Rethinking Shanghai competition Winner
Below is the winner entry to the Re-thinking Shanghai 2012 competition. The aim of the competition was to design a visionary proposal for a sustainable architectural intervention along the Suzhou Creek in Shanghai. Winning project by Jan Karasek, Ondrej Dusek, Lukas Makovsky, and Jana Brankova from Czech Republic.
Re-thinking Suzhou Creek
[1] Can a city river become more than a mere vista? Doing embankments “European-style” is wrong for Chinese cities. Promenades and green belts all the way along the riverbank do not bring any considerable value to the place.
[2] Think about Chinese cities - they are well known for their living public space. People are not afraid to use and exploit their surrounding - indeed this is often given by necessities, but over the years it has become a way of live. Do not forget about this trait - it is one often unseen yet wanted in many cities across the globe.
[3] So let the River become another busy city street! It is vast open space in the middle of dense city. But it can become vast public space. Such that allows you to use it in a way the streets and roads cannot be: It can serve travel and transportation, but it is the program itself that can also be transported. The river can become a plug-in city in its own way!
[4] Thus we can reverse the city to place where people stay, while the program comes to them. Here it is the program that can come to its user, not the other way around. One can stay at his neighborhood and have a market under his windows in the morning, festival at noon and an entertainment district at night. And you will not be limited by selection - the public space is open to anyone willing to offer his services.
[5] We propose a city that changes in time and place, a city that is always perceived differently. Traditional long-lasting connections are broken and new temporal are created - such that form only when they are convenient: A new flexible neighborhood is born.
11 months ago
