Urbanus Project Archives 都市實踐項目檔案

This fonds is a digital collection consisting of 5 architectural projects carried out by URBANUS in the Guangdong Province, China: Xinzhou Central Plaza, Gangxia Village, Fuxin Village, Dafen Art Museum (2005–2007), and Tulou Collective Housing (2005–2008). These projects total up to 165 items (100 digital drawings migrated to image formats, 59 digital photographs of the sites or architectural models, 5 digital documents as the project briefs, and 1 poster).

URBANUS is a Shenzhen and Beijing-based architecture firm founded in 1999. As its name suggests, URBANUS carries a mission to research and tackle the problems derived from rapid urbanization in China. The five projects selected by M+ revolve around an attempt by URBANUS to work out pragmatic yet respectful solutions for one such problem in the 2000s — ‘villages-amidst-the-city’, which signifies literally the phenomenon that rural villages were encircled by city-buildings when the region urbanised, creating impoverished and isolated spots in the cities. These spots inevitably became lowly-maintained and densely populated by immigrants and the poor.

Regardless of the aesthetic and political burden the ‘villages-amidst-the-city’ have imposed, URBANUS advocate for the appreciation of these villages as the most pragmatic way out for dealing with low-cost housing demand, and for the acceptance that radical eradication of these villages will only result in depriving the poor of their way of life. By extensive urban villages studies, URBANUS strived to re-activate these villages by restructuring and instilling public space and utilities into existing villages.

The Xinzhou Central Plaza, Gangxia Village, and Fuxin Village projects were speculative research conducted between 2004–2006. By the use of collages and models, URBANUS imagined re-vitalising the villages by building a mixed residential and commercial complex in Xinzhou, turning rooftops in Gangxia into commercial and recreational walkway, and connecting building blocks in Fuxin like subway lines and nodes – formulating five unique business and entertainment pathways. Subsequently in 2005–2008, URBANUS completed two landmark projects that were both realized, Dafen Art Museum and Tulou Collective Housing. Both of these projects paid tribute to the cultural context of the original inhabitants in the areas. Dafen has long been well known for its oil painting replica workshops and manufacturers; Tulou is the most traditional type of low-income housing that protects the integrity of social network. URBANUS is a social-oriented firm with inventive instinct in a culturally respectful manner. The projects that M+ acquired exemplify such architectural approach to the social problem.

The materials in the archive are donated to M+ in 2015. Since original files are born-digital in nature, they are copies provided by URBANUS and given to M+ through shipment of hard drives and transfer via cloud storage.

As for related materials in M+ Collection, 5 models built by URBANUS as part of these projects can be found: 2013.107, 2013.108, 2013.109, 201.110, 2013.111; there is also a video for urban villages study: 2013.233. As for other URBANUS works collected by M+ not pertaining to these projects: 2013.62, 2013.92, 2013.94, 2013.95, 2013.96.

Arranged chronologically by project, and by format, logical sequence or original order as devised by creator within each project.