Driving Downtown - Songzhuang (32)
Located in Tong Zhou District, eastern outskirts of Beijing, Songzhuang is the most famous and biggest artist community in China.
Chinese Artist Documentary - Carp Leaping Over Dragon Gate
Artist Chang Liu is a painter that represent the burgeoning art scene emerging from an utopian art community on the outskirts of Beijing known as Songzhuang artists' village. Discover emerging artists from beijing.
The Songzhuang Arts and Agriculture City - 2014 APA Awards
The Pierre L'Enfant International Planning Excellence Award
The Songzhuang Arts and Agriculture City
Beijing, China
The Songzhuang Arts and Agriculture City master plan offers an innovative approach to the integration of agriculture and the urban environment along the eastern fringe of Beijing. Completed by Sasaki Associates, the plan's purpose is to transition the region's economy from a commodity-based, agrarian landscape toward new industries that focus on art, agriculture, technology, and research. In response to the quickly evolving land outside of Beijing, the plan proposes a series of self-sustaining communities with farmland located at the core and urban development along the periphery of the community. This approach allows for more diverse internal edge conditions that foster greater interaction between the cultivated landscape and urban fabric.
The plan calls for preserving 98 percent of existing agricultural land for use as either productive farmland or functional landscape infrastructure, which will allow for increased employment opportunities and improved local food production. The plan places emphasis on sustainable communities and environments. Additionally, the site landscape incorporates strategies to manage storm water quantity and quality within the development and considers opportunities to mitigate flood risks — an important planning provision for Songzhuang, as the region is prone to intense storms during the summer monsoonal rains.
Beijing Cultural Creative Industry Visitor Gallery
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Visiting the Beijing Cultural Creative Centre Visitor Gallery is like embarking on a cultural tour of the city, a place where one can have a memorable and personal encounter with the metropolis. Pico designed and fabricated the Centre’s entire visitor gallery, and was also responsible for developing the gallery’s storyline, spatial environment, interactive experiences and content.
As this was the first gallery of its kind to specifically promote China’s cultural creative industry, the team focused on making the integration of traditional art forms with digitally-created experiences the design cornerstone for the 6,000 sq. m. project. They created a fascinating journey through old and new Beijing, mingling historic sites through storytelling, content development and leading technology; while also providing a multi-functional space in a modern, cutting-edge environment.
Liberal use of open space allowed the team to plan for different traffic flow scenarios, while zone colours, symbols and applications were used to make navigation easier. Special interactive zones with multimedia applications also give visitors hands-on experiences with learning cultural and creative content.
Just imagine cycling through the alleyways of Hutongs near the Forbidden City, roaming through courtyards, stopping to watch a game of chess, enjoying a well-attended garden party and soaking in the warmth of the close-knit Hutong communities of days gone by. Your journey continues to the National Centre for the Performing Arts where you witness a captivating opera, then on to a museum where fascinating artifacts come alive, followed by a stroll through the most scenic parts of Beijing and a toboggan ride down the Great Wall. This amazing experience was part of the combination of digital art and applications which Pico designed and delivered for the Beijing Cultural Creative Industry Visitor Gallery.
“The Visitor Gallery of the Beijing Cultural Creative Industry incorporates state-of-the-art technology with varied spatial situations, innovative applications and coherent visuals to produce an immersive experience and leaves the visitor in awe.” - Mr. Peter Benz, Professor of Spatial Design, Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University
Songzhuang, the Painters' Wonderland 宋庄 这里
This is the 8th episode of the documentary series Changing Times - Chinese Traditions and Modern Life: Songzhuang, the Painters' Wonderland. This episode presents Songzhuang, a place full of artistic flavor, mainly through the eyes of two artists: one has made his name in art history, while the other is still passionate about his dream, even in his seventies.
这是系列纪录片《行走的风景》第八集《宋庄 这里》。宋庄是一个神奇的地方，可以说是艺术家的天堂，生活在那里的穿着普通的人们很多是为了追寻自己的艺术梦而移居到这个小镇的。本片主要讲述了两位艺术家，一位已经成名，而另一位虽已到耄耋之年仍然怀揣梦想，坚信自己梦想会成真。
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Artists Hold Funeral-Like Election for 18th Congress
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A funeral-like art exhibition was held on July 21st at
Songzhuang, a renowned artist community in Beijing.
Over 200 people including petitioners and artists wearing
mourning clothes,
voted to elect academic members for the 18th Congress of
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Seven Dutch artists attended the art show in congratulation.
Under surveillance of over a dozen plain-clothed police,
18 academic members were elected,
including dissidents like Gao Zhisheng,
Ai Weiwei and Huang Qideng.
A Sino-Dutch Contemporary Art Exhibition was held
at Song Zhuang, Bejing on July 21st.
The attendees staged performance art and voted to elect
Academic Committee members for the CCP's 18th Congress.
Seven Dutch artists arrived to express congratulations.
A total of over 200 attendees included dissident art lovers;
petitioners from Beijing and other regions of China,
many mysterious celebrities and over a dozen Domestic
Security Plainclothes police.
Visitors were given ballots for Academic Committee election.
The attendees and artists collectively staged performance art
to celebrate the show.
Over a dozen of petitioners took part
in the performance art and voting.
Voters wore white mourning dress, with head tied
in white cloth, as if conducting a funeral.
While the election went through a formal process by
filling in the ballot paper and putting into the ballot box.
The 18 elected academic members include Gao Zhisheng,
Ai Weiwei, Ding Zilin, Feng Zhenghu, Huang Qi, Chen Guangcheng and Wang Dan.
Huang Qi says the election reflects public opinion
to some extent.
Huang Qi: This performance art show embodied the public
discontent towards the CCP's monopoly power and existing human rights situation in China.
It aims to call on the CCP regime to respect the right to
free elections.
And have the public sentiment truly put into practice by
holding its 18th Congress.
Huang Qi, founder of 64tianwang.com,
was one of the earliest group of dissidents jailed by the CCP.
Later, due to exposing the tofu-dregs schoolhouses in the
2008 Wenchuan Earthquake,
Huang Qi was given a three year jail sentence
on the charge of illegal possession of state secrets files.
Huang Qi comments that the elected Academic members
are mainly those human rights activists.
Lawyer Gao Zhisheng, enlisted China's top 10 outstanding
lawyers for years of defending vulnerable groups was put in jail for speaking out for Falun Gong practitioners.
Huang Qi says that Gao Zhisheng being elected is merited.
Beijing-based petitioner Li Xuehui, one of the attendees,
says the election result truly represented the public wishes.
She remarks that China is now filled with the fear of power,
with rampant abuse of public power nationwide.
The law is a mere scrap of paper, the dignity of the country
has been awfully trodden down, according to Li Xuehui.
Li Xuehui: Political reform is just the popular wish.
China went through a history of thousands of years.
Many clowns now intend to stop the history from advancing,
they'll be nailed to history's mast of shame, I believe.
Li Xuehui's 79-year-old mother was sent to reeducation
through labor which shocked the public.
While protesting for her mother, Li suffered the same
punishment.
The re-education through labor system is against the
Constitution.
An unjust persecution upon ordinary citizens, says Li Xuehui.
She believes that joint efforts among the Chinese people
would be the only way to restore justice in China.
Li Xuehui is now detained in Bajiao police station,
Shijingshan District in Beijing.
If this was due to her participation in the show,
the CCP has not yet given any explanation.
And in this Songzhuang art show, many paintings displayed
were found possessing profound connotations by satirizing the evils created by the CCP regime.
《神韵》2011世界巡演新亮点
1 Day in Beautiful Cuandixia Historic Village | Cuandixia Itinerary & Tour Suggestion
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美術館 北京宋莊
美術館 主持：李安姿
美術館 逢星期一 中午12:10 now新聞台時事全方位節目內
A restaurant for the hard of hearing
Located in the Songzhuang Artist Village (a famous artist community in Beijing), there is a silent Sichuan cuisine restaurant whose employees are mostly hearing-impaired. Here, customers write down their orders, and it's even better when they know sign language. In any case, it's not like other Sichuan restaurants, which can get noisy.
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Xu Tiantian, DnA_Design and Architecture (China)
Introduction
Hans-Jürgen Commerell and Kristin Feireiss, Aedes Architecture Forum, Berlin
While train connections in rural areas are being successively done away with in Europe and Germany, the digital interconnectivity of the hinterland is falling victim to neoliberal profit maximization, and we are currently feeling the effects of the political, social, and economic consequences of this, China has chosen the opposite route. In recent years, the most remote regions there have been linked by means of high-speed train lines and the final mountain villages are being connected with the rest of China by means of fibre optic cables. Over a total of four weeks in September and December 2017, we saw and experienced this ourselves on an exploratory tour of the rural areas of Songyang County, about seven hours by car in a southwest direction from Shanghai.
On the search for architectural and spatial models for improving rural living areas that might also be able to provide us with impulses for Germany and Europe, in the mountainous landscape of Songyang County, we made the acquaintance of a congenial team consisting of the architect Xu Tiantian and the Party Secretary of the Songyang County Committee Wang Jun, who, in only a few years, have succeeded in generating a new ‘rural self-awareness’ by means of architectural acupuncture.
While in the past three years ten projects, from the concept, through participatory processes, up to the realization, had already been implemented with breath-taking speed, it nevertheless amazed us, that in the merely three months between our visits, two completely new projects had once again been put in place. With caution and meditational sensitivity, the architect and her client, the regional government, have jointly repaired old clay farmhouses in the village, municipality, and natural space or landscape in collaboration with the inhabitants. The buildings have been adapted to contemporary requirements and consequently given additional new uses, or local spaces of collective memory have been created, thus reanimating the cultural and historical awareness of the region. As an example, community spaces have been integrated in the new building for a production site where cane sugar is obtained in a traditional way. This has significantly increased not only the self-awareness of local villagers, but also the price of the organic product.
It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that we bring the process of this rural ‘upgrading’ and the built objects resulting from it to Europe in this catalogue and exhibition as the Songyang Story. Based on the example of long-neglected rural space, it shows that changes in society, the economy, and ecology are possible by means of many small steps and active engagement, and that architecture and committed architects play an important role in the process.
We thank the architect Xu Tiantian and her design team as well as Wang Jun and his highly motivated employees of the local government for the wonderful collaboration as well as for their support in producing the documentation and exhibition. Our gratitude also goes to Angelika Fitz, the Director of the Architekturzentrum in Vienna as well as Andreas Ruby, Director of the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel, for helping us bring the topic to other countries and generate a discussion about it following the exhibition in Berlin.
Part of Rural Moves – The Songyang Story, Xu Tiantian, DnA_Design and Architecture, Beijing exhibited at the AEDES Forum, Berlin.
full moon exhibition Imagine Gallery Sunshine Museum
The Sunshine Museum of Beijing, based in the renowned artist village of SongZhuang greets Ambre International, a non-profit organization based on the French Riviera. There is no particular theme involved in this exposition; the main purpose being to show the Chinese community an extensive, but non exhaustive, diversity of styles of the current French creativity; a way for both Chinese and French artists to get to understand each other; this exposition is the first step that may lead to greater projects of cooperation with France, among which the organization of artists' residences in SongZhuang. For the second year in the row Gregory Bottazzi is the precious link and organizer for Ambre International in China. In 2006, a good number of French artists were able to participate to the CIGE (China International Gallery Exposition) and to the DIAF (Dashanzi International Art Festival). 2007: Thanks to the help and hospitality of LiGuangMing and Hu YuePeng, respectively curator and Executive Manager of the Sunshine Museum, this exposition takes place, allowing us to celebrate the cultural Chinese Yuebing, commonly called Mooncakes abroad. A prelude to a long lasting partnership.
The Fate of Song Zhuang 宋庄的命运 (Video by Qi Zhilong)
Song Zhuang, the biggest artist enclave in China, and the world, is facing forced demolition by the Chinese government. Thousands of artists have settled in Song Zhuang in the past decade, turning this farming community into the vibrant artist haven we know today. Many artists have poured their lifetime's savings into building studios and living quarter complexes, working and living here all year round. Among them are the prominent artist Ai Wei Wei and renowned art critic Li Xianting, just to name a few.
With the future fate of Song Zhuang, which so many artists call home, totally unknown, one of them said:All we can count on is the present and would value every minute of it.
Chinese version Masterplan 2030
Chinese presentation of the 2030 Masterplan for the Port of Grenaa
APA National Planning Awards 2012 - Sasaki Associates Inc.
National Planning Excellence Award for a Planning Firm
Sasaki Associates, Inc.
Watertown, Massachusetts
Sasaki Associates, Inc., has a history of regenerating communities with its unique collaboration of engineers, architects and planners. Founded in 1953 by Hideo Sasaki, his approach of uniting planning and design disciplines was pioneering at the time and has created a legacy of significant projects, including the revival of Sea Pines Plantation in 1953, construction of the Charlestown waterfront in the 1990s and the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
The firm's planning process is based on the value of strong ideas, critical inquiry and exploration, and broad public engagement. Sasaki Associates, Inc., has received more than 500 awards from various design and urban planning foundations, including the 2011 APA National Planning Excellence Award for Best Practices in Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Planning for Cedar Rapids' River Corridor Redevelopment Plan, and a 2011 ULI Award of Excellence for the Euclid Avenue HealthLine BRT Project in Cleveland.
China detains supporters of Hong Kong protests
Chinese,police,have,detained,a,number,of,people,for,showing,support,for,the,pro-democracy,students,in,Hong,Kong.
More,than,10,people,,including,the,outspoken,poet,Wang,Zang,,were,reportedly,taken,away,early,this,month,from,the,Songzhuang,art,community,outside,Beijing,on,suspicion,of,inciting,unrest.
Wang's,lawyer,said,he,has,not,been,able,to,see,his,client,,and,that,he,was,probably,detained,for,trying,to,hold,a,rally,in,support,of,the,Hong,Kong,protesters.
The,lawyer,added,that,many,of,those,detained,in,China,violated,no,laws,and,merely,voiced,their,views.,He,claimed,it,is,an,oppression,of,the,freedom,of,speech.
Human,rights,activists,in,Beijing,say,more,than,40,academics,and,artists,in,China,have,been,taken,into,custody,in,connection,with,the,protests,in,Hong,Kong.
Observers,say,China's,government,is,aiming,to,prevent,the,pro-democracy,movement,from,spreading,to,the,mainland,and,developing,into,anti-government,protests,fueled,by,dissatisfaction,over,growing,income,disparity,and,ethnic,minority,policies.
China's Urban Gardens
There is a saying in China that goes Food is like Heaven. As the balance of the population shifts from the countryside to the cities so more and more people are being denied the opportunity to control their own heaven but is this about to change?
With rising global populations and a lack of land to expand rural agriculture governments are starting to look at their cities as an unlikely place to site new farmland. D J Clark investigates how this is playing out in China.
Hakka Indenture Museum, Shicang Village, China, by DnA_Design and Architecture (2016-17)
Program: Leisure/Culture/Landscape
Client: Songyang Dadongba County Government
Gross Floor Area: 2573.57m2
Building Foot Print: 674.5m2
The village of Shicang, whose residents belong to a Hakka ethnic group, is located in a narrow valley in the south of Songyang County. The Hakka are also referred to as ‘guests’, since they migrated here as refugees from northern regions in the past centuries. They have retained their special status until today, which is characterized by the strong internal cohesion of the group.
The name of the village of Shicang can be translated as stone storage, which in turn refers to a legend, according to which there was a magical cave filled with grain, from which the residents were able to supply themselves. Greedy inhabitants allegedly broke open the cave, which consequently lost its ability to produce grain. In place of the grain, it was afterwards only possible to find stones.
To commemorate this story, which gave the village its name, Xu Tiantian developed a building that takes up the local construction of bridges and residential buildings. Coarsely hewn stones are layered in a wild lattice to create massive walls that continue the slope on the edge of the village out into the landscape. The architecture is connected with the landscape by means of various sequences of spaces both inside and out. An already existing irrigation channel was guided over the roof and provides water, which, on particular days, is sprayed by nozzles to create a water curtain on the inside. By means of a linear opening in the roof, sunlight falls on the water curtain, where a rainbow forms. This temporary phenomenon attracts visitors, who then enliven neighbouring villages as well. The museum itself has no controlled access and only exhibits copies of, in part, several-hundred-year-old Hakka indentures. The inspiration from the local legend situates the museum, with which both craftsmanship and material culture have been revitalized.
Part of Rural Moves – The Songyang Story, Xu Tiantian, DnA_Design and Architecture, Beijing exhibited at the AEDES Forum, Berlin.
CUI Nan on MischmaschTV
CUI Nan's work is part of the Innocence and Experience exhibition, Oct 22 - Nov 30, at Mischmasch Gallery: mischmaschgallery.com
Cui Nan is originally from Hebei province in China, he now paints from his studio space in Song Zhuang, Beijing. He graduated from Hebei Normal University in 1999, where he later taught as a teacher. Cui Nan often features himself in his large-scale narratives. His paintings are ritualistic, imaginative, and charged with an energy that rebels and perplexes. See more of Cui Nan's work here:
Produced by Mischmasch
Interview conducted by Alice Zhang
Video post-production by Agatha Sze.
Music: Starscapes by The American Dollar
(Cui Nan is a Chinese name; the family name is Cui.)
The Valsequillo Initiative - APA Awards 2013
The Pierre L'Enfant International Planning Award
The Valsequillo Initiative
Puebla, Mexico
The Valsequillo Initiative is a planning effort not only to improve the quality of urban areas growing around the Valsequillo Reservoir and increase opportunities for area residents and remediate decades of environmental degradation, but it also aimed to unify urban and environmental planning for the first time. Four years ago, the 58,000-acre Valsequillo region was set to become a new mega-development, a companion city to Puebla, Mexico's fourth largest urban area. Development proposals would have reduced the value of the area's ecological resources and displaced indigenous communities, small farmers, and communal landholders.
The initiative's goals were to improve the quality of urban areas growing around the reservoir, increase employment opportunities, remediate decades of environmental degradation while avoiding conventional approach of increasing residential and industrial areas through infrastructure expansion and rapid urban development. The planning process halted unplanned and rapid urban development; helped protect Valsequillo's communities and environmental assets; and demonstrated a model of inter-agency collaboration; and giving local residents for the first time, a means to express their concerns and impact their own futures. As a result, numerous volunteers, communities, and groups have worked to restore the environment and create educational projects throughout the region.
Alvar Aalto - Barbican Art Gallery
Esposizione al Barbican Art Gallery.
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