Chance encounters w/the elevated landscapes of Guangzhou, near Zhu Jiang New Town

Spent the past week exploring events/meeting urban enthusiasts in and around the Pearl River Delta (PRD).  Roughly ten years ago, Koolhaas (and the GSD) recognized this region of China to be the generator of the “city of exacerbated difference” (Project on the City).  He referred to city building as an opportunity to engage in urban design at many different levels and through a variety of different cultures.  A decade later, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong have continued city building at a rate and scale that deserves further investigation.  In a sense, they have been completely transformed, re-imagined, and re-appropriated by a new population.  Within the last ten years, Hong Kong’s northern territories are infilled with new towns, Guangzhou is constructing a new city axis and public attractor weighted heavily with what LA architecture critic, Frances Anderton, raises as “architectural excess” and Shenzhen has a burgeoning new art’s district (the Overseas Chinese Territory, or OCT) inhabited by (basically) returning expats.  The delta region, due to its unique location geographically, economically, and politically, is the leading model for new cities in China.  I set out to the Shenzhen/Hong Kong biennale, themed “City Mobilization,” to find out if the fruits of this labor are applicable to a wider venue abroad.

Landscape urbanism mediates sporting venue and housing in the OCT, Shenzhen

At the opening day activities, Shenzhen/Hong Kong Architecture and Urbanism Biennale, Shenzhen’s Civic Square, main venue

Biennale theme: City Mobilization

Tessellated  urbanism, subdivide surface realized.  Saw works in-progress in the PRD, including Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House (pictured), SOM/Smith+Gill’s Pearl River Tower, and OMA’s Stock Exchange in Shenzhen.  See flickr for more.

On the Pearl River

A day in the life of a new city explorer.  I usually set off with a map on which I’ve outlined a few research-based destinations, a compass, water, comfortable shoes, a camera (or two), a sketchbook, and my ipod.  By the time I reach the metro, I’ve charted out a course for the day.  There’s always room for flexibility and chance.  There’s always time for thinking and getting lost.  And, when I don’t have a guide to show me around…. getting lost is part of the agenda.

In contrast to existing cities, new cities are typically more organized, peaceful, safe, and clean.  Systems of transportation, infrastructure, and development have been designed to work in concert from the beginning.  There are simply less people populating the public ways.  There is a certain minimalism about it all.  Some years ago I saw a Mies exhibit in Chicago in which the Art Institute was displaying some original drawings and reconstructed models of Crown Hall and the IBM building.  The exhibit finale was an erie animation of the IIT campus.  We stood in the dark watching slow-moving people float around Miesian free space while ghostly notes reverberated from different corners of the room.  Weird, right?  But kind of cool.  I am reminded of that otherworldly sensation when I walk around these new spaces.  Especially when I have something like the Cinematic Orchestra flooding my noise canceling headphones.  In India, this type of isolation wasn’t possible.  Welcome to China.

I floated off the metro into the central hub of Hong Kong’s Sha Tin.

Sha Tin: Sha Tin has grown from a rural township of about 30 000 people in the early 1970s to a major community of about 624 500 people today. Sha Tin New Town (including Ma On Shan) has a total development area of about 3 591 hectares for a planned population of 735 000. The new town is built on land mainly reclaimed from the Tolo Harbour.
Published by the Information Services Department,
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government
Feb 2009

I was curious to see what made this place tick.  I walked around a massive upscale shopping mall adjacent to the train station.  Typical.  Almost really disappointed, until I discovered the hierarchy of shopping and living that radiated from this central mall (that they actually call “New Town Plaza”).  The further I walked, the more local Chinese establishments I ran into.  I had homemade Hong Kong Honey Tea in one glass cubicle.  Entire blocks are layers of streets, elevated walkways (so cars and pedestrians are separated), and towers of housing above.  This made for some really interesting sections.  I think this type of layering is worth studying.  I documented activity with time lapse photography and I plan on drawing up some sections to show these slices of the city and the activity that takes place within.

Fantastic public service in Causeway Bay and yet another photo op for those trigger happy Chinese tourists

The city is a beach: the maids of Hong Kong take over the public right of way on their day off.  We’ve always discussed this phenomena at school as it happens under the expansive open space of the Bank of Hong Kong.  However, I saw it happening in many places around Causeway Bay, including the pedestrian overpasses, sidewalks, and edges of Victoria Park.  Literally, it’s a beach party without the sand and surf.  Inexpensive food huts spring up for the occasion.  Young guys are selling plastic garbage bags (the beach blankets).  There are makeovers and gossip, eating and singing, massages and cell phone conversations on this weekly vacation.

The network of elevated walkways that weaves through a huge chunk of the central business district.  There is something like the longest escalator in the world near steep Lan Kwai Fong St.

I left my luggage in Shenzhen and took off ‘Nick Sowers style’ to Hong Kong with a backpack and a shoulder bag. It was really liberating. He might have enjoyed the hour-long wait at the border and immigration counters (it felt like I was in an airport even though I was traveling by rail), I tried to pass the time by studying Shenzhen’s facade, the shiny face the city presented to visitors from Hong Kong. Hong Kong stared blankly back.

Passed the clusters of tall housing blocks in Hong Kong’s “new territories” as I headed into Kowloon. Made plans to see some of these new cities (officially 9 of them since 1970) in the coming days. Finally arrived at the scariest accommodation of the trip thus far, and checked in to the dirtiest circus in the world, in the upper reaches of the massive Chungking Mansions. Wasn’t until later that evening when I saw Hong Kong Island for the first time. With the casts of Bruce Lee’s handprints under my feet, I watched the nightly laser light show symphony play out on one of the world’s most remarkable skylines.