February 2012
50 posts
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Pritzker Residue
Clearly ominously, Wang Shu (whose “Illegal” project in the HK biennale I mentioned in a recent post, pictured here in the biennale leaflet) was just selected as the Pritzker laureate 2012.
And this is great. I like the shift we’re witnessing, as the contemporary and the interesting China begins to gain presence in the published world of architecture, in its own right.
But. As...
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“Today you cannot have an avant-garde because every idea, every utopia, can be...”
– Massimiliano Fuksas in May 2010. From Architecture on Display: On the History of the Venice Biennale of Architecture by Aaron Levy and William Menking.
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This Big City + 城事: What are the best urbanism... →
thisbigcity:
We love lists at This Big City, and we’re about to start work on our newest one featuring our ten favourite urbanism blogs on Tumblr.
Should your blog should be on our list? Reblog this post and we’ll check out your Tumblog and potentially share it with our followers and visitors to thisbigcity.net. Thanks!
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The Moving Steps of Gentrification?
The Central-Mid-levels escalators are probably one of the more famous urban oddities of Hong Kong. Climbing up the steep hills, they count as public transport and carry some 35,000 “passengers” a day.
Now, riding the escalators does give unusual views to various businesses and even apartments along the way. But at the same time, since their opening in 1993, most street corners next to...
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XL Dreams
A long time ago, I had one of the first editions of the classic computer game Sim City. And perfectly in line with the critique of the simplicity of modern zoning by Jane Jacobs, you really just had your Residential, Commercial and Industrial buttons to play with. Since that time, I haven’t really followed gaming, and sometimes the development of the whole industry just catches you off...
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Air Walks
I have a slight dislike for heights, and Hong Kong is regularly quite testing in this aspect. I can manage, but I don’t usually want to linger in high places. But, baby steps. So here’s some pics from a little hike I took today.
Already from this pic, you start to get the idea.
Though, I have to say it was very pretty out there too.
See this weird elevated walkway going up and under...
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CLOG:APPLE (NO. 2)
From the Big Apple, comes CLOG, a publication that “explores, from multiple viewpoints and through a variety of means, a single subject particularly relevant to architecture now”. And right now, that subject is Apple.
You can find more details, as well as order your copy fresh from the printer, here.
For those actually in NY, the launch will be held at the always up-to-date Van Alen...
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Laundry Modernism
Not just to slightly update my stance on laundry, but also because I find the whole urban process of washing and drying clothes fascinating, I wanted to write something about one of the most common sights related to living in HK (and also many other cities in the world for that matter): the many faces of drying clothes and doing the laundry. No. 5 for the laundy room, in the ground floor of Villa...
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Green Histories
The other day, I stumbled upon Hong Kong Vegetable Market Organization’s website. Or more accurately, its historical photo album. This particular kind of history involving local organizations is often very delightful in HK. There is a real sense of people-built-this-city, completely lost in today’s world of real-estate development. Here is a small selection of vegetable depots from all...
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Mars Attacks
Above, pages in Chinese Dreams by Neville Mars and Adrian Hornsby (010 Publishers, 2008). If you’ve ever read the words China and urbanization in a sentence, it’s possible that you’ve read something about Neville Mars (for a quick reference, see burb.tv, a collaborative research wiki focusing on the urbanization of China and also, a presentable overview of the stuff he’s...
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