“A large building programme is no longer conceived as a single building under a single roof and with an entry alone. Such a programmme may be conceived like a town with buildings articulated according to their function type and importance.” Leon Krier discussed about true pluralism of architecture in The Architecture of Community, which is still instructive in today’s architecture design. Making a building like a microcosmic city suggests diversity of spaces and belonging to places. A microcity for young generation serves as a translation of urban surroundings and collective memory, inferring the relationship between people, nature and settlement.
The project aims to explore the possibilities to achieve true pluralism in fast-growing Chinese cities with mono-functional zoning and mega-structures. The site is a bus terminal in Chaoyang District in Beijing, around which are typical modern Chinese housing neighborhoods. As urban housing becomes unaffordable particularly for young adults, building above existing field is deemed as a way to offer young people home and workplaces and to contribute to linking surrounding isolated neighborhoods.
THU Spring 2015 Architecture Studio | Micro-city for Young Adults Instructor | WANG Hui (Urbanus), Kangshuo Tang(MAT Office), Miao Zhang(MAT Office)
