construct and cultivate the site itself.

Optim- Site Shadows of Shanghai City Housing, Urban Morphology Workshop In Shanghai, it is ubiqutious to see the residential houses in rows or in plates strictly following the codes of sun exposure hours and the minimum distance for sunlight.

However, the extreme constraits facing in this site urges me to rethink the efficiency of the conventinal space distributions. In this project, daylight effiency became the prior concern, it conducts the morphology formation, stimulates the redistribution of spatial hierachy, meanwhile it produces a intricate and sensitive micro urbanism environment.

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with ZHANG He | MIT - Tongji Joint Studio Tongji University | 2010.03-04

Sun Path Diagram, Shanghai N

Jun 21 04:50

19:01

E

W

Dec 21 16:56

06:48

S

Site Panorama

Sun Path Diagam of Shanghai

By capturing the lights between the highrises on the south

On the other hand, geometry changes lead to the variation

and low houses on the north, it is possible to determine the

on FAR, one possbile way is slices helps to rise the FAR

refernces lines horizontally and vertically. Operating on those

without interferring the codes for sun exposure hours or the

two dimensions, buildings get precise space layouts and

distance of sunlight.

masses on account to maxium lighting effiency.

Light is immaterially, or even “soft“, but it does help to scuplture the masses of the solid buildings, just like a sharpest rodger.

1. Traced Shadow

2. Residential Distribution

3. Light Reference Lines Defined

by Buildings outside of Site

4. Light Reference Line Defined by

5. Residences and Podiums

Light Cut Masses

Buildings inside of Site

Geometry Optimization

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Main Systems -- Residential buildings (Light/ Private) -- Acitivity spaces/ lobbies for local residents(MIddle/ Semi-public) Residential

-- Walkway (MIddle/ Semi-public) -- Podiums: Offices, Community Centers, Commerical (Dark/ Semi-public) -- Pedestrain & Greenary (Middle/ Public)

Activity Spaces

-- Parking & Metro (Dark/ Public)

Walkway Light becomes the intial clue of the system Podium

organization.

Functions are strictly distributed according the sunshine requirement as well as the lighting environment of this site. In this way, Pedestrian

system intitialized by light challenges the clichÊs of the convetional space hierachy or zoning priciples, instead, it stimulates the function juxtapostion measured by light effiency as well as human’s perception.

Parking & Metro 32.2

System Overlapping

32.2 32.2

32.2

32.2

32.2

Light & Geometry Optimization & FAR

32.2 32.2

32.2

Elevation

14 19

7

7

4 1 3

2

2 11 3

9

Section

20

11 3 11 5

Perspective

18

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PLOT Gross Area 60369 sqm Residential 29345 sqm Community 4305 sqm Commerical/ 9000 sqm Culture Office 17719 sqm FAR 2.6 Density 34% Greenary 22%

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Garden Scenes from the Hall Encircled by Jade , Woodcut Print Qiangong, Ming Dynasty

Extro - : means outside or outward, e.g., Extro-vert.

Extro- House is a attempt to alter the precise distinctions of houses, landscape, and users. Instead, it evokes a status of “living in between“.

Extro- House Garden House I Obviously, some older and more intimate modes of “living“ have been ignored in the contemporary life. The intention of Garden House I is to resemble and express the richness of what once existed in the China’s literal landscape garden. Through a close reading of the changing depths of views in Chinese handscroll and the layout of literal landscape gardens, linear space, in this experiment, has been re-invented as a apparatus to construct the garden house as “somewhere between manmade and natural“.

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Plan of Lingering Garden, Suzhou

Plan of Palais de Versailles, Paris

Unlike a static relationship of objets and

Vision Machine

subjects found in Western gardens, a

How movement and vision

sense of “motion”dominates the config-

are related in traditional

uration of China’s classical literal land-

gardens: Intervention of the

scape garden, buildings, landscape and

medium prolongs the sen-

viewers constantly echoes with each other.

sation of time perception.

A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, Handscroll, WANG Ximeng, Northern Song Dynastry Scenes in the handscroll -- landscape, buildings and clouds -- are not static, but constantly change their dimensions accompanying with the handscroll is being unrolled.

Changing Depths of Views in the Humble Administrator’s Garden, Suzhou The viewer or his gaze moves, there opens up a operational space between subjective and objective images linking spectator and environment together.

Tension

Architectures in Lingering Garden

Corridors in Lingering Garden

Paths Variations in Lingering Garden

Topology of the Paths in Lingering Garden

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In Garden House I attempts to re-discover the surpressed relationship between user, house and environment. I extract “Corridor”(廊) -- a linear element in China’s literal landscape garden and re-interpret it as a medium to organize the space.

1. Main Path

2. Path Extension

3. Public Spaces

4. Private Spaces

5. Non－Hierarchical

Encircled by Paths

Scattered along Paths

Linear Spaces

Series of Labyrinth, Oil on Canvas, YUE Minjun, 2009 Comfortable living spaces to settle in are scattered along the paths; Interminable spaces without any clear border. The intervention of linear spaces prolongs the user’s motion, evoking a rich spatial and temporal experience and an increasing variations of dynamic views.

PLOT Gross Area 980 sqm Site Area 1436 sqm FAR 0.57 Density 40%

Elevation

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Inter - : means between, among, e.g., Inter-change.

Inter- Behavior is inhabitatn’s temporary, idiosyncratic action confronting the challenges pose by built environments, namely accommodating, squatting, parasitizing, etc.

Inter- Behavior Space Intruder In comparison to other cities like London and Paris, Shanghai has an extremely low percentage of road space -- literally, the amount of asphalt -- making it structurally incompatible for a city with a projected exponential growth in car traffic. A odd phenomenon arouse our curiosity : people use the roads as their playground where traffic is light, just like the intuders of the space. The actual experience of movement in the public space made us to rethink the speed “competition“ between mobilities and peoples activities.

A special “time lapse“ technique and “re-project” is employed to realize this playful video.

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with ZHOU Yixing XIAO xiao | Mansilla + Tun贸n Workshop | Shanghai 2050. A Frame for Future | 2010 Shanghai EXPO Spain Pavilion

Space Intruder Shanghai 2050. A Frame for Future

Subject Life is transformation. Something new comes along and something remains. Despite the difficulty to imagine the future it is impossible not to.

The exercise aims at imaging an architectural future for the city of Shanghai, departing from the study of present and future problems. A transformation geared to establish a way to relate people, architecture and nature. It is about reconsidering our viewpoints, the distances and relative locations of the elements of everyday life to establish a new geometry of life.

Mansilla + Tun贸n September 2010

Fig 1 Mansilla + Tunon, CICCM, Madrid, 2007

Product The aim is the production of a video in two or three minutes, in order to visualize the consequences of the proposed transformations.

First video is required to record the scenes from everyday life, then will be displayed in a relevant physical space built by the students with light materials,

which is

expected to ba a physical and intellectual

Fig 2 Use Road as Playground Fig 3 Give the Road Back

frame for the digital work. By changing the characters of the physical space to the conditions that inspire the future, there arises a playful interaction between first video and physical space . The second video is designed to document this transformation and played in 2010 Shanghai EXPO Spain Pavilion.

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Speed and Playground In comparison to other cities like London

Peoples’ adaption to the situation is quite

and Paris, Shanghai has an extremely low

tactical. The orange patch indicates the

percentage of road space -- literally, the

area people can use as their playground.

amount of asphalt -- making it structurally

As the vehicle moves on, the orange par-

incompatible for a city with a projected ex-

cel constantly changes its position. Hence

ponential growth in car traffic.

people intrude the spaces once only occu-

Further-more, with the rising levels of car

pied by vehicles.

use, precious pedestrians and promenade gardens have been sacrificed to broaden

Official predictions state that by 2020

the roads.

Shanghai will have 2.5 million private cars, at that time, the conflict will even aggra-

A odd phenomenon arouse our curiosity :

vate. Thus, envisioning a 2050 city where

people use the roads as their playground

road systems are resilient in peoples activi-

where traffic is light. When there is a car on-

ties and vehicles transportation became

coming, they step back to pedestrian, once

the theme of the video.

car leaves, they continue to play at road, just like intruders of this space. The actual experience of movement in the public space made us to rethink the speed “competition“ between mobilities and peoples activities.

Fig 4.5.6.7 Orange parcel indicates the area people can intrude as their palygorund. It transposition as the vehicle moves. The road is no more an “untouchable�place.

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Working Method A special “time lapse“ technique is em-

this time. peoples speed in real life is com-

ployed to realize this effect and meet the

patible with the cars “slowing down” speed

assignment.

in video. By taking and pasting the stickers, the stickers transposition as the cars move

We take a video of a common cross roads

on. The whole process is recorded in anoth-

and project it on a “physical space” which is

er video. Later the second video is fasted

simply made of orange stickers. Here stick-

forward in which vehicles are running at

ers resemble the flexible areas that people

normal speed while hands are moving 10

can use.

times faster than they actually do!

Then we play the video in a slow motion,

Eventually, the video becomes a playful

10 times slower than its normal speed. At

video game.

Speed of Car Step 1 Slowed 10 Times Speed of People Normal Speed

Slowed 10 Times + Normal Speed Step 2

Fastened to Normal Speed Fastened to 10 Times Speed

Step 3

Fig 8 Process of Manufacture

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Fig 9 Screenshots from “Space Intruder”

“Space Intruder” http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjA4MjM2MTg0.html Behind “Space Intruder” http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjA4MjQ0NjU2.html

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ZHOU Jianjia M. Arch B. Arch Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) No 1239, Siping Road, Shanghai 200092

EMail | zjj.zhoujianjia@gmail.com Telephone | +86 13918500326 Website | http://zhoujianjia.diandian.com