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.
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Yinchuan
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Zhengzhou
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Changsha
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A sleeping guard in the new shopping mall
Zhengzhou
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Yinchuan
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Hohhot
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Chongqing
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Migrant worker
Kashgar
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Lanzhou
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Kashgar
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Shijiazhuang
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Lanzhou
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Chongqing
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Construction worker having a smoke
Changsha
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A guard at the parking lot of a new shopping mall
Changsha
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Drilling of guards in 'Little Venice', a top-end residential quarter
Shijiazhuang
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Changsha
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A game of nightgolf at the Dragon Lake Golf Course
Chongqing
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Lunch break at the construction site
About us
Go West Project is a multidisciplinary research and design studio that studies emerging megacities and uses that knowledge for urban design. We have a deep interest in urban cultures and want to understand and contribute to them through research, architecture and media.
Go West recently published the book 'How the City Moved to Mr Sun - China's New Megacities'.
Upcoming events
29 April:
TEDx Beijing Conference, theme 'Smart Cities'
3 May:
Breakfast lecture Chambers of Commerce, Hong Kong
7 June
Global Housing Studio,TU Delft
Co-lecture with Liu Xiaodu (Urbanus)