Where nature and technology intertwine in urban connections and responsive landscapes of exchange

PLACE ABOUT CONNECTIONS is a streetscape speculative design project. The idea is based on reconsidering the street identity as both a public space and an observatory of urban change. The street finds its vitality in the culture and the way of living. More precisely, the idea is to use the Chinese traditional perception of life and to reintroduce it to nowadays urban transformation, characterized by dynamic phenomena known in China as the 'culture of now'. This new urbanism necessitates reconsidering the interplay between the old and the new. The idea of this project is to use the Chinese reverence for nature and the belief that assumption is the key to living a harmonious life. The urban design combines natural materials such as stone, wood, water, and wind with new technologies. The new streetscape is intended to support various activities in this new urban environment. The digital system helps, for example, to create the potential environmental behavior of the spaces as real-time feedback loops running from indices of air quality, sound pollution, and wind power. This streetscape design proposition aims to create a responsive environment and a place where people can adapt: a place for meetings, connections, interactions, and exchanges. The project was shortlisted in the International Streetscape Urban Design Competition 'Streetscape in a New World'08 in Beijing, China.

place about

connections