movingcities.org

Thursday June 26. Day 2 of the second phase presentation of ORDOS100. Another 36 architects presenting another 36 villa's. From 9 o'clock onwards the bombardment started, only to end 9 hours later. At the end of these two days, one starts wondering what one has seen, what the messages were that came through. One couldn't help that villa's started blurring into each other, the borders between kitsch and criticality ...

Wednesday June 25. Day 1 of the second phase presentation of ORDOS100. 36 architects, 36 villa's, 36 presentations, 36 thousand square meters of creative thinking. A bombardment of ideas on a plot somewhere in Inner-Mongolia. 9 hours of words and images. Interrupted by a lunch break. In the center of the meeting room one finalized model, featuring the 100 proposals, around which the architects gathered. All architects and ...

ORDOS100 concluded its third and last meeting. Between June 24 and June 29, the 72 international architecture offices of ORDOS100 phase II came back to Ordos, Inner Mongolia. movingcities attended this meeting, absorbing 72000 square meters of villa's in five days, that is 600 square meters an hour. An impression of the opening evening.

Bert de Muynck | movingcities publishes "Mediocrity and the Metropolis" in JongArsitek. JongARSITEK! is a free architectural e-magazine made by some young Indonesian architects including Danny Wicaksono, whom we met in the context of ORDOS100.

Bert de Muynck | movingcities publishes "Making minced meat of memory" in the MUDOT Magazine. In a series of projects dealing with 'hutong hallucinations' the author mixes Beijing, Rem Koolhaas, Michel Houellebecq, Ou Ning, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ai Weiwei, Simone de Beauvoir and many others into the debate on Beijing's preservation. Prince Charles, unfortunately, launched his call to 'save the hutongs' too late to meet the deadline of the ...

Bert de Muynck | movingcities publishes "SOHO China's New Futurism" on the ArtForum Chinese website. A short overview of past, present and future ambition of Beijing's biggest real-estate developers.

Snapshots from the third day in Seoul. After site visit to the Ewha Campus Complex Bert de Muynck|movingcities strolled through the area around the campus, home to boutiques, restaurant, shoe shops and shopping malls. Followed by a visit to the Jongo Tower, a masterpiece of the almost lost craft of high-tech architecture: build in 1999 by Rafael Viñoly Architects, it offers a great view on the city.

Snapshots from the second day in Seoul. After site visit to the Ewha Campus Complex Bert de Muynck|movingcities went exploring Seoul's Inner Circle Line. Build between 1978 and 1984, it is the city's longest subway line, with a total length of 60,2 kilometer and 43 stations. Investigating the state of the contemporary city in and around stations like Sinseol-dong, Sinsa, Banpo, Dairim and Dangsan gave some impression of ...

In Seoul, South-Korea, for a short three day visit. Icon asked Bert de Muynck|movingcities to write a review on the recently opened Ewha Campus Complex (located at the Ewha Womens University), designed by French office Dominique Perrault and South-Korean partner office Baum. In-between the site visit, some explorations on the city: snapshots of the first day in Seoul.

movingcities interviewed Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal on their new project, 'Decolonizing Architecture'. Set up in collaboration with Eyal Weizman, and produced by the Haudenschild Foundation, the project attempts to use architecture as an “arena of speculation” about possible futures of Palestine.