Metrostudio Associates Shenzhen
While staying in Shenzhen, China I had the chance to visit the office of Metrostudio Associates, a design studio engaged with architecture, urban design, landscape, interior and industrial design. Initially founded in Salerno, Italy, the firm has opened a branch in Shenzhen in late 2009.
During my visit I was talking to Metrostudio principal Antonio Inglese about the firm's design process, philosophy, expansion into the Chinese market and current projects in China. Inglese describes Metrostudio as "a collective of ideas between European, specifically Italian designers, and Chinese designers, the number is not important, as everybody can come into the office, have a look, share a thought, give a sketch, take a drink, have a laugh...whatever. In fact my main goal [...] was to create an open office; it would have been nice to set it up outside into a plaza, having meeting with clients on a bench under a tree, but due to weather reasons, I had to give a roof to this design plaza."
For Metrostudio the design process in reciprocal exchange with Chinese clients is very different to their routine in Europe. In Europe the studio is mainly concerned with urban design, landscape design, landscape master plans but as well interiors and restoration; while their Chinese projects are mostly of larger scale, dealing with landscape master plans, urban design and large scale strategic planning. While Inglese notices a European contemporary design process which is engaged with developing ideas by removal and destruction, the Chinese context often makes it necessary for the designer to add programs and functions into the projects. Interestingly, Chinese clients appear as very keen on understanding the process of the designer and therefore demand sketches and a thorough research-based design presentation. Case studies is what counts in China to be able to underline design ideas and successfully communicate them to clients.
The history of Metrostudio Shenzhen began when Inglese cooperated in 2006 with the Shenzhen design studio L+A on an urban design competition for the 'Baoan Central District Waterfront Park'. The design came in first and the client insisted on building the proposal which won the competition. This made it necessary for Inglese to spend more time in Shenzhen working on the further design of the project which is now executed in phase I and II.
Subsequently Metrostudio joined up with Chinese partners in autumn 2009 to form a new branch in Shenzhen. For this stage both sides of the venture were vital: (I) A European counterpart bringing foreign ideas and expertise, and (II) A Chinese counterpart bringing Chinese design expertise, cultural understanding and networking skills.
After a first phase of primarily competition entries and a large number of introductory meetings with potential clients the office has been steadily growing in a Shenzhen-like speed to about 40 in 2011. This pace of growth - from 3 people to 40 people within 18 months - is sometimes still scary for Inglese, but a very interesting and a rewarding challenge. Nowadays Metrostudio Shenzhen is managed by its three principals focusing differently on marketing, management and design, being supported by an own in-house financial department for accounting.
Metrostudio's emphasis on landscape as a medium to process urban design proposals and large masterplans grew naturally with the nature of the commissions which the studio was working on. For the different projects they seek to develop a unique approach in terms of formal language, accompanied by a solid, research-based background and additional expertise by outside experts.
Here I want to present some insight into three current projects by Metrostudio which show the scope and quality of their work in China.
BaoAn Centre District, Shenzhen, China (Design Development Phase)
Dongying City Wetland Park, Dongying, China (Concept Planning Phase)
Longkou Mtinan West Coast Artificial Archipelago and Land Territory, Longkou, China (Competition entry 2nd prize)
Closing this blogpost, I want to thank the team of Metrostudio and Antonio Inglese for their time and warm welcome at their Shenzhen studio and wish them all the best for their work in China and Europe!
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| Landscaped detail next to the entrance of the Metrostudio office. |
During my visit I was talking to Metrostudio principal Antonio Inglese about the firm's design process, philosophy, expansion into the Chinese market and current projects in China. Inglese describes Metrostudio as "a collective of ideas between European, specifically Italian designers, and Chinese designers, the number is not important, as everybody can come into the office, have a look, share a thought, give a sketch, take a drink, have a laugh...whatever. In fact my main goal [...] was to create an open office; it would have been nice to set it up outside into a plaza, having meeting with clients on a bench under a tree, but due to weather reasons, I had to give a roof to this design plaza."
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| The Metrostudio portfolio in bar code style on the office walls. |
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| Salerno Sport and Landscape Park, Salerno, Italy. Metrostudio with Auböck&Karasz. (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
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| Toledo River Park, Toledo, Spain. (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
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| Wuhan University Campus Plan,Wuhan, China. (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
For Metrostudio the design process in reciprocal exchange with Chinese clients is very different to their routine in Europe. In Europe the studio is mainly concerned with urban design, landscape design, landscape master plans but as well interiors and restoration; while their Chinese projects are mostly of larger scale, dealing with landscape master plans, urban design and large scale strategic planning. While Inglese notices a European contemporary design process which is engaged with developing ideas by removal and destruction, the Chinese context often makes it necessary for the designer to add programs and functions into the projects. Interestingly, Chinese clients appear as very keen on understanding the process of the designer and therefore demand sketches and a thorough research-based design presentation. Case studies is what counts in China to be able to underline design ideas and successfully communicate them to clients.
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| Layered ideas and design evolution drawn by hand on tracing paper. |
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| Impressive watercolor images are produced in-house at Metrostudio. |
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| Baoan Central District Waterfront Park. Metrostudio and L+A. (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
After a first phase of primarily competition entries and a large number of introductory meetings with potential clients the office has been steadily growing in a Shenzhen-like speed to about 40 in 2011. This pace of growth - from 3 people to 40 people within 18 months - is sometimes still scary for Inglese, but a very interesting and a rewarding challenge. Nowadays Metrostudio Shenzhen is managed by its three principals focusing differently on marketing, management and design, being supported by an own in-house financial department for accounting.
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| One wall in the Metrostudio office features images of Metrostudio associates in both Europe and China |
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| Multi-media landscape work: tracing paper, watercolors and keyboard. |
Metrostudio's emphasis on landscape as a medium to process urban design proposals and large masterplans grew naturally with the nature of the commissions which the studio was working on. For the different projects they seek to develop a unique approach in terms of formal language, accompanied by a solid, research-based background and additional expertise by outside experts.
Here I want to present some insight into three current projects by Metrostudio which show the scope and quality of their work in China.
BaoAn Centre District, Shenzhen, China (Design Development Phase)
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| The aim of the BaoAn central district plan design was to give the right urban design vision for the nest stage of the development of BaoAn port area into the third and latest CBD in Shenzhen. |
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| The proposal by Metrostudio Associates employs a strategy which multiplies the concept of a genius loci to different 'genii locorum' which give identity and diversity to a new part of Shenzhen. |
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| One central element of Metrostudio's proposal is a huge platform almost one sq km in size which offers the nesting of hundreds of different under-spaces in various scales ranging from large scale to human scale. |
Dongying City Wetland Park, Dongying, China (Concept Planning Phase)
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| The wetland park will emcompass an area of 3000+ hectares which Metrostudio proposed to structure into conservation area, central area, wetland and green belt. Different levels of intervention, functions and ecosystem types were devised to program these areas. Core of the proposal is a scientific and cultural use of the wetland allowing people to access the wetland and learn about the value of the ecosystem. (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
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| Land use map of Dongwing wetland area showing the park area (white outline). (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
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| Pixelated mapping of opportunities and threats for the Dongying wetland area. (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
Longkou Mtinan West Coast Artificial Archipelago and Land Territory, Longkou, China (Competition entry 2nd prize)
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| The competition called for a design of six new artificial islands which were developed by Metrostudio along three axis: water axis, green axis and stone axis. (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
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| The proposed strategy was to create a modern Venice-like environment where high-quality living next and on the water would be possible. Additionally tourist attractions and landmarks should provide a unique identity for the development. (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
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| Landscape as medium for urban design development. Sectional perspective showing the interconnectedness of urban fabric, green fabric and waterways. (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
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| New types of urban life such as water-markets would find place according to the proposal. (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
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| The proposal included a renewable energy system and green transport system developed by the Spanish company savenergy. (image courtesy of Metrostudio) |
Closing this blogpost, I want to thank the team of Metrostudio and Antonio Inglese for their time and warm welcome at their Shenzhen studio and wish them all the best for their work in China and Europe!
Design Ecologies for Landscape Ecological Urbanism
This is a re-post of a text which I recently wrote for the summer 2011 issue of the newsletter of EFLA - The European Federation of Landscape Architects.
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| Hubei village and adjacent high rise developments. Shenzhen, China 2011 (image by M.Marsh) |
Conceptualizing new design ecologies for landscape ecological urbanism
"In this century, mankind’s biggest challenges like resource constraint, climate change, or global demographic shifts will be encountered in the urban realm. Over the last decade, concepts such as landscape urbanism, ecological urbanism, or, landscape ecological urbanism emerged in an attempt to negotiate the complexity of contemporary (mega)cities. Such approaches are currently the most advanced concepts for designing urban environments which are able to accommodate human life increasingly constrained by environmental pressures.
Nevertheless, in contemporary landscape practice and teaching, we still frequently witness a disconnect between goals like social justice, environmental credibility and cultural meaning of projects, while all of them appear equally important for designers in urbanism [1]. This note provides some inspirational theoretical input for landscape urbanism practice and summarizes an article which will be published in the first issue of the EFLA online journal later this year.
As designers in urbanism we may understand our practice as a guiding of urbanism; in which we equally observe, mitigate and create the processes constituting our urban environments. To juggle urbane aims such as environmental concerns, social justice and cultural vibrancy, one may anticipate putting the human subject in the center - but not in a traditionally humanist way by optimizing systems solely for human needs - rather creating landscapes of a networked human ecology, where a reciprocal responsibility between mankind and supporting ecosystem is possible and sought.
Recent theoretical discourse was to some extent focused on metrics of how to measure a sustainable urban development [2]. A simple benchmark worth exploring for landscape practice is the adoption of ecological debt and ecological credit where ecological impacts of (built) interventions in the landscape are assessed and compared to the state before the project. But are landscape ecological projects automatically socially just and culturally meaningful? I would answer no, but the integration of ecological narratives extended with an engaged human subject would provide an opportunity to create diverse, lively and meaningful urban landscapes featuring vibrant social ecologies.
In the worldwide urban laboratory there is huge demand and need for new concepts to be integrated into the design of urbanism. Here, designers in urbanism can engage themselves by providing research outcomes and tools previously developed, or, by applying conclusions in adaptive approaches on the ground or in landscape education. To understand one’s own work taking place with such a background can provide a vitally inspirational impulse to define one’s design and research ecology within the broader context of a globalized practice of landscape ecological urbanism"
[1] To make a provocative point about disciplinary boundaries, I will in this article refer to the disciplines of landscape architecture, landscape planning, urban planning, urban design, architecture - all of which are engaged with urbanism – simply as designers in urbanism.
[2] The question why we mainly measure development of (urban) environments shall be discussed elsewhere. It is questionable if the concept of ‘development’ is in the long run compatible with the normative goal of ‘sustainability’.
Spatial Planning in Alpine Areas. The Case of Annaberg.
Recently I was teaching for the Center of Regional Planning and Regional Development (TU Wien) in a seminar 'Spatial Planning in the Alps' which we held in Annaberg, Lower Austria. Annaberg is an ideal location to develop and eventually test strategies of how a small, shrinking municipality in an alpine area can in future juggle challenges such as (amongst others):
- maintaining sustainable land use (and the cultural landscape),
- competing on the international tourism market,
- facing climatic changes as a (lower-alpine) community which invested in winter tourism,
- creating job opportunities within the region, and,
- dealing with a negative demographic development of the community.
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| Constructing a region around Annaberg. Ötscherland as regional sketch (S. Zech). |
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| Map showing the central area of the municipality and the different lodgings which students resided in. |
Within the seminar the students developed a first image of the issues by creating exemplary roles for different actors on site (politicians, tourists, farmers, pilgrims, teachers, etc). These hypothesis and visions were then challenged and tested on site during a two days stay which included a participatory 'ideas evening' during which people from the community and students discussed what is at stake in Annaberg. We now published the resulting works of the students in a documentation which will be available for the people in Annaberg. We want to thank all people who participated in the event in Annaberg and the very supportive members of the municipality, all of which contributed a lot to the results of the seminar.
In future the Center of Regional Planning and Regional Development may deepen the work on Annaberg in collaboration with the municipality.
Below you find some impressions of the extensive walk we undertook to understand land-use, municipality structure and geography of Annaberg.
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