Palimpsest Shenzhen

Palimpsest Shenzhen – 深圳长桌

LOW-REZ + Wee Studio 微建筑

Urban crowds in train stations are mostly passersby, engaging in small transactions while focusing on getting from point A to B. Amid this movement and flow an ad-hoc collective emerges, one that becomes a representative microcosm of city-dwellers. Oculi-in situ attempts to capitalize on the connectivity brought by the Shenzhen high-speed rail line and the international audience of the biennial to create a participatory design process for realizing architecture in cities.

We build off of previous successes with crowdfunding to propose engaging with Biennial visitors who are geographically diverse and represent a wide spectrum of economic capabilities to help us imagine the design of a new dining pavilion. Their participation will give us access to a variety of perspectives foreign to our own and illuminate unseen possibilities. This process will also help us to create a targeted crowdfunding strategy post-Biennial and establish a platform for co-ownership over the city through the realization of the final design, ultimately to be given back to the public.

In our exhibition we present three iterations of our pavilion design, each activating different urban contexts to create different eating rituals: 1- a private dining room at Citizen Center Park; 2- a street food cart at the Urban Village; 3- a night market with multiple vendors in the Dongmen Commercial District. The Biennial visitors have a chance to observe these designs presented in elaborate architectural models on a long dining table. Above the dining table is a floating oculus with an LED display, casting dynamic light onto the white table and models, coloring the space with reflections. The visitors have a chance to sit around the table, contribute to the designs and give feedback. This participatory act invites conversation into the design process and allows visitors to imagine themselves in the yet-to-be realized pavilion. The visitors can leave feedback notes for each design accompanied with their contact information, which will be collected post-Biennial and used to begin the crowdfunding process for the preferred design.

This system transforms the notion of crowdfunding, traditionally a “buy or don’t buy” decision, into a participatory experience where the audience can comment and choose which design option to initiate for their city. Urbanistically-minded but empathetic at its center, Oculi-in situ is an architectural experiment, which turns the digital crowdfunding platform into a participatory process centering on the inherent power of the social.

火车站的人群通常只是匆匆过客，他们忙于从一处到另一处，并且只能被当下的事物所吸引。我们观察到，在这人来人往中萌发出一个特别的群体，他们是城市居民的一个缩影。项目“眼”借助深圳高铁带来的联结能力和双年展吸引国际访客的机会，尝试创造一个在城市中实现参与式设计和建造的机会。

我们根据以往的成功众筹经验，邀请来自各地不同背景的人们，在双年展共同设计一个实验性的用餐空间。我们相信人们的参与可以带来多样的视角与惊喜。这个过程也可以帮助我们为后双年展项目制定众筹策略，并通过对设计方案的实现来建立一个共有的平台，最终回馈于公众。

展览所呈现的是我们设计方案的三个版本，它们均致力于激活相应的城市环境并为人们带来特殊的饮食体验：1. 一间位于市民中心公园的私人餐厅；2. 一个位于城中村的小吃亭；3. 一个位于东门商业街的夜市。双年展的访客可以看到展示在一张长桌上的方案模型。悬空于长桌上方的“天窗”内安装有LED屏幕，在白色的长桌和模型上投射出动态的灯光，并将丰富的色彩反射到整个展亭。参观者可以围坐在桌边来参与设计并给出反馈。这一参与式行为使设计过程产生了对话，并让参观者有机会沉浸式体验这个即将建成的空间。到访者可以留下意见以及他们的联系方式，这些信息将会被收集来，用于优选众筹方案并对之进行深化。

传统意义上的众筹关乎“买或不买”，而这套系统将之转变为一种参与式体验，人们从中可以发表意见，并为他们所在的城市选择设计方案。“眼”是一次建筑性的试验，根植于城市并力图深入人心，尝试着将线上的众筹平台转变为线下的以社会力量为中心的互动过程。

Credits:

Zhao Sheng 赵晟, Edward Wang, Rana Irmak Aksoy, Dai Haifei 戴海飞, Zhang Yanping 张燕平