The subject of this years architecture bienalle from Rotterdam ( not Venice ) was focused on the forces that produce the contemporary cities in wich we live today and had tried to answer to these quetions ,the answers where connected to marketing economics free market, political forces and some unpredictable forces that shape the contemporary life and city so these where all factors in the answer to the question of "Who produces the city ?" this in a world where major changes are happening (see the subject of the last year's Venice bienalle , Cityes) and where each day 150 000 people leave theyr rural existence behind to start a new live in the city , so the city skape is becoming more and more a place of commerce and private interest .
The bienalle was divided in tree major exibitions two of the exibitios was held in the Kunsthall theyr subject was focused on the new Dutch city and on the Visionary power , and anauther exibition held in The Nai institute .
the exibition from the Kunsthall had two main subjects that where focused on a macro and a micro level but tried to answer in a rational way to the question related to what produces the modern city . So the first exibition took things on a global level and divided the cities of the world after some caracteristics that where identified earlier .
The first issue was economical and it was focused on some emerging markets as the markets from Asia , so cityes like Busan South Korea , Luoyang , China and New Jersey USA where named Corporate Cityes because of the global capital that is pumped in these cityes by multinational corporations .
The next few cityes where related to the seccond big global force that is turisms so there where idetified cities like Havanna , Cuba , Innsbruck , Austria and Rome Italy that are the so called spectacle cityes because of theyr strong turistic caracteristics .
Capital cities are the cities thet reflect trough theyr architecture the society and culture of that speciffic country . A few examples would be :Astana , Kazachstan , Beirut ,lebanon and Moskow ,Russia where Alexander Swerdlov a russian architect and developer has designed 400 identical rezidential towers that reinforce the endless fields of prefabricated bloks of flats on the fringes of the city giving present day Moskow a powerfull face.
The Hidden Cities are cities like Cueta , Spain and, Johanessburg, Africa where the refugees problem is accentuated .
Informal cities are the cityes that are dealing with anauther form of movement that is the migration of people . The cities that have this problems are Mexico City , Sao Paulo , Brasil and Tijuana , Mexico \ san diego , USA .
On a micro level things where focused on the Dutch city and the way in witch it will expand in the future having in sight that the city is the place where the economy grows where phisical and digital networks link up where culture flourishes and science grows . So what I found interesting was a small simulation of Rotterdam 's sky line that was presenting an evolution of the city until 2050 , different buildings rise from the multilayered city of Rotterdam so called the Manhattan of the Maas . the city ewas until recent years the world's most biggest port and it has this feeling a combination between port post war straight buldings that where build in an interesting international style with theyr main purposse to be office buildings for the maritime Dutch companies that trade ith asian companies . The port is an impressive site and as i took a tour of one hour and a half trough I understood how Holland a relatively small country has such a broad range of products , the port of Rotterdam is full of factories that produces from orange juice to just stock big quatities of products from all over the world .
The conclusion is that the best way to understand a city sometimes is just by exploring the landskape of the place to understand networks and outher things that are generating the city .
No comments:
Post a Comment