TYPOLOGICAL DRIFT: EMERGING CITIES IN CHINA - NEXT CITIES SERIES

Lorenz, Esther; Li, Shiqiao

ISBN 10: 1951541715 / ISBN 13: 9781951541712

Editore: Oro Editions, 2021

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Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: TYPOLOGICAL DRIFT: EMERGING CITIES IN CHINA - NEXT CITIES SERIES
• Editore: Oro Editions
• Data di pubblicazione: 2021
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1951541715
• ISBN 13: 9781951541712
• Rilegatura: Brossura
• Condizione: New

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Neither derivatives of Western cities norisolated from them, Chinese cities in the past four decades are perhaps bestcaptured in their characteristic complexity through a concept in biologicalevolution: drift.

Unlike mutation, adaptation, and migration, drift ofphenotypes takes place when chance events terminate some features and allowother features to flourish. The Chinese culture, structurally divergent fromthe common Indo-European civilizational roots of Western cultures, can be seento function as a set of “chance events” in the normative processes of urbanchange. The consequences of these “bottlenecks” of urban evolution are bothfascinating and instructive: Chinese cities, when studied with this framework,begin to acquire an entirely different order of significance, injecting urbantheory and practice with fresh vigor and insights.

Through thirteen casestudies, more than 60 original maps and drawings, and extensive photographicdocumentation, the book reveals how three “drift triggers” – ten thousandthings, figuration, and group action – have altered typological development inChinese cities in recent decades.

Neither derivatives of Western cities nor isolated from them, Chinese cities in the past four decades are perhaps best captured in their characteristic complexity through a concept in biological evolution: drift. Unlike mutation, adaptation, and migration, drift of phenotypes takes place when chance events terminate some features and allow other features to flourish. The Chinese culture, structurally divergent from the common Indo-European civilizational roots of Western cultures, can be seen to function as a set of “chance events” in the normative processes of urban change. The consequences of these “bottlenecks” of urban evolution are both fascinating and instructive: Chinese cities, when studied with this framework, begin to acquire an entirely different order of significance, injecting urban theory and practice with fresh vigor and insights. Through thirteen case studies, more than 60 original maps and drawings, and extensive photographic documentation, the book reveals how three “drift triggers” – ten thousand things, figuration, and group action – have altered typological development in Chinese cities in recent decades.

Informazioni sull'autore

Shiqiao Li is Weedon Professor in Asian Architecture, School of Architecture, University of Virginia, where he teaches history, theory, and design of architecture, and directs PhD in the Constructed Environment Program. He is author of Understanding the Chinese City (2014), Architecture and Modernization (2009, in Chinese) and Power and Virtue, Architecture and Intellectual Change in England 1650-1730 (2006). Esther Lorenz is a licensed architect and academic, and Associate Professor at the School of Architecture, University of Virginia. Her research explores the connections between architecture and culture, from the study of new urban formations to cultural and spatial practices in relation to built form, to investigations of the intersections between media and architecture.