"Made in China" is usually a label we attach to low cost mass marketed clothes. Yet China's influence is extending to many other levels, growing unexpectedly also in fields such as architecture and in countries like Africa.
As Chinese companies and contractors work in Africa on new highways, light rail systems, Special Economic Zones, and mass housing developments - at times planned by Chinese architecture firms and financed by Chinese banks - the “Made in China” label is applied to both the micro and macro level. These structures are indeed built, accessorised, decorated and furnished with made in China concrete, window frames, carpets and curtains, and they end up creating an entirely new skyline.
An exhibition opening next week at New York's nonprofit organisation Storefront for Art and Architecture entitled “Facing East: Chinese Urbanism in Africa” will investigate this complex issue and the impact of Chinese development on fast-growing African cities.
Curated by journalist Michiel Hulshof (partner at urban research and strategy bureau Tertium, Amsterdam) and architect Daan Roggeveen (co-founder of MORE Architecture, a studio for architecture and research based in Shanghai), the research project - made possible with the support of the Creative Industries Fund NL and the EFL Foundation - is based on their research in six African cities and revolves around personal stories of individuals involved in the urbanization process.
Hulshof and Roggeveen travelled to six places, including Accra, Addis Ababa and Kigali to document the Chinese impact, and interviewed over a hundred Chinese and African architects, politicians, entrepreneurs, journalists, students, developers, artists, and individuals who are involved in or touched by Africa's rapid process of urbanization.
Visitors to the exhibition will therefore be able to make associations and connections between different narratives, social and architectural issues, taking into account elements about China's influence in Africa that we do not even think about, such as China's state-owned CCTV Africa broadcasting throughout the continent, and the fact that many African students are currently learning Mandarin Chinese at the Confucius Institutes scattered around the continent.
During their research, curators Hulshof and Roggeveen found out a key element that may have an impact on other levels in future - Chinese investments and developments are transforming the global landscapes prompting many African cities to begin facing eastwards. It will be intriguing to see how this African interest in Asia will develop in the next decade or so.
The exhibition opens on 16th June with a discussion with curators Daan Roggeveen and Michiel Hulshof along with Shanghai-based architect and researcher Zhengli Huang on the impact of China in urban Africa. If you can't make it, but feel the theme is inspiring, you can still follow Hulshof and Roggeveen's studies in other formats, starting for example with their volume How the City Moved to Mr Sun (SUN, 2011).
Facing East: Chinese Urbanism in Africa, Storefront for Art and Architecture, 97 Kenmare Street, New York, NY 10012, June 17th, 2015 - August 1st, 2015
Image credits for this post
Kilamba Kiaxi, 25 kilometers southwest of Luanda, Angola.
The African Union Building, a 99.9-meter high Chinese landmark in Addis Ababa. Photo by Daan Roggeveen.
Site manager on the construction site of the new light rail, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo by Daan Roggeveen.
Welder on the construction site of the new light railway, Addis Ababa. Photo courtesy of Go West Project.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Comments