Open City - PechaKucha Zürich

The Architecture of Social Investment

A Tiny Apartment Transforms into 24 Rooms

City of Darkness

 "1966 saw the Cultural Revolution in China and the Communist flag was briefly raised in the city. Official attempts to remove it were met with more rioting. British policy came to regard the Walled City as something of a hornets nest — best not to be kicked unless absolutely necessary. In the meantime, the Kowloon Walled City continued to develop and regenerate within itself. Buildings twelve stories high sprouted up without any adherence to planning law. Businesses blossomed — without the slightest concessions to legislation or taxation. Every nook and cranny within its tiny acreage was expanded out, and crammed into, until its intricate labyrinth of thoroughfares and pathways received not a ray of sunlight, even at high noon. The health authorities kept away. So the City just developed its own legion of ad-hock clinics and dental surgeons. In the absence of telephone and utilities companies, the City’s inhabitants just by-wired their own electricity and connections. The same nick-it-yourself approach applied to plumbing and water. As a result, a tangled network of pipes and wiring dripped and hissed above the city’s dark, dank walkways. Cheap amenities for the residents, and, considering the extremely limited access, either in or out of the compound — a potentially catastrophic fire-hazard.

For years, the Kowloon Walled City became a no go area. In the control of Triads and drug dealers, with an estimated population in excess of 30,000. Many residents were illegal immigrants; exempt from extradition, encased within its walls. A lone European venturing into its midst would most probably never be seen again, no Chinese went in without appropriate reason. Only after Margaret Thatcher had signed away Hong Kong’s sovereignty did its future landlords, the communist Chinese, have the ability to finally evacuate the Walled City’s stubborn population between 1988-92 and then destroy its derelict, decrepit, rat infested shell. It was only in these final years of gradual abandonment that a few journalists, photographers and investigators were able to wander unchallenged, around the Walled City’s uncharted labyrinths and give embellished accounts. Two of them were photographers: Greg Girard and Ian Lambot, who spent four years exploring the City. The vast collection of photographs they amassed during this time can be seen in their book City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City."

 

FAVELA RAISES! The new economic power.

MARKET

„The market produces non-specific, clone buildings, that are empty of any substance and disconnected from the place. I believe this is a terrible menace to its structure.“ Peter Smithson

The “Favela Rio das Pedras” is located in one of the most predominant areas of development of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the upper East area of Barra da Tijuca, a upper/middle class residential area, this 40.000 inhabitants community has a very lively economic life, resulting of their inner informal commercial growth, as well the need for manpower that the formal city requires, resulting as a fact in the enhance of the quality life of this so called “favelados”.

A huge challenge is presenting itself to this community that true the years have fought to keep their identity and social and economic independence. The major events that had put Brazil in the World agenda – the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games – will intensify the real estate speculation in this area, resulting in a strong pressure to overtake the “Favela Rio das Pedras” and transform it in some private “condominio”. How can these communities survive? Well, we believe that’s only possible trough economic power. Only enhancing the informality of the small scale business operating inside favelas, together with strategies to create labels and tourism attraction the favelas can gain their independence and became part of the formal city and not just dependent of it.

 

Micro Business Brazil

Im Birch School

"Peter Märkli demonstra que “grande” não significa necessariamente “anónimo” mas pode também significar “denso”. Com um comprimento de 250 metros, esta escola em Zurique é completamente gigantesca. Mesmo assim, cabe na escala da zona industrial existente e podemos contemplar o seu conjunto num todo. Dois volumes de 4 pisos, desalinhados ligeiramente, enfrentam-se. O terceiro volume é dedicado ao gináso, um dos mais grandes na cidade. Apesar do rectidão das linhas e da severidade, nunca há um sentimento de monumentalidade. Isto deve-se á escala dos volumes do edifício, porque Märkli é um mestre da proporção; a textura vertical do betão articula-se com todas as façhadas, e a tira mais alta dos edificios, dando forma à borda do telhado, recua ligeiramente. Isto impede que os cantos do edifício apareçam fora de conjunto. Märkli aplica este conhecimento completamente naturalmente, mesmo que não seja familiar nos dias de hoje. As mudanças de imagem espacial e material que distinguem o seu trabalho continuam no entanto a ser identificadas como uma incapacidade no domínio da linguagem arquitectónica."

in MIMOA

Projecto: Im Birch School
Autor(es): Peter Märkli

Ano conclusão: 2004
Localização: Margrit Rainer Strasse 5 Oerlikon, Zürich, Switzerland