Mika Savela

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 been involved with during his many years in China) So, yesterday night when he came to talk at CUHK, I was in the audience.

For someone like me, whose only recently become involved with urbanism in China, Mars has such a critical first-hand understanding of the high-speed changes of the last ten years that his lectures simply make a very compelling listening. But apart from the design projects, I think for me the most captivating aspects of his work are the blunt, precise visualizations of data of what is actually happening in the metropolises of China. And, how the current culture of urban planning in China (or elsewhere) has not really been able to guide urbanization, and the fact that within that rapidly changing equation remain very few strategies that are actually going to make a difference.

Above, “infrasprawling” ring roads of Beijing almost equaling in size with the city’s core.

Well, in this light, I guess for anyone looking into the future of Chinese cities, there’s also the aspect of slowly losing hope. And certainly, there is a slight tone of weariness in Mars’ words too. But in the end it remains delightful that among so many architects working in/on China these days, he’s creating initiatives that I think have an underlying message of caring.

The Genetic City of Caofeidian, a model for simulating organic urban growth.