August 6 – September 29, The A-Z Lab: Beginning aNew
Beginning aNew
The Chinese title of the exhibition has a bi-fold meaning: It means “Beginning anew,” as the Englishtitle suggested, but it can also mean “Beginning from the body”
The Chinese words “Xin” and “Shen” mean New and Body respectively.
In Cantonese, these words have the exact pronunciation.
Under this Chinese title,“Beginning anew” could be interpreted as “Beginning from the Body.” In the context of our initial understandingon Zhangwu, Anji, it was also our point of departure, we simply asked: Where is everybody, and more importantly,where are the able-bodies, in thetown of Zhangwu?
Zhangwu, Anji, a town that is designated as” China Most Beautiful Villages”by the UN-HABITAT in 2012. A town rich in cultural, natural and (potential) economic resources…
The somewhat instinctive and almost naïve questions on the “bodies” pronged us tolook further into a hidden phenomenon, something perhaps more profound?
We want to conduct research on the impacts and implications of China’s massiverate of urbanization and the plausibility on its mirror image: What could/wouldbe the reversal of this overwhelming phenomenon?
In the past decades, we have witnessed an incredible amount of energy, attentions, and resources beingpoured into issues relating to the cities’ formation, especially in the developing world. What rarely gets discussed about is the development of its opposite, the “left over” from this exodus; when massive population, particularly young people are flooded to the cities, what will happen to the aging “ghost-villages?” What lies the future of them?
Ever since Koolhaas delivered his lecture on the countryside in 2012 and subsequently published his insight in ICON magazine, there have been increasing attempts to investigate andproblematize what architects/architecture can do to this new frontier that wasonce neglected.
“The countryside is now thefrontline of transformation. A world formerly dictated by the seasons and theorganization of agriculture is now a toxic mix of genetic experiment, science,industrial nostalgia, seasonal immigration, territorial buying sprees, massivesubsidies, incidental inhabitation, tax incentives, investment, politicalturmoil, in other words more volatile than the most accelerated city” (Rem Koolhaas, 2014)
In Mainland China, both the ChinesePremier and the Party Chief Secretary spent significant coverage at their partyspeeches to address the nation on the importance of maintaining stability ofthe countryside, on the farmers’ lively hood, and most importantly, on thecoherent and “balanced” development between the city and the countryside:
“城乡区域协调发展，形成对经济发展稳定而持久的内需支撑…加快发展现代农业，促进农民持续增收。继续毫不放松抓好”三农”工作，完善强农惠农富农政策，深化农村改革，拓展农民就业增收渠道，着力提高农业质量、效益和竞争力。”
国务院总理李克强 (第十二届全国人民代表大会第四次会议上政府工作报告) 2016年3月5日
“要继续推进新农村建设，使之与新型城镇化协调发展、互惠一体，形成双轮驱动。要坚持以改革为动力，不断破解城乡二元结构。要完善规划体制，通盘考虑城乡发展规划编制，一体设计，多规合一”
中共中央总书记习近平 (中共中央政治局第二十二次集体学习时强调健全城乡发展一体化体制机制让广大农民共享改革发展成果)
Modern China started its roots with an agricultural revolution through peasants’ supports. It is of paramount importance to address the countryside issuesin order to maintain prosperity and stability.
During the Spring of 2015, a master of Architecture design studio fromthe Department of Architecture on Songyang, Zhejiang was conducted toinvestigate issues relating to the countryside and its future possibilities ofdevelopment. This studio, conducted inthe Spring of 2017, continued the efforts on documentation, analysis andscrutiny on townships that are undergoing similar transformations, but withanother set of distinctive historical, cultural, social and economical, parameters.In the span of 12 weeks, four research directions that roughly dealt withInfrastructure, Landscape, Technology and Typologies, were being developed.
The Department of Architecture at the University ofHong Kong continues its interests and efforts to postulate urban and ruralphenomena that are uniquely facing Mainland China. Through establishing research labs and makingthe Shanghai Study Centre as its “home-base,” we would like to create aplatform that continues to ask whatever that next question might surface on thehorizon.
In this exhibition you will encounter the firstfruits from these collective research efforts, they are, by no means, served asfinal conclusions nor they represented any concrete design proposals. The winederives from the first patch of grapes harvested from this “rich terroir” isdestined to be immature, sour and may even deem undrinkable. But neverthelessit serves as an unwavering indicator for what lies ahead…
Anderson Lee, AIA HKIA RIBA
AcademicDirector, Shanghai Study Centre
AssociateProfessor (Practice)
Faculty ofArchitecture, the University of Hong Kong
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從新（身）出發
这个展览的中文名称具有双重含义——如英文标题所示，它意味着“从新开始”，但也可以是“从身体开始”。在中文里“Xin”和“Shen”分别代表“更新”和“身体”；但在粤语中，这两个词的发音是完全一样的。如此一来，这便是双关的意思：从新（身）出发。
鄣吴坐落于浙江省安吉县，这个文化、自然和（潜在）经济资源丰富的小镇，2012年由联合国人居署称作“中国最美丽的村庄”。最初接触安吉鄣吴时，我们不禁发问：鄣吴的人（身体），亦或更紧要的是，鄣吴的劳动人口都去了哪里？
这个本能反应上甚至有些天真的问题，催使我们进一步深入探寻这个表面现象背后或许更隱藏着更为值得探讨的课题。我们试图研究中国大规模城市化的冲击和影响以及它反向逻辑的可能性，换言之，这个看似势不可挡的时代洪流还有没有被逆转的可能？
在过去的几十年中，我们见证了城市形成、崛起，特别是发展中国家为此倾注了巨大的精力、注意力和资源。我们很少有机会讨论它的另一面——当大批农村的年轻人洪水一般涌入城市，他们身后留下了一大批老龄化“鬼村”. 这些农村未来的发展要怎様才能跟上和配合？
2012年库哈斯发把他关于乡村的演讲，其观点发表在ICON杂志上。此后，越来越多的调查研究集中在了这个曾经被忽视的领域，建筑师/建筑调研能为此作出什么的贡献？
“农村现在是转型的前沿。从前，季节和农业组织所支撑的世界现在成了一系列毒素组合：杂交和转基因的实验场、科学，工业怀旧，季节性移民，土地买卖狂潮，大量政府补贴，偶然居住，税收激励，投资，政治动荡。这些比最快速变动的城市更不稳定。” 雷姆·库哈斯， 2014
在中国内地，总理和党委书记在党的演讲中强调了国家对维护农村稳定、农民生活的高度重视，最重要的是城乡区域协调发展：
“城乡区域协调发展，形成对经济发展稳定而持久的内需支撑…加快发展现代农业，促进农民持续增收。继续毫不放松抓好“三农“工作，完善强农惠农富农政策，深化农村改革，拓展农民就业增收渠道，着力提高农业质量、效益和竞争力。” 国务院总理李克强 (第十二届全国人民代表大会第四次会议上政府工作报告), 2016年3月5日
“要继续推进新农村建设，使之与新型城镇化协调发展、互惠一体，形成双轮驱动。要坚持以改革为动力，不断破解城乡二元结构。要完善规划体制，通盘考虑城乡发展规划编制，一体设计，多规合一” 中共中央总书记习近平 (中共中央政治局第二十二次集体学习时强调健全城乡发展一体化体制机制让广大农民共享改革发展成果)
新中国是通过农民的支持和农业革命创造出来的。解决农村问题对保持繁荣稳定至关重要。
2015年春季，香港大学建筑系研究生项目将课程设计的基地放在了浙江松阳，探寻和调查中国乡村未来发展的可能性。2017年春，我们继续关注处在转型中的中国乡村发展现状，这次选址鄣吴, 对另外一系列具有当地特色的历史，文化，社会和经济参数进行记录、分析和调查研究。在12周的时间里，研究方向大致集中在基础设施，景观，技术和类型学这四个方面。
香港大学建筑系致力于持续研究中国内地独特的城乡发展现象。通过建立各种以建筑及城市规划作为研究课题的实验室，香港大学上海学习中心将为未来不断湧现的问题创造一个讨论及研究的平台。
此次展览展出了最新的研究成果，但它们绝不是最终的结论，也不是什么具体的设计方案。我将这些初步成果比作葡萄酒，从如此肥沃的土壤中收获的葡萄所酿的第一批酒一定是不成熟的，酸涩甚至可能难以入口，但它对酿酒师和品酒师而言起着指导性的作用。
李亮聪，
香港大学上海学习中心学朮总监
及建筑系副教授（实践）
展讯 General Information
Exhibitors 参展人
李亮聪Anderson Lee (Supervisor)
周志宏 Chau, Chi Wang
庄浩菁 Chong, Ho Ching Jessica
郭湘儿 Kok, Sheung Yi
李耕 Li Geng
吴卓妍 Ng, Cheuk Yin Priscilla
梅靜文 Mui, Ching Man Mandy
苏熙惠 SO, Hay Wei Eunice
曲濤 QU, Tao
严明 Yan Ming
Curator 策展人
苏杭Kelsi Su
Thanks to鸣谢
Zhangwu TownGovernment, Anji County, Zhejiang
浙江省安吉县鄣吴镇政府
Faculty ofArchitecture, The University of Hong Kong
香港大学建筑学院
Platform Group
璞峰集团
Date 展期
August 6 –September 29, 2017
2017.8.6 – 9.29
Opening Hours 开放时间
9:00AM – 6:00PM(Last entry at 7:30PM)
Opens on allnational holidays.
9:00 – 18:00 (17:30最后入场)，所有国定节假日均开放。
Venue 地点
HKU/Shanghai Study Centre
298 Bei Suzhou Lu (close to Sichuan Bei Lu)
Hongkou District, Shanghai
Metro Line 10or 12, Tiantong Lu
香港大学上海学习中心
上海市虹口区北苏州路298号（近四川北路）
地铁10 或12号线天潼路站3号口