Sensing Cities

Sensing Cities – 感知城市

Elaine Tsui 崔亦伶, Nicole Zhang 张馨月

Contemporary technologies are the products of human demands. They are not external elements independent of societies. Through the data they collect and generate, we are able to observe our behaviors and develop a better understanding of ourselves. In this age of the Self, cameras and sensors are no longer pointed to others but are directed back to us in multiple perspectives.

As architects, we see the emerging technological capabilities as powerful tools to improve feedback-research and future urban policy making. We are deeply interested in how cities have evolved through the extended eyes of remote sensing technologies.

The exhibited materials contain a series of territorial satellite analysis, depicting three decades of realized urban expansion of the Pearl River Delta: from the open up in 1980s to 2018. The urban growth is a combination of planned constructions are market-led developments. Ten zoomed in areas are selected for their exceptional scale of land transformation during this period: Qianhai, for instance, has been turned from mixed-use coastland into full urban usage with extensive reclamation activities. Through the processed eyes of satellite imageries, the public can study cities on a different scale and juxtapose their own urban experiences in on the ground level.

科技是依托于人类社会的产物，随着人们需求的不断变化而持续蜕变。在这个全球并融的时代，我们手中的镜头和传感器不再单纯地指向特定或局限的目标，越来越多的视角开始冲击我们对周边世界的主观理解。

身为建筑师，我们认为城市建设迫切需要兼并现代化科技。遥感技术是我们此次的工具，我们希望通过公共开放的数据为城市居住者、抉择者和建设者带去一种广域的观看角度，使城市发展历史作为有力的规划反馈，进一步推演未来的政策导向。

此次展品重点围绕过去30年珠三角城市建设的进程分析，主要由卫星遥感分析图集组成，拣选了十个建设增速最快、尺度最大的地区，制作放大版供公众观察。城市发展对我们意味着实体建设的增加，是规划和市场经济的结合体。

Credits:

Elaine Tsui 崔亦伶, Nicole Zhang 张馨月.