Jul 7 2006
Encountering a Far-Eastern culture; working at breath-taking pace and at incredible scales; contributing both economically and culturally, and accepting and mastering the challenges posed by modern China, are all part of planning and building in China for von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects (gmp). In the last six years, the German practice gmp has produced over 200 design projects, a selection of which are on display in an exhibition entitled Ideal City – Real Projects in Gallery 1 at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) from 14 July – 22 September 2006. The exhibition is part of the RIBA Trust’s summer programme.
The current transformation of Chinese society including the immense pressures of rural migration on the big cities, and the increasing industrialisation of rural areas make it necessary to plan entire cities for the future. The focus of the Ideal City –
Real Projects exhibition is gmp’s Lingang New City, an entirely new port city for 800,000 inhabitants near Shanghai. The central point of this ‘ideal city’ is a circular lake, around which the different urban quarters are arranged in concentric rings, like waves rippling outwards from a stone dropped into the water.
Design, films and models show the range of building types that gmp is working on in China: a theatre; opera house; school; museum; city archives; church; office towers; trade-fair and congress centres are presented in the exhibition, a selection of which are displayed on textile banners which emulate Chinese scrolls. The exhibits focus on the concept design and models of these projects and two short films give an insight into the complexity of their urban design projects.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Professor Meinhard von Gerkan will speak about the challenges of working in this environment in a lecture entitled A Heavenly Hell for Architects at the RIBA on Wednesday 20 September 2006 at 6.30pm.