The Road Project: Lives in motion

I Introduction

Under the policy of developing the Western China (發展大西北), proposals for the Yunnan-Tibet Railway (滇藏鐵路) were released and it is expected that the railway piercing through the 3 provinces will be completed in 20 years, unearthing the main artery linking these historical sites.

Fig 1. Proposed Sichuan-Tibet and Yunnan-Tibet Railway. Baidu, Accessed November 5, 2016. http://baike.baidu.com/view/464961.htm.

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II Thesis statement

“Fictional as well as factual, a design is a reinterpretation of the past that is meaningful to the present.”¹ (Fraser, 2013) I believe that we can never wipe out the past while writing a new chapter onto the piece of land, and it is the architects’ responsibility to provide the site a visual and spatial linkage to the root of the land to be revealed in the new architecture, and draw out its contemporary meaning.

The construction of the new railway definitely brings convenience and economic possibilities to the area just like what the ancient Tea-horse road brought. Yet unlike erasing aging architecture in a modern city, the act is to bring in a strikingly new form of living into towns which are still leading a relatively primitive life, by physically penetrating through the land which hid itself behind mountains for thousand years, and giving ‘the road’ a new meaning. Therefore, the thesis aims to speculate on the connotation of this penetration spatially and its connection to the static land, by investigating the moving life forms and their utilization of space in a timeline, in an attempt to address actual continuity of history in present-day life.

The approach is hoped to result in providing an alternative lens to view the evolution of the current rural society towards an urban modernity.

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III Context: The complexity of western China

Western China has been the fantasy destination of many adventurers for its cultural complexity and moreover, the adversity in its climate and landscape further adds up to the imagery. Politically, it could be viewed as the spaces of transition within greater China to her neighbors, and a site of critical importance viewing a larger societal control by the government. Specifically, this piece of land has been under spotlight in terms of the transportation network lying through, from past to then.

1. Trading Industry

The Tea-horse road crossing through Yunnan and Tibet to further reach out to the neighbors of China has been of significant economic importance for centuries since the Tang Dynasty, with the exchange of goods (tea, porcelain and horse) taking place between the merchants of the mainland and the Tibet. This economic activity centered the emergence and transformation of urban settlements along the route.

Fig 2. The ‘Horse Gang’. QQ, Accessed November 5, 2016. http://dajia.qq.com/blog/474815025114877.html.

Fig 3. The commercial activity along the route. Sina Blog, Accessed November 5, 2016. http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4caef9d10102vod4.html.

2. Political Strategy

Followed by the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the corresponding transport network and tea trading had soon become a major strategic focus lasting decades during the war time. When all the other means of transport were blocked, this road became the only route for resources backing China to arrive.

3. Policy / Tourism

Towards the end of the war, the ancient road was fading out of significance with the construction of the highway 214 in the 1950s, remaining the majority value of it the in the industry of tourism, with drivers moving through a car and a car of tourist through the land.

Yet what is in common – the road has been the living of the people for thousands of years. They are the ones living along the road as settlements and acting resources providers, the ones whose lives depends on the road with their tea and horse; and today, the drivers and the tourists travelling across the land on the road. Is the road actually being inhabited in some ways?

This introduces us to a conceptual change of a road with the new railway – from a fluid flow with ons and offs along the whole journey, to a point to point arrival and departure. In the upcoming 20 years during the construction of the railway, what will be added in, and what will be left out in the spaces along the way? Will it lead to another new form of living?

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III The Project

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (1988) suggested that there are basically two types of space in nature – the smooth and the striated, however they always exist in mixture instead of clearly distinct from each other². Architecture is what embodying striation³ (Lambert, 2016) created by the sedentary, whilst the nomads are inhabiting on smooth spaces possessing heterogeneity, and there is a constant interaction and hence evolution between the two and it shall be a tug-of-war.

Deriving from the smooth and striated theory in its concept, a ‘smoothing mechanism’ within architecture shall be under investigation. Trains and train station will be the main typology to be studied due to the railway development plan, and designed as a prototype. It shall be an act of utilizing vernacular intelligence in the design in terms of program and circulation, especially the spatial logistics employed during the tea trading time in terms of utilizing resources. The aim is to introduce heterogeneity into a program / typology with such a high degree of presets due to the technical flow, plus containing much significance as a sign of policy making. This heterogeneity can hence lead to a different definition of the infrastructure to the community as a whole.

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IV Outline of Research

1. Context research

Mapping the existing and proposed railway network of western China, the according landscape conditions and the existing forms of settlement.

Research on programs and spaces related to tea making and logistics (e.g. ancient courier route 古驛道, inns 驛站, eatery, shops and etc.) hence their relationships with the road and urban settlements.

Aim: To spot out the potential site for the prototypes test out and potential elements to be extracted out of the tea trading logistics spatially.

2. Precedent studies

a. on trains, train stations and railway / highway systems

Aim: To be equipped with the knowledge in the technical aspect, to gain insight on the lack of their typical design in the realm of urban development and factors to be considered during the expansion of transportation network.

b. on the morphological process of towns

Aim: To understand the relationship of certain economic activities (especially tea trading) or policies and the transformation of the specific town, and the necessity of it in the modernization process.

4. Definition

In the lessons learnt from all the above studies and research, define the proposed ‘continuity’, ‘healthy evolution towards urban modernity’, ‘smoothing mechanism’ in the direction to which the thesis wish to achieve.

Aim: To set direction for the architectural design articulation.

5. Develop the proposed project

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Bibliography

1. Fraser, Murray, ed. Design Research in Architecture: An Overview. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2013, 32.

2. Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by Brian Massumi. London: Athlone Press, 1988. Originally published: Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1987.

3. Lambert, Léopold. “# PHILOSOPHY /// Processes of Smoothing and Striation of Space in Urban Warfare.” The Funambulist. December 23, 2010. Accessed November 02, 2016. http://thefunambulist.net/2010/12/23/philosophy-processes-of-smoothing-and-striation-of-space-in-urban-warfare/.

4. 周重林, 太俊林. 茶葉戰爭：茶葉與天朝的興衰. 第一版. 台北: 遠流出版事業股份有限公司, 2013

5. Nalbantoglu, Gülsüm Baydar, and Chong Thai Wong. Postcolonial Space(s). New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1997.

6. Leach, Neil. Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory. New York: Routledge, 1997.

7. Lim, William Siew Wai, and Jiat-Hwee Chang. Non West Modernist Past: On Architecture & Modernities. Singapore: World Scientific Pub., 2012.

8. Lefebvre, Henri, Stuart Elden, Elizabeth Lebas, and Eleonore Kofman. Henri Lefebvre: Key Writings. New York: Continuum, 2003.

9. Mary Mcleod, ” “Other spaces” and “Others” “in The Sex of Architecture, Agrest, Diana, Patricia Conway, and Leslie Weisman.  New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996, 15-28.