For
a long time, many iconic mega structures have been built to prove the economic
and cultural strength of cities. It seems to be a very effective way. We know Paris
through Eiffel tower, familiar with New York through the story of the Towers of the World Trade Center.
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| CCTV |
However, landmark buildings are often built by mobilizing
large amount of material and labor force. It is a topic worth to discuss that whether they have provided
positive effects on improvement of common people’s welfare.
The
informality is a pervasive phenomenon
spanning a spectrum of economies and cities. Today, in the
world’s most underdeveloped countries, locations where the impact of formal
rule or government and capital is scarce, people are creating this other way of
life. You might know these places by their other names: slums, favelas, and
ghettos.
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| the development of Kowloon walled city |
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| the inside views of Kowloon walled city |
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| Favela, Rio |
Is
this a threat to formal processes of city formation and the institutions which
govern them, or does it define an alternative response to producing and
planning cities? Can these contrasting ways of producing and appropriating
cities, with their different logics and rules, co-exist?
The space of everyday urbanism is a rich and
complex amalgam of wide boulevards and trash-strewn alleys,
luxurious stores and street vendors, manicured lawns and dilapidated public
parks; it is a product of the intricate social, political, economic, and
aesthetic forces at work in the contemporary urban environment.
Everyday space can be spirited, spontaneous,
vital, and inclusive; all too often it is neglected by its inhabitants, ignored
by city planners, and disregarded by critics.
4.
The Future of Transportation
The invention of
the automobile, the subway, the use of light rail to city life bring infinite
convenience, changing face city, but at the same time be serious social and
economic issues have being made, such as Energy crisis and Air pollution.
We hope there will be a new transportation system to
appear in the next century which more economic, energy-saving and sustainable.
5．Urban
Village
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| MVRDV's vertical village exhibition |
For
centuries, the fabrics of cities have been formed by urban villages that are
built up of small scale, informal, often ‘light’ architecture.
These
urban villages form intense, socially connected communities where strong
individual identities and differences are maintained.
The
concept of ‘urban village’ applied by MVRDV aimed to seek for a workable model
for a truly self-organized manner of city building---a model that combines
individuality, differentiation and collectivity with the need for
densification; a three-dimensional community that brings personal freedom,
diversity, flexibility and neighborhood life back into cities.
