Urban Loopholes: Creative Alliances for Spatial Production in Shanghai’s City Center
VIEW EVENT DETAILSArts and Culture
Evening Discussion
Drink Reception 6:30pm
Discussion 7:00pm
Close 8:00pm
A culmination of five years of fieldwork research in Shanghai, Dr. Ying Zhou’s new book Urban Loopholes: Creative Alliances for Spatial Production in Shanghai’s City Center (Birkhäuser 2017), probes cases from the until-now little-analyzed un-demolished remains of city center neighborhoods in Shanghai, and unpacks the seemingly anarchic and opportunistic urban spatial production system of the contemporary Chinese city to address what has perplexed Western public as well as scholars alike. Going behind the scenes in neighborhoods that increasingly appear like trend quarters in the West, the new book divulges how the effortless vibe that is experienced today were imagined, constructed, and then scripted. The constellation of actors, from the global network of multilingual cosmopolites — many with Hong Kong linkages — to the dialect-speaking local party officials, form the malleable public-private alliances, which are producing the newest forms for urban reuse, creative production, consumption, and heritage protection.
Ying Zhou, with M+ Design and architecture curator Aric Chen, Node Office founder and architect Doreen Liu, and Cole Roskam, historian and professor from HKU, will be holding a salon discussion around some of the topics highlighted by the new book, notably that of the theoretical framework of the urban loophole for understanding the expedited transformation of urban China, Hong Kong and Shanghai’s linkages in the rapid re-globalization of the latter and the economic rise of the former, and the critical importance of research to the urban transition that is unprecedented in scale and speed.
Ying Zhou is an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). Her research on cultural industries, global linkages and architectural knowledge exchanges in East Asian cities developed from her work with the chair of Kees Christiaanse at the Future Cities Lab of the Singapore-ETH Centre and with the chair of Herzog & de Meuron at the ETH Studio Basel. Born in Shanghai, Ying holds a B.S.E. in Architecture and Engineering from Princeton, an M.Arch. from Harvard, and a Ph.D. from the ETHZ. She has practiced and taught in New York, Shanghai, Detroit, Boston, Basel and Hong Kong.
Aric Chen is Lead Curator for Design and Architecture at M+, the new museum of visual culture under construction in Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District. Previously, he served as Creative Director of Beijing Design Week, helping to oversee the successful launch of that event in 2011 and 2012. Prior to moving to Beijing, Chen was an independent curator, critic, and journalist based in New York, organizing numerous exhibitions and projects internationally. He is the author of Brazil Modern (Monacelli, 2016), and has been a frequent contributor to publications including The New York Times, Metropolis, Architectural Record, and PIN-UP.
Doreen Liu is a Chinese architect, whose research focuses on contemporary urbanism in the Pearl River Delta and the specific impact of urbanization on design and practice in China today. Doreen established her architectural practice node (Nansha Original Design) in Hong Kong and Nansha, Guangzhou in 2004, with realized works including the Nansha Science Museum, Nansha Bookstore, and the Guangzhou Times Museum. She has participated in the Shanghai Biennale, Guangzhou Triennale, Shenzhen Architecture and Urbanism Biennale, Venice Architecture Biennale and thInternationalal Architecture Biennale Rotterdam. Doreen holds an M.Arch from UC Berkeley and a Doctor of Design from Harvard Graduate School of Design. Since September 2008, she has been teaching at the School of Architecture, the Chinese University of Hong Kong as an adjunct associate professor.
Cole Roskam is an associate professor of architectural history and theory in the Department of Architecture at The University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on architecture's role in mediating moments of transnational exchange between China and other parts of the world. His articles and essays have appeared in Architectural History, Grey Room, Artforum International, and the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, among others. His first book, An Improvised City: Architecture and Extraterritoriality in Shanghai, 1843-1936, is under contract with the University of Washington Press. He's currently at work on a second book-length project tentatively titled Designing Reform: Architecture in Post-Revolutionary China, 1972-1989, which is under contract with Yale University Press.
Urban Loopholes: Creative Alliances for Spatial Production in Shanghai’s City Center will be available for purchase after the program.
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Event Details
Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty, Hong Kong