Google Earth has released an update to its Timelapse feature, giving viewers a better look at the rapid expansion of the world’s urban areas between 1984 and 2016.
Originally released in 2013 in partnership with TIME and NASA, the update adds in four more years of data, as well as petabytes of imagery data from two new satellites, Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2, to provide clearer views of new developments and the recent effects of climate change on our natural environments.
China-based firm EID Architecture has been selected as the winner of a design competition for a mixed-use development, entitled Longfor Phase IV, in Chongqing, China. Designed as an exploration of vertical urbanism on a high-density scope, the project is composed of a “single tower and associated podium integrated as an assembled massing of stacked box-like volumes.”
Aedas has unveiled the plans for its Chongqing Xinhua Bookstore Group Jiefangbei Book City mixed-use project, a complex of retail, residential, office, and hotel space with a Xinhua Bookstore at its core. Based on an ancient Chinese prose that states “knowledge brings wealth,” the project aims to integrate the concept of a book with the cultural elements of Chongqing to create an interactive commercial space.
Competition Theme: Green – Eco - Future Building Systems and Lifestyle
The design intent is to create a system/network of eco-green elevated sky gardens within a soon to be realised super high-rise residential complex, with the aim of drastically improving the living environment and lifestyle of urban dwellers. This competition seeks young architects worldwide to provide innovative ideas to break the existing typology of the super high-rise and isolated lifestyles associated with high density urban living.
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These days, many of China's largest urban areas are easily recognizable to people from all over the world, with the skylines of coastal mega-cities such as Shanghai and Beijing taking their place in the global consciousness. Far less known though is the inland city of Chongqing - another of China's five top-tier "National Central Cities" - where in 2010 the Chinese government embarked on a plan to urbanize a further 10 million of the region's rural population, with around 1,300 people now moving into the city every day.
Since his first visit to the city in 2009 photographer Tim Franco has been on a mission to document the rapid change in what he believes is "maybe the most widely unknown megacity in the world." The result is Metamorpolis, a forthcoming photographic book by Franco with text by British journalist Richard Macauley, which documents the colossal scale of development juxtaposed against the people of Chongqing - many of whom still live an incongruous rural lifestyle among the concrete sprawl. Read on after the break for more images from the book and an interview with Franco about the experience of documenting one of the world's fastest-growing cities.
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Morris Architects shared with us their Houston Pavilion for the 8th China International Garden Expo in Chongqing, China, which is a showcase for a variety of landscape typologies throughout China and the world. The theme, “Better Garden, Better City”, promotes harmony between landscaped and built spaces. The City of Houston is one of thirty-two international cities invited to participate in the Expo. Morris Architects partnered with SWA Group to design the Houston Pavilion. More images and architects’ description after the break.
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