Abstract
Contemporary museums contribute to the place making of modern cities, and the architecture and public space of museums act not only as culture icons, but also generate interactive environment that transforms adjacent urban fabric into vibrant living communities. Located in Tongzhou District of Beijing, Songzhuang is the largest artist community in China. Avant-garde artists such as Yue Mngjun and Fang Lijun started to relocate in this village at the outskirt of Beijing since 1990s. With over 4000 artists in 2008, it becomes an evolving community not only for artists to create, to show, and to live, but also for individuals and communities to meet, to exchange as a boundless living museum. Ten years later, at the Cultural Industry Hub of Hangzhou, the historical Southern Imperial City, Xiangshang Art Commune was officially unveiled in December 2018. This creative community is adjacent to the new China Academy of Art campus designed by Pritzker laureate Wang Shu. It is intended to serve as a platform for international exchanges of art, art education, and creative industry. Through interviews of the design architects, artists, residents, and design educators, this paper explores a comparative study of these two projects, and investigates the emerging concept of museum as a living community within the context of neo-liberal urbanism in China.
Presenters
Yong HuangAssistant Professor, Architecture, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Museum; Culture; Cross Connections; Living Community; Urbanism; Neoliberalism
