Abstract Take2 v2

8/3/2019 Abstract Take2 v2

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Ye Zhang ARC505 Theis Prep

Primary Advisor:

Secondary Advisor:

Anne Munly

Susan Henderson

10.13.2011

Shenzhen’s emerging urbanism

From Exacerbated Difference

To Productive Difference



thesis abstract:

15 years ago, Rem Koolhaas led a research project into China’s most frontier economic zone – the Pearl

River Delta (PRD), in which he gave the region a new denition, “City of Exacerbated Difference”, mean-

ing that every city in this region denes itself through a brutal opposition of the others, but at same time

forming a holistic system. He said

“It is a region whose urbanism emphasizes the greatest possible difference between its parts,

whose infrastructure both enables and prevents a functioning whole, whose fabric is neither urbannor rural…”(Koolhass 1996)

From a regional scale of the PRD to a block scale in the city of Shenzhen (PRD’s showcase city), the

“Exacerbated Difference” manifests itself through a series of contested relations between the public and

private realm -- discontinuous yet vibrant, surveilled but subversive, exclusive and has open ow. Urban

architecture, caught in-between these emerging conditions, has the potential to spatialize them for unity

and cohesion.

Shenzhen’s capitalistic endeavors have led to increasing privatization of the urban fabric -- almost all

developer-housing projects are walled, fenced and gated. The spatial exclusion of these gated commu-

nities offers a secure environment to foster a certain sociability of an exclusive group of people. But atsame time, it contributes to a process of gentrication and social segregation.

The gated communities together with the glittering shopping malls make up a public realm that is highly

exclusive, surveilled and discontinuous. However, these conditions are reversed outside the gates, es-

pecially in the few urban villages right next to them at the heart of Shenzhen’s Central Business District.

Caiwuwei villages are densely built with little open space, but this is the place that encourages open

ows of trafc, of commercial exchange and of social encounters. This is where migrant workers come

for affordable housing, where locals go for authentic dinning, and where people shop for cheap lifestyle

in the markets. These villages of “informal” become a customized response to what the gate-communi-

ties cannot offer.

Caiwuwei’s informality is vibrant, emancipated and almost subversive to the symbolic power of the me-

ga-blocks. It is a result of highly contested relations between the public and private. The public-making,

mostly retail businesses and services, inltrates into the ground oors of the densely packed residential

blocks; while the private activities, clothes drying for example, are spilled over to the public space. This

public-private relation is physical, reciprocal and rhetorical.

Caiwuwei villages are expected to disappear within the coming years. Caiwuwei South Village has al-

ready been demolished for the construction of Kingkey 100 tower (348m) and KK mall. The 2005 Caiwu-

wei CBD re-design blueprint calls for a denser and shinier CBD. It is an opportunity to re-conceptualize

Caiwuwei CBD through the use of “Productive Difference.”

Productive Difference translates “Exacerbated Difference” into a eld of contingent relations, ows andforces (re-interpretation of “eld condition”). It spatializes the contested public-private relations with a for-

mal process of holistic stratication and local connections. It has unity and cohesion while respecting the

informality of the vibrancy, subversion and open ows. Productive Difference is not the solution for the

profound socio-problems behind Exacerbated Difference, but it translates and spatializes the contested

relations with architectural provisions – contribution of public space.

Productive Difference is essentially a food market with an outdoor theatre attached to it, it is also a

mixed-use development with residential units and ofces as the negative space. It makes references to

historical Chinese market typology and also responds to the current need for high density. It is a re-con-

ceptualization of CBDs within local context.



temporal

vibrantsubversive

mobile

open flowinfiltration

graphic summary:

2

7

88

7

空

3

6

2

Adhesion to the fabricplace for open ow of trafc, of commerical exchange and

of social encounters

gated communites

informality in eld condition



annotated bibliography:

Allen, Stan. Points Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City . New York: Princeton Architectural, 1999. Print.

Productive Difference is a re-interpretation of “eld condition.”

Chung, Chuihua Judy., Rem Koolhaas, Jeffrey Inaba, and Sze Tsung. Leong. Project on the City . Köln:

Taschen, 2001. Print.

PRD urban research that covers a series of topics, ideology, architecture, infrastructure etc. Lots of in-sights, but not necessarily leads to any design.

Dovey, Kim. Becoming Places: Urbanism/architecture/identity/power . London: Routledge, 2010. Print.

Writings on informal urban assemblages in Indonesia.

Iveson, Kurt. Publics and the City . Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2007. Print.

Research on public and private space from a geography and political aspect. Public space is dened in

relation to public-making and public address.

Koolhaas, Rem. “Pearl River Delta.” Mutations. Bordeaux: Arc En Re%u0302ve Centre D’architecture,

2001. Print.

This is the inspiration of this thesis. Koohaas’ concept “City of Exacerbated Difference” seems very west-ern to me, but at the same time so refreshing. He was intrigued by something that I grew up with, some-thing I would never have thought to be an issue before.

Mars, Neville, and Adrian Hornsby. The Chinese Dream: a Society under Construction. Rotterdam: 010,

2008. Print.

Mars’ 5 year research in Beijing. This book covered a wide range of topics and offered in-depth observa-

tions.

Miller, Kristine F. Designs on the Public: the Private Lives of New York’s Public Spaces. Minneapolis: Univer-

sity of Minnesota, 2007. Print.

How the design of public space affects its use.

Moore, Malcolm, and Peter Foster. “China to Create Largest Mega City in the World with 42 Million Peo-

ple.” The Telegraph [London] 24 Jan. 2011. Web. The Telegraph’s report on China’s plan to build the Mega-city. Mostly interesting mentioned , PRD will notbe a cored, single entity, but a cluster of cities. The building of this mega-city includes 150 more infrastruc-

tures relating to energy, water, telecommunications and transport networks.

Staeheli, Lynn A., and Donald Mitchell. The People’s Property?: Power, Politics, and the Public. New York,

NY: Routledge, 2008. Print.

Research on the public space from a political aspect (property, rights, accessibility etc).

Documents

Abstract Take2 v2