Verb Crisis
Edited by Mario Ballesteros, et al
Review by Léa-Catherine Szacka
Crisis is the sixth volume of Verb, an annual “boogazine” created informally by the editorial team at Actar publishing in Barcelona. As its strange name suggests, a boogazine is a thematic book/magazine that brings together a variety of articles focused on one generative idea. This volume is dedicated to extreme urban conditions around the globe, from the deserts of Dubai to the ever-expanding slums of Chile. Overall, Crisis provides a number of compelling case studies, showing examples of problems and solutions, with a distinctive academic perspective.
It breaks down into three sections, each packaged on a different paper stock. In “Places,” glossy pages feature texts interspersed with lots of snapshots of cities known for their dramatic urban conditions, including Madrid’s periphery, where vacant scrub land is rapidly being taken over by housing developments; the intense relationship between two countries at the Tijuana/San Diego border; and Detroit, a city in chronic decay.
In “Positions,” interviews with such notable architects as Shigeru Ban and Jacob van Rijs, and Belgian political theorist Chantal Mouffe take centre stage. In Mouffe’s interview, the theorist calls for an “agonistic” model of democracy that embraces conflict as “a struggle between different interpretations of shared principles” for a more critically engaged political system. The last section, “Projects,” is a selection of design solutions for challenging environments, such as the Quinta Monroy settlement in Chile, an innovative social housing project where owners can expand and adapt their units over time as their budgets permit.
Crisis appears at first as highly dense and geared to a knowledgeable readership. While the text does at times feature highly theoretical perspectives, they are mixed with other styles and formats. With such an impressive multiplicity of voices, readers will find plenty of engaging entry points into this hot topic.
Actar Publishing ISBN 978-84-96540-97-2
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The Concrete Dragon: China’s Urban Revolution and What It Means for the World
By Thomas J. Campanella
REVIEW BY ADELE WEDER
Turbocharged by Olympian ambition, China is now generating some of the most fantastical architecture of this decade. Herzog & de Meuron’s Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium and Rem Koolhaas’s CCTV Tower are just two examples. The darker side is that the transformation is steamrolling the country’s urban fabric, and grinding its historical neighbourhoods into dust. While a slew of sideline observers have rushed in to take the pro- or anti-development stance, The Concrete Dragon offers a more complex and wide-ranging argument. This eloquent and densely informative book is steeped in fact and insight, and sheds light, not just on the current architectural overhaul, but also its often-disconcerting underlying conditions.
Author Thomas Campanella, a planning professor at the University of North Carolina, has also logged time at Nanjing University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His front line experience is tracked by his own documentary photos, published throughout the book – wistful shots of citizens wading through the detritus of urban renewal. But instead of delivering a simplistic hardline screed against development, Campanella wades into the mire of China’s political and social complexities. Beginning with a trenchant story of civic resistance, he unpacks the vast, scary reality of the country’s current development frenzy. Then he back-steps into the troubled history that brought the nation to this point: the ancient feudal dynasties, Britain’s imperialist meddling, Mao’s demand for a tabula rasa and the ensuing carnage, and, closer to home, our collective lust for cheap goods. The author revives the memories of such vanquished heroes as Liang Sicheng, the architectural historian who tried to prevent Mao’s wanton urban vandalism. He also offers fascinating details of present-day developments.
Campanella shows how these historical and social factors play into the complexities of modern-day China, and offers a balanced argument, as best he can. We can wring our hands at the country’s disdain for architectural history, its wilful transformation into a car-based society, its absurd theme parks, and its newly dominant landscape of consumption, but we do so at the risk of five-star hypocrisy. The first step is to try to understand how it came to this. Campanella’s book is an excellent primer.
Princeton Architectural Press ISBN 978-1-56898-627-2
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