Diplomatic: Letter from the Architectural Enclave

Jie Zhang

jan. 2015 · Jie Zhang (M.Arch), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture & Planning

E-bok

152

Sider

Vurderinger og anmeldelser blir ikke kontrollert Finn ut mer

Om denne e-boken

Seeing Architecture as a political art, this book concerns itself with boundaries: those of regimes, of culture, of law, and of social strata. In a silent crisis where sustained inscription of physical and social boundaries evacuates urban space into archipelagos of enclaves, Architecture with only ambiguous claims of public space is rendered both an accomplice and a victim, impotent against forces of capital and concerns of security.

Exposing the absurdities in urban geopolitics and persistent spatial logics of exclusivity is as important as proposing to hack into them. Critical of the innocence of so-called public space and the underlying architectural impasse, the book offers an investigative commentary on the state of urban enclaves, while speculating on alternative strategies by designing an embassy, a bounded pseudo-extraterritory and the epitome of an enclave.

Through absurd couplings and blatant image-making, a seemingly open US embassy is proposed for Beijing as an imploded fragment of a boundary, its incompleteness buttressed by other territories of privilege and its disparate barriers articulated as a mechanism of filtration. Away from popular strategies of conceptual and spatial blurring, the book defines an architectural porosity to orchestrate spaces of varying openness, as a nuanced response to both the embassy’s double identities and schizophrenic agendas of city-building.

With an architecture that is diplomatic by function and diplomatic by disposition, one experiments with an agency beyond the single pursuit of public-ness and an escape from the ideological enclave of positivism. Ultimately, the goal is to suggest and develop a methodology of designing with oppositions, irony and latency.

Om forfatteren

Jie Zhang is a designer, researcher, writer and critic invested in deciphering contemporary spatial phenomena and provoking critical positions as a method towards both resistance and progress. She has taught at MIT and served as a design critic at various institutions in the US. She holds a Master of Architecture degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University. For further inquiries, please contact [email protected].

Vurder denne e-boken

Fortell oss hva du mener.

Hvordan lese innhold

Smarttelefoner og nettbrett

Installer Google Play Bøker-appen for Android og iPad/iPhone. Den synkroniseres automatisk med kontoen din og lar deg lese både med og uten nett – uansett hvor du er.

Datamaskiner

Du kan lytte til lydbøker du har kjøpt på Google Play, i nettleseren på datamaskinen din.

Lesebrett og andre enheter

For å lese på lesebrett som Kobo eReader må du laste ned en fil og overføre den til enheten din. Følg den detaljerte veiledningen i brukerstøtten for å overføre filene til støttede lesebrett.

Rapporter ulovlig innhold