Abstract
Upheaval
The passage begins by drawing connections between the advancement of China’s Special Economic Zones [1] (SEZ) and the implementation of SEZ in Kashgar [2] in 2010 using a pre-existing model succeeded in Shenzhen [3]. The observation of the change in urban conditions through rapid development is heightened with the outbreak of the upheaval in Kashgar four years into its transformation from the historic silk-road trading hub to the newly destined economic frontier of China. The sudden disturbance brings the previously unspoken dilemma of SEZ under the spotlight: an interesting phenomenon of violent disruption brought by the frictions between the old and new.
An upheaval [4] , where unsolicited violence has bloomed is a child to the social, political, and economic condition. It is neither a leader nor a follower. Upheaval expresses a different scenario that coexists within the larger cultural context; it re-examines the context it is situated in and generates new conditions. Upheaval demonstrates a collective behavior that is attempting to grab onto an alternative way towards the future. Considering the leading culture of architecture today, instead of preserving the loss, embracing the cycle of degeneration and regeneration as continuous events can result in an alternative strategy for architectural conservation. In the process of introducing such a concept, can architecture take the form of an upheaval, a radical break that resonates enough to generate shared emotions?
Wolf D. Prix’s of the Austrian studio Coop Himmelb(l)au was once fascinated by a leaping whale which exemplified an amazement brought on by disruption: “I was in a boat and the water is very calm but I could feel that there was something moving under the surface. All of a sudden the animal emerged and jumped 15 meters high. You have to imagine it: a 30-tonne, floating, flying object”. [5] The figure of heaviness transitions from one medium to another. As from water to air through its power to defeat the confinement of gravity, the leaping whale disrupts the tranquility of both water and air as it flies.
Can architecture become an upheaval disrupting the clearly defined social values in this example of the leaping whale? In the search for a speculative architecture to break free from linear evolution, a thoughtful investigation in regards to social, political and economic factors must be conducted. These factors participate within the rhizome [6], re-appropriating not only on a map, but through a network that suggests an alternative set of parameters influencing architecture and urbanism. This rhizome does not offer a solution to existing architectural difficulties, rather it aims to generate a radical uplift of possibilities: an upheaval, in this senses an architectural performance. The architectural upheaval resembles the great leap of a thirty-ton whale in the ocean: in struggle, it jumps for survival.
Notes:
1. SEZ: Special Economic Zone
Chinese (Pinyin) jingji tequ or (Wade-Giles romanization) ching-chi t’e-chü, any of several localities in which foreign and domestic trade and investment are conducted without the authorization of the Chinese central government in Beijing. Special economic zones are intended to function as zones of rapid economic growth by using tax and business incentives to attract foreign investment and technology.
“Special economic zone (SEZ)”, accessed October 27, 2014, last modified April 20, 2009,http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/558530/special-economic-zone-SEZ
2. Kashgar
In 2011, the city of Kashgar is appointed a SEZ using Shenzhen as its development model hence started the on-going friction between the newly introduced Han culture and the local Uyghur culture.
3. Shenzhen
A city bordering Hong Kong ,designated in 1979 under the Deng Xiao Ping regime as one of China’s first SEZs. Under privileged policies and convenient access to Hong Kong, a free port, Shenzhen has become the fastest growing city in China.
4. Upheaval
Noun, Definition:
1: the action or an instance of upheaving especially of part of the earth’s crust
2: extreme agitation or disorder : radical change
“Upheaval” accessed October,27,2014, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/upheaval.
5. Wolf D. Prix , On the edge, in: Andreas C. Papadakis(ed.), Architectural Design Profile №87, Deconstruction III, London 1990, p. 60
6. The term rhizome was originally mentioned in Deleuze and Guattari’s co-authored book A Thousand Plateaus describing the constant deterritorialization and reappropriation in a non-linear expression
