Introduction
to an architectural upheaval
Constantly switching my mind between a rather conservative Canadian context and the aggressive boom of Chinese mega-cities, I began to contemplate what the act of constructing architecture has to offer to a city in its progression into a “metropolis”. To the Chinese mega-cities, it is a race, a competition to transform the image of a once “developing country” into one of the most impressive performances under the spotlight of the global economy. The transformation of Chinese megacities bears the pain and the struggle of endless debate. From this progression, the seemingly ruthless competition of “producing architecture” in Chinese megacities has projected a certain power, brilliance and an unlimited possibility carried out under confinement and constraint.
The thought of transplanting nuances from different social issues into architectural scenarios was sharpened after visiting a newly developed Special Economic Zone (SEZ), in Xinjiang, China. Bordering Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, the city of Kashgar is deemed an ideal gateway to Central Asia. Kashgar was listed as an SEZ in 2010, hence starting the massive construction of a “new metropolis”. Unlike the Shenzhen SEZ , which has seen enormous success since its inception in 1979, Kashgar appears extremely vulnerable. Through a series of radical events, the coexistence of governmental power and vernacular habitat in the new Kashgar SEZ unfolds interesting phenomena that further exemplify intricate connections between the urban and its “other spaces” A heterotopia, as described by Michel Foucault as a space of coexistence. [7]
My first visit to the city of Kashgar was in 2012. Underneath the hyper-modernized skyline, donkeys and cars shared lanes, portable shops occupied sidewalks selling dry produce, spices, and lamb, and hanging balconies became vegetable gardens. It appeared that life continued undisrupted by the massive construction. In harmony with the new constructions, the old vernacular dwellings stand quietly with the Mu-shih-t’a-ko Mountain Range, the landmark of the Kashgar Region, afar as its backdrop. However, this harmony would not last long.
On July 30th, the city suddenly became a site of fear, anger, and confusion within a few hours of a violent outbreak in a peripheral township of Kashgar Region, followed by the assassination of the chief Imam. [8] The effects continued to reverberate within the community and disrupted the “society in harmony” which the government has been trying to construct. These actions, along with the upheaval suddenly turned the “special economic miracle” into a site of perfectly choreographed murder. An editorial on Tianshan, the Xinjiang government-run website, read: “The terrorists chose the day before Eid al-Fitr [9] to carry out this attack, showing that they wanted to create an atmosphere of fear among the Muslim public and rampantly incite troubles. They deliberately tried to link the terror attack to religion, hoping to create a greater trouble.” [10] Unlike usual gatherings for prayer at the Id Kah Mosque [11] during Eid al-Fitr, after the incident thousands of Uyghur’s gathered at the Mosque, mourning and questioning whether the mainland’s implementation of a SEZ would actually improve their living conditions. The tension between the gathering crowds and the soldiers intensified drastically, but the Id Kah Mosque stood there unmoved. However, now while it was once the site of celebrations, it will be forever linked to the fear and confusion heightened by the assassination. For the Uyghurs, the mosque will always be their shelter, but for the tourists, the once respectful sight-seeing destination has become a place that speaks of tension, murder, and violence.
Architecture never changes. What changes is the events that it witnesses and participates. By observing the upheavals and how such unsolicited events became effective in gaining social awareness and public interest rapidly and powerfully we might ask, why architecture remains a spectator in silence? Regardless what the public desires, architecture itself will always participate and be part of the world we conceive. As Architect Bernard Tschumi stated in his Advertisement for Architecture, “Architecture, from this perspective, is defined less by the materiality of its built form, and more by its interaction — in this case as ‘witness’ of and collaborator in a murder — with the event world that unfolds in and around it.” 12 His series of postcard-sized juxtapositions of words and images suggested that the repetitive reproduction of “advertisements of the products of architecture” vastly contrasts from any singular architecture that is communicating beyond the imagery on paper. Through Advertisement for Architecture, architecture as means of production is reproduced via publicity. Analogically “witness of a murder”, when advertisements and other devices are associated with architecture, the inherent plurality of architecture is immediately revealed.
If architecture witnesses struggles, does it amplify the agony of that struggle and make it common?
If architecture is like an advertisement seen by the world, does it use publicity to promote values? In what way can the aesthetics of political movements influence an architectural opinion emerging from the non-hierarchical formation of an upheaval? Suddenly the line of evolution of one discipline detaches and appropriates in complete disregard to the preconceived boundaries of other disciplines. The rhizomatic nature exemplified through globalization does not imply more rules and limits on how one should approach architecture, but a new set of parameters to evaluate architecture’s situation in this rhizome of an unimaginable number of systems.
Architecture, in opposition to being a spectator of events and a mediator of publicity, now needs to participate proactively not passively. Tracing back to the upheavals in Kashgar, collapsing the dream of a “special economic miracle” with such speed and impact, why can we not let architecture become an upheaval? In other words, the collapse of an idealized imagery could reveal the early opportunities for a radical change. It is not the upheaval that causes destruction: in fact it is the act of non-action that destroys the present with a harmless and silent aesthetic. Wolf Prix of Coop Himmelb(L)au stresses the expressiveness of the architectural forms in his early works, suggesting not only a balance of form and function but a coexistence of physical plasticity, the language of communication, and the multiplicity of functions.
Architecture by his definition is neither a spectator nor an observer. It should be a performer in action engaging the observers in an almost disruptive way. His narrative for his 1984 installation “Blazing Wing” is self-destructing. However, through the struggle of the steel structure coexisting with the flame and heat, the radiation of heat impacts on its surrounding environment as its own struggle continues.
If cold, then cold as a block of ice.
If hot, then hot as a blazing wing.
Architecture must blaze. [13]
1980 Wolf D. Prix COOP HIMMELB(L)AU
Prix uses “as” and “must” to urge the role of architecture, but let us reinterpret his manifestation in context to the shifted paradigm of the new millennium:
Let architecture be a cold block of ice.
Let architecture be a hot blazing wing.
Architecture is blazing.
7. Other Spaces Michel Foucault discussed the term “heterotopia” in his 1984 journal “Des Epaces Autres”, translated to English as Other Spaces. Briefly described with six principles, the Other Spaces elaborates the multiplicity and its denial of singularity. A space is always a collective space of zones, enclaves, separations, and interconnections.
Foucault, Michel,“Des Espace Autres,” March 1967, Architecture /Movement/ Continuité October, 1984, Translated from the French by Jay Miskowiec, accessed February 27 2015, http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/foucault1.pdf
8. “Chief imam at Kashgar mosque stabbed to death as violence surges in Xinjiang” , The Guardian, accessed October 27 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/31/china-jume-tahir-imam-kashgar-xinjiang-mosque-stabbed-death-violence
9. Eid al-Fitr A Muslim celebration at the end of fasting
10. The Guardian referenced an Editorial on Tianshan, the government run website of Xinjiang
“Chinese authorities tighten security in Xinjiang region after surge in violence” The Guardian, date published July 30, 2014 accessed October 27 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/30/chinese-tighten-security-xinjiang-violence-uighur-muslim-minority
11. Id Kah Mosque the largest mosque in China, also a known tourism destination in Kashgar
12. Cairns,Stephen, Jacobs,M. Jane. Buildings Must Die: A Perverse View of Architecture. pg43 .MIT Press. May 2014.
13. “Architecture Must Blaze”, Coop Himmelb(l)au., http://www.coop-himmelblau.at/architecture/philosophy/architecture-must-blaze
