Ancient Chinese proverb:''In heaven there is paradise on earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou.''
We are near the famous and beautiful Lake of Hangzhou, it's Sunday morning, the sun shines high in the sky, pagodas, trees and boats in the eye: the calm before the storm. Cleverly placed by a subtle strategist, probably mindful of the teachings of Sun Tzu (author of the legendary 'Art of War , ed), a legion of speakers camouflaged among the trees start to croak at the same time, spreading the four winds of the pleasing melodies 'immortal The Voice, aka Frank Sinatra. Drawn like bees (perhaps bears is more appropriate ...) from honey, swarms of tourists with strict cap one color (especially welcome in fluorescent orange considered perhaps in keeping with the blue waters and green fields) and driving with overactive flagpole (the flag would be simplistic to call it) and microphone in order overwhelm us munching on an endless variety of food. It would be naive to think that in a populous country like China as a famous tourist resort can be quiet at the same time.
trying to escape the mob, take refuge on top of the Lei Feng Pagoda, recently rebuilt by the will of the administration, where you have a complete view of the entire valley and of modern and livable city of Hangzhou. Observing the behavior of tourists, mostly Chinese, is walking through the park having an almost overhead from the pagoda, one has an impression sufficiently clear: for them the landscape is a backdrop, a picturesque watercolor that answers age-old laws of composition of elements. More tortuous paths, plants carefully selected and approached for coloring and fragrance, soft forms shaped rocks, ponds, bridges and trails zig zag on the water. In some places, as probably the most symbolic, they are even already prepared the boxes oriented so that the committee can take the picture I remember enjoying the best picture and background suited to their aesthetic.
As for landscapes and memories, the day before, from the Lower Friuli good, I had a strong feeling of déjà vu , when plowing with other students of Tongji channels of Xixi Wetlands, I found the atmosphere of the mouth of the Star and the Marano lagoon, with reeds, ducks, and the buildings are very similar to our own huts covered with reeds. Here, however, the establishment Jeremiah, wolf who eats glass lagoon to the delight of tourists, were replaced by the hard working stills of rice wine, then drink liquor sold or served in earthenware containers over the counter for a taste. After a problematic
lunch, exhausted by bus back to Shanghai, the highway is three lanes and modern, our driver is probably arguing with the girlfriend on the phone and continued undaunted to overtake on the right along the hard shoulder and boldly trumpeting the horn when it comes an unexpected break in a place that would be simplistic to define roadside restaurants. After leaving the highway and tracks a few miles, we enter a huge parking lot of tourists clogged by courier. Some stores provide the food and beverage always hungry Chinese (I have not understood how to be so thin with everything you eat ...), but the highlight of the bathroom situation is reached: here you find many of the groups of tourists to previously encountered Hangzhou, arranged in a long snake, orange hats still a kick in the head, and the guide mark slogan directed this time not with their thirst for knowledge, but to calm the impatient bladders. The well-known Dante's circle of incontinence.
A couple of days later, then returned to the campus, through the cafeteria of the department, I seem to see a familiar face, I approach and recognize Liam, an English architect who studied in Edinburgh during the time I spent there in Erasmus three years ago. We salute you, start telling us what we did in the meantime and find out that it is in Shanghai for dell'Archiprix workshop, held for a week in the ground floor of the Department of Architecture. The next day, after having made him try the delicious meal, we went the most famous district for "creative" among those recently established by the M50.
Outside, painted on a wall along the road leading to the entrance area, there is a curious mural depicting a man with a bowler hat, reminiscent of the ruddy Germans caustic paintings by Grosz. Within the district there is a mixture of old colonial buildings, industrial buildings restored and new buildings, the works exhibited in galleries are not of particular interest. The place definitely more charming area is a large expanse of uncultivated margins of the Suzhou Creek (a river that flows a few miles later in the Huang Pu), where a few colonial buildings stand for the most part abandoned. Across the river is a huge gated community, the contrast is very strong, the atmosphere resembles that of alienating some urban voids of Berlin, and surprised that such a wide area and central and escape the relentless work of reconstruction of the city.
During the evening, after having doubted their existence for weeks, we went to some places a bit 'less elegant and expensive (for the local standard) than usual, when there were, raising my surprise, many Chinese young people. Until that day it seemed there were large differences in the way of understanding free time between me and my Chinese peers, and I was a bit 'relieved to see them dance electronic music, hip hop or rock and having fun with friends as you do in the world.
I followed a bit 'developments in the work of various groups during the workshop Archiprix, and, with few exceptions, the prevailing attitude was: the sword in defense of lilong , the praise and appreciation to the intense and colorful street life, the condemnation of gated communities, the attempt to propose or to invent new types of housing alternatives. Personally I am not a supporter of gated communities, but often I try to wonder why this model so successful settlement evidence around the world, sensing the fascination that the simplifications and radical concepts often carry with them.
During the workshop, it seemed to me rather than motivations often naive and unaware of the reality in China were moving the compact group of "anti-compound", a position well described by Adrian Hornsby in an annex to the latest issue of Urban China " In China it's Becoming an urban cliché to Have a group of foreign theorists agonized standing on the sidelines wringing Their hands (about control, coordination, speed, and Harshness of change, etc.). while undeterred and highly successful Developments plow right past Them. The trouble Is that Within the Chinese context, the scale and pressure of Urbanization is Completely mismatched to western notions of "sensitive development." In fact, the Entire Western rhetoric of "preserving a sense of place," and offering "well-thought out responses to the existing urban fabric" Becomes nonsensical When presented with the reality of a new city nation. "
In the same annex shows interesting part of the research group of the Dynamic City Foundation, which among other things is playing an anonymous online survey that has as its theme the idea that one has of his living conditions in China the year 2020 ( The questionnaire can be found at the site http://www.china-at-home.org/ ). In this brief text is a selection of responses from citizens, often known as the ideas are quite confused, there is a general desire to cities with more public spaces and green, even if you do not specify the good quality products, and tend to want their cake and eat it too. An answer but I was particularly struck by his frankness and lucidity, and I think it can be understood as a "manifesto" of those who want to live in a compound: "My dream for 2020 is to Have my own apartment in a tower, with western accommodations. I would like to fit it out with all western furniture. I tend to go for decadence was to my financial position in life. As for life in the city, it will depend more on shopping public places and how to decorate your own apartment. Most of public city life will be replaced by the fear of provincial unrest gone wild in our cities. And the pollution awaiting our weakened lungs outside. So the interior of our buildings will be what remains of our city life, or how to fit out your apartment; this will be the new shopping. Oops, that’s my negativity creating a protective cocoon or just a nightmare. But my true dream is too idealistic and altruistic to be true, green spaces, lively public life, and environmental standards. But lets be honest, this capitalist/communist hybrid has yet to bring good things to the average Chinese citizen. Political unrest, an unhealthy environment, and rampant consumerism, will only plague Chinese Citizens us. So All We Have to dream for is a nice place to live. Negative yes, But honest. So sell me your development rendered with comfort, traditional Chinese serenity, and large fence to keep the negativity outside. "
It seems to be back to a nineteenth-century conception of the city, when there was widespread segregation and partitioning, and members the different classes and you could see almost even crossed: you often naively romantic and nostalgic idea of \u200b\u200bthe ancient city as a place of harmony, coexistence and muted contrasts. Benjamin, describing the Paris of the nineteenth century., Describes the phenomenon of the obsessive attention to the house with his usual elegance: "The city as a landscape and as a room. [...] The intérieur is not only the universe but also the custody of a private citizen. Living means always leaving traces, and they purchased in the ' intérieur, a particular importance. They invent liners and covers, cases and cases in quantity, which is imprinted the traces of everyday objects. "The almost compulsive obsession for the furnishing and the mania for home care are very common among today's residents of gated communities, as well as green spaces are often used and understood more as a kind of relaxing panorama / diorama in which to enjoy the convenience of the sofa and as places to be utilized in direct contact with the ground (the attitude is not so different from that taken by tourists to Hangzhou). Other
pleasant evenings during the week: the first with the volcanic and other friends at the Shanghai Grand Theater in Piazza del Popolo to the Bizet's Carmen, then in the days following a dinner with breathtaking views of the Bund and the Jinmao Tower with Liam Dutch journalists and other architects, completed with a long chat in the magnificent park is located in the Face bar, and the birthday party of a co-worker of Nicholas held at a bar with elderly neighbor particularly restless.
then Saturday I had the opportunity to go on the site where the facilities are preparing for Expo 2010 with five students of prof.Lou. After a long bus ride from Tongji to the southern part of Pudong, we crossed some of the edges of residential neighborhoods in transition, meeting numerous people who walked the dog wearing pajamas and slippers (there apparently is a status symbol morning walk with his faithful canine companion). With appropriate permissions, then we are able to enter directly in the area, where there are still important and huge factories in the coming years will be designed to be dismantled acciaerie, shipyards, depots. The
Our presence has attracted the attention of Li, friendly and talkative guardian of one of the accesses, which is readily offered to accompany us in our exploration. After exiting the lungs rather dusty and suffering from the steel and after a hearty lunch nearby, we walked a few miles south, to go to interview a friend of a student and his family. Xiang, her dad and her mom Xiaocao Caimin, like many other families, lived in the area where the Expo will be held. Their house was demolished, for which I was given a new and a bit 'larger purpose-built in a gated community on the outskirts of the city. During the conversation, family members said they were fairly satisfied overall, confirming perceptions and phenomena often studied and discussed in detail in many sociological studies on the inhabitants of the compound (the easing of relations between neighbors, the difficulty of nell'usufruire public and commercial services are often remote and poor, the satisfaction of a cleaner environment and more green, but often underused, etc.).. During the walk within the compound I had confirmation of how often people respond with great flexibility and practicality to design choices or administrative "unhappy" is not very sensible to subdivisions very large and completely fenced with a single entrance, and in fact the bars are torn in places by residents to provide more access for pedestrians, green spaces and paths are monotonous and too often "designed" and consistent are not used by the inhabitants, and in many points can be noted paths formed by the continuous passage outside prone areas, bars, walls and fences provide security more emotional than real, and nearly all say they are useless in preventing thefts and any other crimes.
Salutati Xiang and his family, we got back to the north, and after crossing the Nanpu Bridge, which gives the impression of being in a huge roller coaster, we reached the foot of the Lupu Bridge, which cuts almost half the area of \u200b\u200bthe Expo. Here we got a lift, and after climbing 367 steps (the guide has pitted along the way an infinite series of numbers and records set by the bridge, such as bolts 5974 that guarantee the union of the two sides of the steel , which is the longest in the world) we reached the top of the colossal structure. Accomplice in the day, very warm and humid, and the resulting haze particles mixed with incredible amounts of pollutants, the view from the bridge could be a version of the XXI century the famous painting "The Wanderer above a sea of \u200b\u200bfog" by Caspar David Friedrich. Only from here can make clear how extensive the area of \u200b\u200bthe Expo: the complicity of the mist, you can barely see the Nanpu Bridge, which marks the eastern boundary of the area, but it is shocking that the surface in just three months has been completely razed to the ground on the southern bank of the Huang Pu, east and west of the Lupu Bridge. Only a few buildings are and will be preserved, an infinite number of trucks and cranes can be seen moving away from the hustle and the timing of an organized squad of ants. It is even more impressive to think that the shipyard on the north shore, now swarming with workers in the next few years will be completely dismantled and turned into a harmless park.
comes time to get down:
The Guide and I into that hidden road
we turned to return to the noisy world
and without care of having any rest
went down, he first and I second, so
ch 'i'
photographed the beauteous things that brings light to a target round.
So we went out to breathe the particles.
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