March 9th, 2009 § Jack
To understand recent transformations in Shanghai it is critical to understand the short history of the city. Here is a brief summary:
History of Shanghai
Prior to the 1842 Treaty of Nanking ending the first Opium War, Shanghai was a rural fishing village along the Huangpu River. As part of the treaty concessions, Shanghai along with the four other coastal cities of Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Guangzhou were selected by the British to become treaty ports. The British and Americans were quick to develop the fishing village of Shanghai into the “Paris of the East”. Exempt from all local laws the foreigners were able to create a city in a western style. By the 1900’s the international image of Shanghai’s financial success became The Bund – the waterfront boulevard along the west bank of the Huangpu River. The hotels, banks and trade houses along the Bund were designed by foreign architects and in the neoclassical style popular at the time in Europe and the United States. To the Chinese populace The Bund also became a symbol of foreign dominance.
The Bund 2009
The Chinese began developing various plans to reclaim the symbolic heart of Shanghai as far back as Sun Yat-sen’s initial plan of 1919. Many plans have involved the undeveloped east bank of the Huangpu River, known as Pudong (Pu referring to the Huangpu river and Dong meaning east in Chinese), but these plans for Pudong were considered too ambitious and the focus remained on Puxi, the area of the existent city. Attempts to create new civic centers Puxi all ended with results less than hoped for and these new developments were unable to unseat The Bund as Shanghai’s symbolic center.
In the mid 1980’s China as a nation began to open itself up to foreign investment with the Open Door Policy. The opening of the nation to foreign investment followed the three decades of isolationist policy under the leadership of Mao Zedong. Eyes turned again to Pudong and in 1990 this area of farmland and villages was named a Special Economic Zone (S.E.Z.) by the Chinese Government. China now had its chance to redefine the global image of Shanghai.
View of Pudong in 1990. The Bund in foreground.
Pudong was divided into several development areas with Lujiazui, the area directly across the river from the Bund, designated as the new financial hub of China. A team of French urban planners hired as consultants suggested three closely placed signature towers surrounded by many secondary high rise buildings would be a winning formula for developing a memorable skyline. Since one of the major ambitions of the Pudong development was to create a new symbolic image of Shanghai, this plan had great promise to city officials.
Pudong viewed from The Bund 2009
Visiting Shanghai I found it hard to perceive the scale of the recent development and growth of the city. Everywhere I traveled there seemed to be buildings under construction, new overhead highways and recently completed bridges across the Huangpu, but I was only seeing portions of what was happening. Even from the top of the World Financial Center the scope of the city’s growth was obscured by overcast skies.
View of Puxi from World Financial Center
Finally when visiting the Shanghai Planning Museum and seeing the city model I understood the scale of the transformation. I was overwhelmed by both a sense of excitement and fear. Excited by the transformations and everything new in the city and a fearful that the city is growing too quickly and perhaps blindly.
Shanghai Planning Museum
Thomas J. Campanella , “The Concrete Dragon” (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2008) was referenced in writing the above entry on the history of Shanghai.
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February 6th, 2009 § Karynn
Sometimes we only learn that we’ve been written up in a newspaper or magazine after a call or an email from a friend of the firm. This morning, we received a tip that 3six0 appears in the most recent issue of Providence Business News. It’s a recap of the Rhode Island AIA awards from December (3six0 won two!), but we still highly value PBN’s coverage because it introduces our work to those outside of the architecture community. Thank you PBN for your coverage and for keeping architecture relevant in the business community.
Graphics from Snap2Object.com
February 6th, 2009 § Jack
I have recently returned from an extended 26 day trip to China. I made two earlier trips to China in 2004. On the previous visits my travel was limited to the three major cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing due to the shorter time period of 10 days each trip. This time I was able to visit some of the more remote cities and locations missed on the previous trips and revisit Beijing and Shanghai to observe the epic changes there in just 4 short years.
The many contradictions and struggles within China today are compelling. A rich culture dating back to ancient times transitioning into the modern era at a speed and scale that has never been witnessed. What happens in China, the third largest country in the world with 20 percent of the world’s population, will undeniably shape the immediate and distant futures of us all.
On this blog I will be posting a travel journal of sorts with photographs, observations, sketches and other miscellaneous information from the trips. Labeled on the map are the cities and villages visited while in China.
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February 4th, 2009 § Olga
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiJhRjBEm6o]
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February 2nd, 2009 § Manuel
Over the last week we all shook our heads in frustration at the excesses of Wall Street and the banks that we, as taxpayers, are supporting. We heard of corporate jets, billions in bonuses and an $87,000 area rug.
This all made me think of the streets of Buenos Aires after the economic collapse of Argentina in 2001. Nearly a year after the protests quieted, these pictures captured the collective frustration of the Argentines as expressed on the canvas of architecture. Old, new, local and foreign: the banks in Buenos Aires had been attacked, vandalized and covered with graffiti. The graffiti accused the banks of robbery and even murder. Architecture essentially became a proxy for failed government intervention and a symbol of fiscal malfeasance, and as such bore the brunt of the populace’s anger and frustration. In response, banks were forced to board up all their doors and windows, only allowing entrance through a door (often steel) that was heavily guarded and equipped with a metal detector. The banks, so often rendered in an architecture of strength, transparency and brilliance were suddenly forced to recede into an architecture of conflict.
Lady snears in front of Bank of Boston in Buenos Aires
Citibank in Buenos Aires
Last week we posted about the authenticity of materials and by extension of architecture. The underlying idea that architecture can embody meaning and breed comfort points to the symbolic power of building. Buildings express our yearnings and our fears – an expression in built form of a collective will. One might say that the architecture of the last decade has been characterized by optimism, flamboyance and even excess. This begs the question of what our response will be to the stark economic and social climate that we face.
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January 30th, 2009 § Karynn
January 28th, 2009 § Chris
From the New York Times, January 28, 2009
And in Florida, not far from the Palm Beach clubs where Mr. Madoff wooed some of his investors, George L. Theodule, a Haitian immigrant and professed “man of God,” promised churchgoers in a Haitian-American community that he could double their money within 90 days.
He accepted only cash, and despite the too-good-to-be-true sales pitch, he found plenty of investors willing to turn over tens of thousands of dollars.
“The offices were beautiful, and I was told it was a limited liability corporation,” said Reggie Roseme, a deliveryman in Wellington, Fla., who lost his entire savings of $35,000 and now faces foreclosure on his home.
This brings to mind the question of authenticity. Ponzi schemes, shams that we can believe in, until the truth comes out, prey on our desires and weaknesses. Our willingness to rely on appearances for signs of authenticity (The offices were beautiful) points to questions about architecture’s role in such deceptions.
It’s been said that ”Art is a lie that tells the truth” . The history of architecture, reflects an ambivalence about “truth”. Architecture operates like language, representing but not necessarily embodying, and architecture is a constructed embodied, materialized phenomenon that is primarily experienced. We read and experience architecture simultaneously. Geometry, space, materials, tectonics order form, form an order which we would hope is revelatory, engaging and celebrating our humanity , rather than deceitful, obscuring and controlling.
The predominance of vision has effected the way we think about materials. As more and more communities employ “stampcrete” and if they can’t afford that, “stamphalt” in public spaces, the erosion of values is painfully obvious. The attitude of “as long as that stuff looks like brick, it’s OK” is exactly what got the ponzi scheme victims into trouble. Actually all the use of fake materials is sort of like a ponzi scheme–you simply put the day of reckoning off until the whole thing fails and at great expense you end up doing what you should have done the first time around. Materials carry memory, and the replacement of materials with facsimiles destroys memory, with it the hard won truths and values of our society. As an example I’ve posted two images of bricks one of painted stamped asphalt and the other of 19th century brick pavers.
The inadvertent marks of the makers, of the hands that handled the wet clay can be seen in the lower image, the memory of the lives that made these bricks. The moss growing between each brick reveals an unanticipated symbiosis of inert and living matter. the bricks, slightly uneven gently accommodate the pushing of tree roots below without cracking or failing. The stamphalt has none of this capacity to hold time and life–no capacity for memory and for that matter, imagination. The fact that it is unsustainable and unrecyclable is no coincidence. Whenever we remove the dimension of time and the capacity to remember from materials, we fall prey to appearances and hidden costs, not only economic and environmental but cultural and societal.
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January 26th, 2009 § Nick
a view of the interactive book @Issuu.com
We’ve recently uploaded our printed portfolio to Issuu.com where it can be viewed as a virtual book, embedded into other sites, or shared with friends on the web. This same book can be purchased in printed form at Blurb.com. We’re currently developing a series of smaller format, soft-cover books that will soon be posted on both sites–please check back soon.
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January 23rd, 2009 § Karynn
According to Trendhunter.com, 3six0 is a trendsetter in restaurant design. The site features a unique set of tables our firm designed for STIX Restaurant and Lounge in Boston: the tables fold up into the walls allowing the space to easily transform from a dining area into a dance floor. This is just one of three restaurants that 3six0 designed around the theme of motion. Achilles, also in Boston, transforms from a boutique into a restaurant, and Circa, located in Memphis, uses wine racks that double as screens and create optical illusions as visitors walk through the space.
January 20th, 2009 § Karynn
A few hours from now, America will swear in its 44th president. Millions will watch him and never know that this day might not have been if instead of taking to the law books, Obama had decided to take drafting classes. A recent tip from Arch Daily, revealed that Obama once wanted to be an architect. You can hear Obama say it himself in this YouTube video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNOp2VaUoQ4]
Some of you might be wishing that he had taken this path, while others are just as thrilled that he did not. Setting aside the politically motivated opinions, my colleagues and I at 3six0 think that being an architect is one of the best professions out there even if it is not as high-profiled as the presidency (you might remember our post on architects being among America’s happiest workers). Even in these challenging times, we still love our profession and take pride in our contribution to the world.
