PROJECT     EXHIBITION       FILM       PUBLICATION      EVENT

SCROLL: 
COLLECTIVE FORMS IN CHINA


Group Exhibition at various locations
Seoul Biennale for Architecture and Urbanism 2019
Venice Architecture Biennale 2018 
Beijing Design Week 2016 

This research examines how social projects, spaces, and realities shape three contexts critical to understanding urban design and planning in China: modes of governmentality; the history of collective spatial development models in relation to current community development; and socio-spatial changes in urban and rural developments. 

A comparative analysis of community developments in China and a programme of knowledge exchange, the study investigates how national collectivisation in the 1950s created rural people’s communes and urban work unit systems—structures that laid the foundations for many of today’s urban challenges. Despite extensive policy reforms since 1978, the socio-spatial design of these systems continues to control access to public infrastructure and services, while also fostering resilient models of governance and community-building.

The spatial transformations of governmentality remain underexplored in urban design and demand a new interdisciplinary approach—one that offers alternatives to Western-centric theories and practices. This research holds global relevance, including in contexts such as the UK, where community-led developments are gaining importance.

LINKS

RELATED PROJECT
    Ripple Ripple Rippling
    

RELATED PUBLICATION
     
     
Collectivisation, Paradox, and Resistance: The Architecture of People’s Commune in China, The Journal of Architecture, 2022

     The Socio-spatial Design of Community and Governance: Interdisciplinary Urban Design in China, Springer, 2020
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Project supported by the British Academy, the Architectural Association Wuhan Visiting School (2015–17) and Huazhong University of Science and Technology School of Architecture and Urban Planning. 

Project Team: 
Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, with Sam Jacoby
Venice Architecture Biennale, with Sam Jacoby, Xiaomao Cao and Huace Yang
Beijing Design Week, with Xiaomao Cao, Rongwei Yuan, Ting Yan and Yating Song


Back to Exhibition List


Scroll installation exhibited as part of ‘Across Chinese Cities - The Community’, at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018
Scroll installation as part of ‘Baitasi Remade’, at Beijing Design Week in 2016

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