Interview with Business News Radio, Omroep Flevoland

Last week, we had a studio interview on Business News Radio, one of the leading news stations in the Netherlands, about our plan to change the Dutch province Flevoland into a new metropolitan area, using Chinese models for urbanisation.

You can listen to the whole interview below (note: it’s in Dutch!)

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A few days later, Omroep Flevoland made a special about our proposal for a Special Economic Zone in the Flevopolder.

Dislike

Image: Rendering Chongqing Chaotianmen, Moshe Safdie architects

We all spend useless time on the web. For example with ‘liking’ or commenting on posts on Facebook. That’s what I did as well on December 2nd, when I commented ‘unbelievably uuugly and a total Sands knock off’ on Moshe Safdie’s scheme for Chongqing Chaotianmen.With ‘Sands’, I referred to the Singapore Marina Sands, a project that Safdie did a few years ago, and that has quite some resemblances to it: Read the rest of this entry »

Pre-Publication: the story about Mr Sun in VN

Want to read the story how Mr Sun lost his house, and you cannot wait until you have the book? This week, Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland pre-publishes the story about Mr Sun. Run to your bookstore!

Changing trains

This picture was on the front page of the Shanghai Daily, July 1st: newly weds celebrating in front of the soon to be opened high speed railway between Shanghai and Beijing. A little more than 3 weeks later the big faith in progress dramatically turned upside down. The disastrous high speed train crash in Wenzhou, which killed almost 39 people and injured 192 (figures: NYT) changed the national perspective about the development of China’s infrastructure – and of the whole country for that matter.

Read the rest of this entry »

Feature in Shanghai Daily

Yesterday, we appeared in a feature article in English language newspaper Shanghai Daily. The article discusses the background of Go West, our method of working and our book ‘How the City Moved to Mr Sun’. It addresses the motivation behind our focus on central and western China:

“People need to understand that China is creating the biggest urban society globally,” Roggeveen tells Shanghai Daily. “These cities are developing at a breakneck pace, and can potentially conquer the world.”

Read the full article here or download it: 20110705 go west SH Daily

Antidote for Urbanization

This months theme of the well known magazine Urban China is ‘Urban Rural Integration’. We contributed with an article and photo essay about the phenomena of the ‘urban village’. In the article we describe the reluctant attitude of city governments to tolerate the areas, which they consider ‘urban cancer’. We argue that they offer a lot of potential for bottom up urban development:

China’s urbanization is facing serious challenges: land use, food production, rising real estate prices and a lack of housing typologies. The top-down model is not able to solve all these challenges at once. At the same time, the model of the urbanized village seems to provide hybrid alternatives. The model is flexible, adjustable and makes interesting connections between the urban and rural conditions.

Run to your bookstore…and take your mandarin phrasebook…!

Go West in Surface, Shanghai Business Review

Last month we were interviewed by two magazines of a total opposite species. Shanghai Business Review interviewed us about investment opportunities in the heart of China, and Beijing based design magazine Surface talked with us about cultural life in Chongqing, amongst others. Download the SBR article: 201104 Shanghai Business Review, and the Surface article: 201104 Surface Build for the Future.

Interviewed by the Global Times

Last week Journalist Ye Jun from the Global Times (no doubt our favourite English language newspaper in China) interviewed us about our project and asked us to give an assesment of China’s developping cities. Yesterday she published her story: a page-long article about Go West in the Shanghai People-section of the newspaper, illustrated with a rock&roll-like picture of Daan, Xinlin and me, standing on top of a pile of rubble of a recently destroyed village near Hefei.

Check that out! You can find a PDF-version of the article here and a link to the web-version here.

At the end of the article we mention an idea that we’ve been talking about quite a lot recently. In the last 30 years, China succesfully introduced the market economy by using the model of Special Economic Zones (SEZ’s), areas with a more liberal economic policy than other parts of the country. Following this model, wouldn’t it be possible for China to create Special Academic & Art Zones (SAZ’s), areas with a more liberal policy towards critical art and academics? We haven’t fully developped the idea yet, but it’s definitely something you’ll be hearing from us about again!

Taken hostage in a walhalla of construction

Last month, we were interviewed for Delft University newspaper Delta. The double-interview, together with Dutch architect Dirk Bekkering, got the optimistic headline ‘Taken hostage in a walhalla of construction’. Read the whole interview (in Dutch) here: TU Delta – Achtergrond: Gegijzeld in bouwwalhalla.

Go West article ‘Walled Idyll’ in MARK Magazine

“Walled Idyll” is the name of the article we wrote for MARK Magazine. It focuses on mass housing in Xi’an, and on the compound, the housing typology that dominates China. We interviewed the director of one of the biggest design institutes in the country who is not particularly proud of his designs. “It’s all rather superficial”, he said. “We have no time for thorough studies. Architects are kept hostage by real-estate companies. We’re building like idiots.” The magazine is out October 1st, so head to the bookstore!

Go West in Dutch media

This weekend, Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad published an interview with Daan about Go West.

The interview explains the origin and content of the Go West Project and tells background stories about the taxi project Go West organized for the Shenzhen Biennale. Moreover Daan is asked to do suggestions how one can prepare for a trip to China. Here’s a wrap up – and some additional books and websites:

Internet:

Chinasmack, Danwei, ChinaDigitalTimes (translated Chinese blogs) – FYI: these are not available in China…

More: Six (great blog on the life of Chinese students in Beijing), Patrick Chovanec (great economic insights on China) Movingcities (about urbanism in changing conditions)

Books:

Inside the Red Mansion, Postcards from Tomorrow Square, Factorygirls.

More: What does China Think, Bad Elements.

On Architecture / Urbanism: The Chinese Dream, The Great Leap Forward.

Do you want to know more about our work, or do you have questions, suggestions or other ideas, please mail: info[at]gowestproject.com

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Download the full article here. (in Dutch)

Article Guiyang Eco City online

The Vrij Nederland article about Guiyang Eco City is now online on the page ‘articles’; download it here.

Washington Times on Copenhagen fiasco

John J. Tkacik Jr, former China analyst of the US State Department writes an interesting article on China’s climate stance in the Wastington Times.

Tkacik quotes Mr Ding, China’s “most prestigious geophysicist” and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Ding doesn’t believe in a human cause for rising global temperature.

Mr. Ding now purports to be upset that “developed nations” of the West, after emitting carbon gases into the atmosphere for over a century, suddenly insist that poor “developing” nations — including China — now share the burden of mitigating “predicted dire consequences” of global warming. He deduces that the secret motive for the climate controversy among the Western powers “is to restrain the growth of the developing nations and to preserve their own preferential position.”

More on China’s imprints all over Copenhagen talks fiasco – Washington Times.

China Digital Times: Chinese netizens lay flowers at the Google headquarters

Picture from China Digital Times. Chinese netizens lay flowers at the Google headquarters in Beijing as a reaction to the statement of Google that it’s reconsidering its operations in China.

Designws.com – SZ / HK Biennale Of Urbanism \ Architecture

Go West Project contribution to the SZ/HK Biennale on designws.com:

Designws.com – Shenzhen & Hong Kong Biennale Of Urbanism \ Architecture.