ARC505 Theis Prep

Ye Zhang

Exacerbated Difference
Shenzhens emerging urbanism Anne Munly xxxx xxxxxxx 22.09.2011 Primary Advisor: Secondary Advisor:

thesis abstract: 15 years ago, Rem Koolhaas led a research project into Chinas most frontier economic zone Pearl River Delta, which will soon become the worlds largest mega-city of 42 million people, creating a 16,000 square mile urban area that is 26 times larger than Greater London. (Telegraph 2011). He gave the region a new definition City of Exacerbated Difference, meaning that every city in this mega-city defines itself through a brutal opposition of the others, but at same time forming a functioning whole. 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 urban nor rural(Koolhass 1996) This notion is not only true at a regional scale, but manifests itself in different forms on a city and block scale. I want to use it as a critical lens to look into Luohu Central Business District in Shenzhen, an area where the political, commercial and residential architecture propagate flourishingly and at same time confront one another in the most brutal way. Shenzhens privatization of land and the capitalistic endeavors have led to increasing fragmentation of the urban fabric as well as reducing architecture to merely commodity and symbols. At the heart of its central business district, layers of different built forms aggregated into each others territories, exacerbating their differences through a brutal juxtaposition. Mega block housing surrounded by gated danwei blocks, shinning office towers eating the corner of urban villages. Each one is gated and disassociated, but in-between exist a different city, where informal markets flourish and mobile living thrive. This is a landscape neither urban nor rural, neither monolithic nor informal it is an intensified urban experience of discontinuity yet vibrancy. The research objectives of this project include further study of how the contradicting urban forms come together to either contribute to or prevent to form a functioning whole (mega-city in its smallest form). And to find out if the seeming brutal juxtaposition has a paradox of being delicate and sensitive if any modification of parts influences a readjustment of the whole to reassert the equilibrium of complementary extremes (Koolhaas 1996). The design intention is to re-organize the exacerbated differences for cohesion and unity yet preserving its vibrancy and diversity. A system that accommodates diverse urban forms while offers moments to unit.

graphic summary:

Shennan Road

Futian CBD Future Qianhai CBD

Luohu CBD

Luohu Port

Caiwuwei Area
Futian Port

Hong Kong

Shenzhen is the first testing ground of Chinas economic reform, a 12-million-people metropolis built on rice paddies in 30 years time.

The landscape is neither urban nor rural, neither monolithic nor informal...

annotated bibliography:

Chung, Chuihua Judy., Rem Koolhaas, Jeffrey Inaba, and Sze Tsung. Leong. Project on the City. Kln: Taschen, 2001. Print. There are two other concepts relating to my area of interests in this book. First - architecture is a commodity in China, designed under unprecedented pressures of time, speed, and quantity. Second - infrastructure is predictive, to trigger off a future urban situation. Koolhaas, Rem. Pearl River Delta. Mutations. Bordeaux: Arc En Re%u0302ve Centre Darchitecture, 2001. Print. This is the inspiration of this thesis. Koohaas concept City of Exacerbated Difference seems very western to me, but at the same time so refreshing. He was intrigued by something that I grew up with, something 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. Unlike Koolhaas who made a brief trip to China and wrote he saw there, Mars spent 5 years living in China and researching. This book covered a wide range of topics and offered in-depth observations. He produced some very interesting analytical diagrams on Beijing. Moore, Malcolm, and Peter Foster. China to Create Largest Mega City in the World with 42 Million People. The Telegraph [London] 24 Jan. 2011. Web. The Telegraphs report on Chinas plan to build the Mega-city. Mostly interesting mentioned , PRD will not be a cored, single entity, but a cluster of cities. The building of this mega-city includes 150 more infrastructures relating to energy, water, telecommunications and transport networks.