The presentation we did at Factory last month has been filmed, and Factory’s Geoff Broz made a video out of it! For the ones who could not attend, and those who would like to have a wrap up of what we did there: via Go West Project presentation at Factory, 25/06/2009 on Vimeo.
Imagine a city centre as big as Frankfurt’s, with modern skyscrapers scattered around a central manmade lake. The roads are brand new and six lanes wide. The main shopping mall is a circular promenade with a length of more than two kilometres. Porsche has opened a flagship store, but the main eyecatcher is the Art Museum, five golden egg shaped balls designed by Japanese starchitect Kisho Kurokawa. Everything looks all shiny, modern and metropolitan-like. Except for one thing. The city does not have any inhabitants.
Yet.
Welcome to the New Eastern District of Zhengzhou, one of China’s unknown mega-cities with an urban population of at least two million inhabitants. Adidas, McDonald’s and Häagen-Dass have already found their way to the crowded, noisy streets downtown. The American coffee-chain Starbucks will soon join them: coffee drinking is getting more and more fashionable among young so-called white collar workers. The brand new Zhengzhou airport shows the ambitions of the city’s leaders with an international terminal. It doesn’t see a hell of a lot foreign travelers today, but that may change tomorrow.
If you want a quick impression of the project and its goals, please take a look at this presentation:
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