THE LIST OF CURIOSITIES

 1.    Urban Identity: iconic mega structures standing in the cities

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.

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.

2.    Informal City

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. 

the development of Kowloon walled city

the inside views of  Kowloon walled city

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? 

3.    Everyday’s Urbanism

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 automobile and the use of railway (subway and light rail) have changed the cities’ face dramatically. Meanwhile, a series of serious social and economic problems have been

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

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.