Overflowing City

Author: Jiang Yuanlun / Shi Jian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: If Manhattan is still searching for a theory, then once we recognize this theory, it will produce a set of patterns applicable to wealthy, ambitious, and conformist buildings. Manhattan has produced an unadorned architecture, loved precisely because of its provocative lack of self-reflection, and revered solely for its excessiveness. Manhattan has produced an unadorned architecture, loved precisely because of its provocative lack of self-reflection, and revered solely for its excessiveness.
Recently, the new developments in Chinese cities are characterized by increasingly complex social mobility. Yet, the production and distribution systems always adapt to outdated urban planning models. As a result, traffic congestion, air pollution, widening distances, inadequate public facilities, fragmented urban spaces—here are just a few features of the current situation—all have become the city’s primary symptoms. The entire nation is polluted in the name of prosperity and progress. The laissez-faire strategies formulated by opportunistic entrepreneurs advocate for "leaping" into the global economy. The most evident signs of China’s "modernization" are new communication and information technologies, which are also in conflict with the environment. Under these circumstances, efficiency and filth, adaptability and muddiness, flexibility and obscurity, long-termism and roughness coexist in rhyme. Similarly, architecture also indicates a disproportionate relationship, going beyond any consideration of modernity or postmodernity. These giant monsters are both functional and symbolic, announcing their individuality and membership to the world’s concept of freedom. These dinosaurs are arrogant and exclusionary, neither considering the whole nor reflecting deeply on their own projects. The skewed planning also attacks the boundaries of urban space. The outlines of buildings are fading, and the distinctions between center and periphery, inside and outside, public and private are disappearing. Therefore, these fragile patterns, a multi-layered fluid space, have given rise to the emergence of a diverse archipelago, connected by an efficient network society under eternal control. This control manifests at every level and seeps into the production process as a continuous effort at collective regulation. Participating in global-scale production through decentralized production units, this skewed planning and fragile model express the unique dynamism of the Pearl River Delta.