The Unknow Cities
The project is series of 3d-printing based on fiction “9 City, Millions of Future” by Yan Wu. The fiction discribed a process of returning territory from city to nature, transitting the earth to a planet of nature. After several fascinating and upset seasons, we finally find a proper way of “returning” and ways to compress, transmit and expanding cities on new planets.
In our story, when the ending of earth – Crystal Season starts, artifacts of human era begin to shrink, fade and crystalize, and we human will also fade away. But this process is a new birth, instead of death – which creates new realtionship between human and nature, and new forms of city and architecture in new space.
Exhibitions:
2019 UABB Shenzhen Binnale Exhibition, Shenzhen
2020 Art NOVA 100, Beijing
2021 Sci-Ficene, Art and Science Concept Exhibition, Beijing
2019
UABB – Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen)
Architect: Yufan XIE
Co-writer: Yan WU
Curator/Artist: Yu CHEN
Underwater City
Symbiosis of artificial structure and soft-body creatures.
Nestled atop a sentient soft-bodied organism, humanity has found residence in a city unlike any other. This colossal being, though not entirely under human control, coexists with its terrestrial tenants. The city-state is a beacon of intelligence, a living, breathing metropolis. Humans dwell within the inner cavities of the soft-bodied host, entwined and symbiotic with its central structures, enjoying pure air and a secure environment. Workspaces and resource exchange zones stretch across the organism’s exterior, shielded by architectural forms.
Floating City
“After she explained the concept of resilient cities to me, more schemes to mobilize cities were generated and fermented around the world. The flying city was one of the first to emerge. It allows the entire city to soar thousands, even tens of thousands of meters above the ground, where the weather is clear and sunny. The flying city can float anywhere above the Earth. The city is a super passenger train, even passing over the Antarctic, the Arctic, and the depths of the Pacific Ocean. The reason why the flying city, improved by Archimedes’ principle of buoyancy, could be realized is that they found a way to double the buoyancy provided by dark matter.” “Three months after the flying city left our city, it was struck by a meteorite from space. Because it hit a sensitive point of stress, the flying city disintegrated and fell on the spot. The fragments fell back to the surface of the earth, and the immigrants in the city, the first generation of flying residents, perished in the transition of the city.
Floating City – Swarm city of highly fluid clusters, containing millions of micro units for residents.
Pipeline City
intertwining structure and greenhouse in response to extreme drought climate change.
The urban population is facing an explosion, and the state of vertical cities no longer satisfies the demand that outstrips supply. Humans in cities continuously try new ways to solve the problem of overpopulation. Proliferating cities use a folding structure to continuously multiply and expand the surface area within a limited space. Buildings, communication networks, streets, cars, and other elements are infinitely replicated and proliferated in this city. The city keeps replicating and growing upon itself, just like proliferating cells.
Hyper-plastic City
folded structure of maximized capability and density.
The Earth’s rotation slows, lengthening each season. When the Sun is far away, it cools down, turning into a snow season. As the Sun slowly approaches, massive evaporation turns it into a rainy season. When it gets too close, water excessively evaporates, dispersing into space. Eventually, the Earth enters an orbit close to the Sun, becoming Venus-like, with the surface and all creations turning to glass. The eventual result could be the ruins of the original cities. People are unable to live in cities that are too arid and move to new spaces, where tree-shaped conduits wind through the city. These conduits form a multi-layered structure similar to wooden constructions to transport water and people.
