arthub | Supersudaca - Latin American Architectural Thinktank in Shanghai

8/14/09 - 8/31/09

What are the remains of communism?

Supersudaca is a pan-Latin American collective of architects and a think tank for architectural and urban investigation. Supersudaca’s two members Felix Mandrazo and Max Zolkwer will be in Shanghai for a week investigation on traces of living communism. Arthub will pilot them through the city, organizing meetings and proposing themes/directions of analysis. At the end of the experience, Mandrazo and Zolkwer will be joying all the symposium of the New Silk Roads in Bangkok where they will present some first impressions/result of their China experience.

Their wishlist:

Shanghai wishlist

The trip to Shanghai is somehow a blind date. What we´ve been working on is more in the attitude or point of view on that we should carry there. How to look at!

And several things came to our minds when discussing the issue within Supersudaca.

As we go to shanghai for very few days & we don´t know very much what to expect from it, we want to keep more tan one point of view open.

One interesting point of view is to realize we´re surround by China. China exports goods and people. There´s a Chinatown in every city in the world. So we have an image of Chinese city´s within our cities. Besides the Chinatown itself, the city of Buenos Aires is replete of Chinese restaurants & Chinese supermarkets. The map I send last week shows a big impact of it in the city.

Besides having a lot of Chinese people imported, every thing is Chinese. In the home research I made, looking to the backside of every object in the house it says “made in china”. All electronic stuff (TV, DVD player, Telephones, Iphone, Camera, etc.), shoes, jackets, kitchen tools, children toys, etc.

On the other hand, china went quite international lately. Lots of occidental people moved to the new empire. The fast growing megacitys from the future where buildings are designed in five days and built in 3 months. I have several friends that went to china to try the excitement of the newly open empire. Starting with you Dadou!

This arises some questions.

1. If there´s a “near china” or “foreign china” when we go to real china what can we recognize of our own local China? Are they related? Do we have a piece of China at home or is just “for export”? Customized to use in Argentina (or elsewhere)?

2. To be surrounded for such amount of Chinese people and Chinese goods makes u somehow participant of Chinese culture? I mean, since I wake up with my Chinese clock till I go to sleep with my Chinese pajama I don´t stop using Chinese made products. All my phone calls are made trough Chinese devises.

3. Am I Chinese and I didn´t realize before?

4. If we have Chinatowns in our homes, do Chinese have “”world towns” or “occidental towns”? do they visit them as touristic attractions? Do they buy occidental products in the “worldtowns” within the cities?

5. If occidentals live in the “international towns” in China, do they see the rest of the city as a Chinatown?

That could be the main thread to follow. What of our own local china can we recognize in the real China?

Besides we have some other threads to follow. Some of them are just related to personal interests from Supersudaca members.

So here goes the wish-list:

- Play ping pong (table tennis) with a Chinese (I play quite good myself, but Chinese are the best)

- Check if things in china are also made in china. Many things are done or assembled in China, but designed elsewhere. How does affect this the Chinese consume costumes?

- Have tour in a rickshaw (or however you spell that). Have seen many comic books. Specially Tintin.

- Get the El Croquis magazine collection in Chinese. We heard the whole collection is translated and printed in Chinese. Of course not officially.

- Is it possible to be alone in China? We have this tale that says that a Chinese minister is invited to Uruguay. Right away after landing his driven on a car trough the route and arrives to the countryside. To a beautiful house in the middle of nowhere. He gets out of the car & starts crying. The reception committee tries to calm him down but it´s impossible. Nobody knows what´s happening to him. After a while he calms down and says “it´s the first time in my life I’m alone. (we know there´s a lot of people, but it´s also a big country….)

- Sports & famous: in the olimpic games china is one of the leading countrys, they earn many medals. However the stars of the games, the outstanding personalities are the likes Michel Phelps, Usain Bolt, Yelena Isinbayeva. All individual personalities. Very recognizable. From China we don´t get the names. Just the collective. Is there missing a cult to the personality? To the individuality? Is this related to communism? To the amount of people? Who are the famous in china? Is there a “Hola” magazine? Can we interview a famous person, a star?

- From urbanism point of view we also know about rowing speed of the cities. How do people adapt to the changes of the cities? If suddenly there´s 5 million more people in a city, how do they create the attachment to the place? We´de like to interview an old inhabitant from shanghai that could tell us about the changes and memories.

- Last but not least, they say in China you can get a good massage.

Felix Madrazo (Saltillo, 1972). Architect by La Salle University (1996), studies in Arizona University (1994) and at the Metropolis postgraduate program of the CCCB-UPC, Barcelona (2001). He obtained his Master of architecture at the Berlage Institute, Rotterdam (2001-2002). Founder and active member of Supersudaca, a collective space for research and projects related mainly to Latin-America.With Supersudaca in 2004 receives the first prize for research at the IV Bienal Iberoamericana de Arquitectura in Lima, Peru, with the proposal of Y PREVI? This research about the international competition on experimental housing in Lima in 1969 will end up in book at the end of 2006. Also with Supersudaca wins the Best Entry Award at the 2nd International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam, 2005 with a presentation on the impacts of tourism in the Caribbean region. Currently he is the coordinator of Network Partnership between the Prince Claus Funds and Supersudaca. Since 2004 he works for OMA / AMO (Office for Metropolitan Architecture / Rem Koolhaas) in Rotterdam in different types of projects and research. From 1998-2000 worked for the studio of Alberto Kalach in Mexico City. In 2003 he received a fellowship by the Kulturstiftung (Germany) to make projects and research related to informality in Caracas, Venezuela with the Caracas Urban Think Tank. Runner Up Europan 6, Rotterdam 2001 with Aglaee Degros and Stefan Bendiks. In collaboration with Arch. Hugo Sanchez:1st Prize in the Tepozteco competition organized by the Mexican magazine Arquine,1st Prize in the competition for a Museum of War Mexico-U.S.A, 1999. He has taught at the Anahuac University in Mexico City from 1998-1999 and has gave lectures in Durban, Caracas, Santiago (Dominican Republic), Lima and Rotterdam.