AsianInNY’s good friend Hai Zhang has worked on a project and now the book is released. For more info: http://www.oceanmate.comFrom 2009 through 2010, we investigated housing issues in two biggest Chinese cities – Shenzhen and Shanghai. Focused on the ordinary people, instead of the grand visions and projects that have branded China as one of the most exciting and cutting-edge place in the world to practice architecture, we aimed to put the people at the forefront of the discussion, and to provide a rich context in which to identify and understand the complex issues facing Chinese cities and architecture today.

By heavily utilizing photography and interviews, the project told the intimate, yet contextual real life stories of urban dwellers. While the interviews had covered almost all parties involved in the housing issues, the uncomfortable juxtapositions between the pronouncements of policy makers, designers and the facts fundamentally questioned the origin of design problems. It was a search of these problems in social organization, economics, and policy rather than in aesthetics or technique.

The Research Program of Rafael Viñoly Architects published Pressures and Distortions: City Dwellers as Builders and Critics. The book represents the culmination of a three-year research process organized and funded by the Research Program. In it, four teams of researchers analyze how residents are designing, building, and interpreting cities in the face of wrenching transformations. The cities chronicled in depth include examples from China (Shanghai and Shenzhen), Latin America (Bogotá and Mexico City), and Indonesia (Banda Aceh). Shorter sections cover Lima and Rio de Janeiro. The authors show how residents respond creatively to environmental disaster, poverty, housing shortages, and surging urban population. They also show how governments, international relief agencies, architects, and planners can shape better urban environments. Throughout, the experiences of residents are presented through their own words and through careful documentation of their living environments.

Pressures and Distortions began in 2008 with the Research Program’s international call for proposals. A competitive process selected four teams, with researchers based in Mexico, Colombia, China, Australia, France, and the US. Each team received a research grant from Rafael Viñoly Architects and worked independently.

With over 400 pages, Pressures and Distortions contains more than 500 original full-color photographs, plans, and drawings, as well as a DVD with over 100 video and audio recordings from the streets of Bogotá. For more information and to order copies of the book, please visit www.rvatr.com.