Home
EPI-URBAN Mentougou, China
Landscape Urbanism
A multi-layered woven urban realm is a response to what we perceived was a unequal social economic future for Mentougou and its proposed spatial production. Exiled from the ground and with limited land available for development, this is an effort to opportunistically seize the uppermost zone of buildings to provide continuity to the ancient economic activity of agriculture while allowing lower skilled workers, and the inherited knowledge base to survive even as Mentougou transforms into a high tech service oriented city. The limited crossings over the river resulted in a road network that incorporated a branching strategy as well as taking into account the adjacent density of the existing urban fabric. Strategies of afforestation and reforestation were incorporated to achieve a linked network of forests, that take advantage of the vacancies left by de-Industrialisation and the spaces within the city. The second skin emerged out of the need to grow vertically due to the high cost and limited land available for construction. By taking advantage of the uppermost zones of buildings (rooftops) we achieve a new urban realm that is productive (Urban Agriculture) infrastructural and programatic. The second skin operates as an infrastructural and productive spine that impacts the adjacent urban development. View showing integration of urban development, forest and second skin