Category: On China

Urban Mobility and Architecture: Designing Small, Approachable Infrastructures of Transportation in China

Gasoline stations have been objects of interest in the fields of architecture and urban studies for decades. Frank Lloyd Wright completed the R. W. Lindholm Service Station in 1958. The design of this building foresaw the role of filling stations as part of the aesthetic condition of cities in the 20th century. In this project, Wright positioned the car at … Continue reading Urban Mobility and Architecture: Designing Small, Approachable Infrastructures of Transportation in China →

Mapping Water: Cartographic Lessons from Ancient China

Shanghai peri urban. 2019. Ernesto Valero Thomas

Mapping. I truly believe that hybrid methods of mapping help to achieve better architecture and ecological design. For nearly a decade I have studied the role of hybrid cartography as a key tool that transforms cities and towns across the world. That is what I call Sustainable Cartography. Everything is mappable. From cities to the … Continue reading Mapping Water: Cartographic Lessons from Ancient China →

The Art of Research: Words, Stories & Diagrams in the Design Process

Architecture and design belong to an anxious world. Thousands of design alternatives in thousands of cities and villages around the globe. Architecture and design students are exposed to infinite tools of research, and design languages that are available in a split of a second on the Internet. These design languages are deeply rooted in different … Continue reading The Art of Research: Words, Stories & Diagrams in the Design Process →

Measuring the Unmeasurable: Human Scale in Chinese Cities

Urban Constellations. This is a common metaphor that I have encountered in the fields of human geography and urban studies. The most comprehensive set of global data about urban expansion in the 21st-century(densities, areas, population, etc) considers The-City as a single unit of analysis that shape a Universe of cities. As of 2010, the world … Continue reading Measuring the Unmeasurable: Human Scale in Chinese Cities →