What is uncovered by the spatial competition between agrarian land use and urbanization in terms of cultural, social, economic, and political mechanisms?
Chinese urban and rural worlds interact in a very specific manner. Massive urbanization has increasingly absorbed rural areas generating hybrid, complex situations. Concepts like ‘Urban Villages’ have addressed and attempted to explicate these complex mechanisms and the generated frictions in cities, but agglomerations in the rural fringes have often remained out of the research scope. The fluidity between urban and rural remains an open question that belongs to the DNA of Chinese new cities where state-led urbanization devours rural lands. Can an urban design strategy tackles this matter and how? How can design be deployed in a way to bring such contentious topics to the discussion, if only for constructive criticism? What is the role of architects and designers in these processes?

In the frame of the research projects ‘Other Urbanizations’ and ‘Too Fast Too Furious: Urban Research in Asia,’ Charlotte Malterre-Barthes tought a workshop exploring ‘Spatial Frictions’ at Nanjing University from 16-25.06.18 (Image: Miguel Gentil)