For the mayors

Although no complete model of the green city exists, architects have been trying to make sense of its place in a world of rapidly expanding urban developments. Even highly-engineered, ambitious projects like Dongtan Eco-City prove difficult.

The Dynamic City Foundation is a Dutch-Chinese organization engaged with rigorous urban research. Although urbanization in Holland and China may seem very different at first, lessons learned from Holland’s meticulous post-World War II planning, and the reasoned specificity of Dutch design in all things, may be applied to rapid Chinese development. DCF’s experiments, and Dutch design in Holland, can be seen as a microcosm for change in urbanizing China.

Super Satellites re-interprets sprawl: no longer a running, spreading pancake, it can now be an integral ingredient for sustainable urban development. In conjunction with the mayor of the selected city and a real estate developer, four teams of Dutch architects and four teams of Dutch architects will each assume a consecutive five-year period in the city’s future between 2010 and 2050. It is an extraordinary opportunity for a mayor looking for a creative, extensively researched urban solution from world-class Dutch and Chinese firms.

The process, documented throughout, will be an excellent future resource for the city – as well as urban governments nationwide – and, as well, an art piece devoted to it. Super Satellites’ ultimate manifestation will be shown at the 2010 Shanghai Expo in a large installation manifesting rigorous urban research and an extensive architectural process in the form of an engaging art installation made accessible to the public without diluting its content.