Sustainable Cities

CITY BUILDING PHILOSOPHY

Agence France-Presse, Getty Images, 2012

The 2012 Pritzker Prize winner Wang Shu, wonders why China wants to be something it’s not and copy Manhattan: “I love Manhattan. It’s a very interesting place. But if you want to copy something that was accomplished in 200 years, it’s very difficult. New York was not designed by architects, it was designed by time." He was selected for how his work shows strength, pragmatism and emotions all in one, best exemplified in his work at the History Museum of Ningbo, in a port city near Shanghai.

NYTimes article about the 2012 Pritzker selection.

.....................................................

"Cities are full of stories in time, some sedimented and catalogued; others spoorlike, vestigal, and dispersed. Their narratives are epic and everyday; they tell of migration and production, law and laughter, revolution and art. Yet, although obvious, their registry is never holly legible because each foray into the palimpsest of city surfaces reveals only traces of these relations...City narratives, as a result, both evident and enigmatic. Knowing them is always experimental."  - James Holston


..................................................................................................................................

ACCESS AS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT