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Architecture Internships at Go West Shanghai

Posted on August 14th, 2013 by Go West Project

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Go West Project is research and design studio focusing emerging megacities. Go West is based in Shanghai and Amsterdam and works on various research and design projects. Currently, Go West is – amongst others – working on a 15,000 sqm mixed use in Jiaxing (under construction), plans for a Special Economic Zone in Europe and urban research in Africa.

Go West Project has openings for Architectural Interns for our Shanghai office.

 Requirements:

– Currently studying Architecture or other relevant courses
– Strong graphic and design talent 
– Strong rendering skills and familiarity with Rhino 
– Excellent command of Adobe Creative Suite and AutoCAD 
– Good craft and model-making skills 
– Fluency in written and spoken English. Fluency in Mandarin is a pre.
– Good sense of humor

We offer:
 
– Working in an enthusiastic international team; 
– Working on top notch international exhibitions and projects; 
– Understanding new ways of architectural research; 
– Get a profound understanding of urbanization processes in China; 
– Having the results of your work being published/build and/or exhibited.

Internships can start immediately, for a period of 3-6 months.
Please send us your cover letter, resume and portfolio as single PDF file to:

info@gowestproject.com

Go West organizes brainstorm in Addis Ababa

Posted on July 1st, 2013 by Daan Roggeveen

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– What is the impact of Chinese urban models on Addis Ababa?

On Monday 1 July 2pm, Go West Project organizes a brainstorm titled ‘The China Model’. Writer Michiel Hulshof and architect Daan Roggeveen, founders of Go West Project, will lead the brainstorm.

Goal of the brainstorm is to get a deeper insight into the impact of Chinese urban models on the city of Addis Ababa, especially the building of the African Union and the Eastern Industrial Zone.

BACKGROUND
Go West Project is a multidisciplinary research and design studio focusing on the development of emerging megacities. Over the past years Go West researched emerging cities in western China, resulting in the book How the City Moved to Mr Sun – China’s New Megacities (2011).

Their current research project focuses on China’s involvement in African urbanization. Following the increased influence of China in other parts of the world, China is exporting parts of its urban model to Africa: new Special Economic Zones in Zambia, Nigeria and Ethiopia, Chinese residential models in Angola or Kenya and Chinese roads, airports and railways all over Africa. Moreover, there is also a ‘soft power’ approach with Chinese Africa-based media, Chinese language schools, university grants for Africans, and Chinese medical aid projects in Africa. Go West thinks this phenomenon deserves an unprejudiced look as to what this means for the development and the future of African cities.
The brainstorm will be held at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Addis Ababa.

TIME
Monday, 1 July 2013, 2PM

ADRESS
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Addis Ababa
Old Airport Zone
Kifle Ketema-Lideta
Kebele 02/03
Addis Ababa

Go West Project @ Salone in Milan

Posted on April 7th, 2013 by Michiel Hulshof

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From Tuesday 9 April until Friday 12 April, the Go West Project will present the Newsroom Africa at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the prestigious design fair in Milan. The Newsroom is part of Afrofuture, an exhibition dedicated to African design and culture in Milan’s famous department store la Rinascente

In the Newsroom, visitors will see a desk, covered with books, magazines and newspaper clippings about Chinese involvement in Africa. At the deks, Michiel Hulshof and Daan Roggeveen will be working all week on their new research project that studies Chinese involvement in the creation of new megacities in Africa. From time to time they will invite specialists from Europe and Africa to sit down with them and have an in-dept interview about the involvement of Chinese businesses and government in Africa.

Although most of their conversation will be in Dutch, visitors will be able to understand their topic of discussion with the help of translator Roberta Armida. On Friday 12 April, from 16:00 until 17:00, the Go West Project will present the result of a week’s work.

Newsroom Africa @ Salone del Mobile
From Tuesday 9 until Friday 12 April
Daily from 11:00 until 19:00
La Rinascente (level -1, design Supermarket)
Milano Piazza Duomo

Shantou Desakota Workshop (2)

Posted on January 27th, 2013 by Brechtje Spreeuwers

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After five full days of fieldwork, sketching and discussions, Go West presented together with a team of experts suggestions on the future of the Shantou Shan Nan area to the full board of the Shantou Planning Bureau. The advice focused on specific areas such as water, transport and community building.

The Shan Nan area in Shantou is a unique rural-urban location with a lot of potential. Qualities lie in characteristic villages in combination with an extensive water system. However, polluting small industries, poorly maintained villages and a lack of planning strategies currently threat the future of the area. Go West’s contribution was characterized by knowledge of the Chinese culture and urbanization, and the architecture of the villages. In the upcoming report we will further develop and elaborate on this vision.

Shantou Desakota Workshop

Posted on January 18th, 2013 by Brechtje Spreeuwers

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Next week from 21 – 25 January, Go West will participate in the Shantou ‘Desakota’ Workshop. Together with an international team of experts in urban planning, mobility, water management and architecture, we will think about how to carefully integrate the surrounding (water) landscape into the next phase of the development plan for Shantou.

Since 1982, the city of Shantou is part of the group of five Special Economic Zones in China, but struggled to develop. Therefore, the Institute of Urban Planning and Design of the Nanjing University and the Shantou Planning Bureau together wrote a new Strategic Plan that aimed to set a new blueprint for the Shantou region. Our workshop is one part of the next phase of this development plan.

Participants are urban planner and team leader Martin Dubbeling (Connecting Cities), landscape architect Wouter Vos (KuiperCompagnons), urban planner Ric Stephens (Stephens Planning and Design), Dutch water engineer Govert Geldof (Geldof c.s.), transport and mobility expert Richard ter Avest (Goudappel Coffeng) and urban planner Sebastien Goethals (Urban Stream).

“Journey to the West”

Posted on November 18th, 2012 by Brechtje Spreeuwers

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Chongqing, Wuhan, Xian, Changsha and Chengdu, 5 of the 13 cities that we described in our book about Chinese megacities are listed in the ranking of Foreign Policy and McKinsey, covering the most dynamic cities of 2025 [1]. During our research in 2009 these cities were still largely unknown to the general public, but in the last few years they grew from unknown names in the hinterland of China to new urban metropolises.

Informal Market Worlds II Forum

Posted on October 31st, 2012 by Brechtje Spreeuwers

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Next Thursday, November 8^th, Go West will participate in the two-day Informal Market Worlds II Forum, a research forum on the trading places of urban informality, co-organised by the University of Hong Kong’s Shanghai Study Centre and the FWF Science Fund research project Other Markets.

Go West at Beijing Design Week (2)

Posted on October 25th, 2012 by Brechtje Spreeuwers

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Are unbuilt architectural projects a sign of failure? On Friday the 29th of September, Go West gave a presentation at the Beijing Design Week 2012 during the opening of the unMade China exhibition. The unMade exhibition showed a selection of inspiring, but all unbuilt architectural projects in China. Go West shared their opinion about this phenomenon and concluded that China is not the ‘architects fairytale’ anymore as most people still envision China’s current building conditions. Instead, China seems to have multiple layers that are difficult to understand and in which projects fall for unexplained reasons. In several short presentations Luis Aguirre Manso from Aqso, Jan Felix Clostermann of Spark Architects and Shu Yan Chan of UN Studio thereupon elaborated on their specific experiences with unbuilt projects in China. In the end, we concluded that actually some of the most famous examples in architecture are projects that are not realized. The projects in this exhibition are therefore not proofs of failure, but more likely starting points for new and innovating future concepts.

Go West goes USA

Posted on September 21st, 2012 by Daan Roggeveen

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The coming weeks, we’ll be doing a series of lectures in multiple cities in the United States about our book How the City Moved to Mr Sun – China’s New Megacities.

China is creating the largest urban society the world has ever seen. Small towns in Central and Western China are transforming at breakneck pace into huge metropolises with many millions of inhabitants. Between 2009 and 2011 we (architect Daan Roggeveen and journalist Michiel Hulshof) travelled to twenty of these emerging cities and described them in our book How the City Moved to Mr Sun.

In our lectures we try to challenge assumptions about the nature of Chinese society, and discusses the question: will China transform its triumph of brick and concrete into a model that will conquer the world?
The lectures are open to the public, so feel free to join!

09/24 6 PM SPUR San Jose, 38 West Santa Clara Street, San Jose
09/27 7PM LA Forum, WUHO Back Gallery, 6518 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood, CA
10/3 5PM DAAP/University of Cincinnati, 2600 Clifton Ave., Cincinnati
10/5 5 PM University of Kentucky/CoD, 209 Pence Hall, Lexington
10/8 6 PM UIC School of Architecture, A+A Building, 845 W Harrison St, Chicago
10/9 7 PM Van Alen Books, 30 W 22nd St, Ground Fl, NYC
10/11 Afternoon, Princeton University 105 McCormick Hall, Princeton
10/15 11 AM Columbia University, Ware Lounge (6th floor) of Avery Hall, NYC

For more information or high res images contact press[at]gowestproject.com

Go West at Beijing Design Week

Posted on September 20th, 2012 by Daan Roggeveen

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China is a country known for its incredible building production, where the equivalent of the entire city of Chicago is built in skyscrapers every year. The country appears as an architects’ fairy-tale: a land of plenty where every sketch, and every form falling from the foam cutter is turned into concrete and steel within months. Although architects and investors worldwide love to believe these stories, reality is a bit more complex.

Shanghai based architects Cannon Design curated an exhibition that celebrates unrealized projects, called ‘Unmade in China’. We wrote the introduction for the exhibition and the catalog.

The exhibition will be on show at the 2012 Beijing Design Week, opening this Friday. Saturday afternoon, Go West participates in the panel discussion ‘Made vs. Unmade in China’. And of course, you’re more than welcome!

Panel discussion: Saturday, 29 September, 4.30 PM (followed by opening reception)
Exhibition: 28 September – 6 October, 10:00-19:00
Venue: Building A, 751 D Park, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
北京市，朝阳区，酒仙桥路4号, 798艺术区，751 D.Park, A楼

Go West nominated for Iakov Chernikhov Prize

Posted on September 2nd, 2012 by Daan Roggeveen

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Iakov Chernikhov, Giant Plant of Special Purpose, 1931

Go West Project is honored to announce it is nominated for the Iakov Chernikhov International Prize. The Prize aims to support experimental, educational and research works in the field of innovative architecture and town planning. It encourages innovative architectural concepts and initiatives by young architects throughout the world. Since 2005, ICIF awards the Iakov Chernov Prize (ICP) on a biannual basis.
The winner will be announced this fall.

Co-lecture w. Duncan Hewitt (Newsweek), 26 June

Posted on June 20th, 2012 by Daan Roggeveen

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Tuesday June 26, The The Hopkins China Forum and Young China Watchers organize a co-lecture of Daan Roggeveen (Go West) along with Duncan Hewitt, Shanghai Correspondent for Newsweek. The talk will revolve around the break-neck development of cities in Central and Western China which have focused solely on their physical infrastructure, but now need to face societal issues of sustainability, education, and cultural development.

The talk will be at Wooden Box, nr.9 Qinghai Road, Jing’an, Shanghai, 021 5213 2965 Google maps, on Tuesday, June 26th at 7pm, and we encourage you to RSVP since seating may be limited: editor[at]shanghai-review.org

Go West and Urbanus lecture at TU Delft, 7 June

Posted on May 31st, 2012 by Go West Project

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With cities all over the world growing at an ever increasing speed, the issue of providing affordable housing is of global importance. How can the large scale demand for decent housing be accommodated? How do possible solutions impact the livability, vibrancy and sustainability of our world’s cities? How can industrial efficiency and mass production be met with local conditions? And, finally, what role can European architects play in providing solutions worldwide?

The Capita Selecta lecture series addresses this issue of affordable housing in exploding cities. By focusing on different areas in the world – Ethiopia, China, Russia and India – the importance of local cultural conditions will be explored. In a double lecture, Daan Roggeveen (Go West Project) will present a more general overview of the particularities of the housing issue in China at hand, while Liu Xiaodu (Urbanus Architecture & Design) will discuss the issue from the point of view of the architectural practice.

7 June, 6pm
TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture
Julianalaan 134 Delft, The Netherlands

Sneak Peak: Making City in Europe

Posted on April 26th, 2012 by Daan Roggeveen

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Last Thursday, the 5th International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam themed ‘Making City’ opened. Our contribution Allmetropolis perfectly fits this years’ subject: we propose to learn from Chinese urbanization by introducing the concept of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Europe. By superimposing the concept of the SEZ on Flevoland, we think Flevoland could act as an economic powerhouse for The Netherlands. Below you can see some screenshots of the movie introducing the idea. Want to see the whole movie? Visit the IABR at the Netherlands Architecture institute, or contact us for a personal YouTube login!

Unmade in China – Introduction

Posted on April 18th, 2012 by Daan Roggeveen

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Because the density of pure ice is about 920 kg/m³, and that of sea water about 1025 kg/m³, typically only one-ninth of the volume of an iceberg is above water. The shape of the underwater portion can be difficult to judge by looking at the portion above the surface.

From: Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, lemma ‘Iceberg’