The NODE

MARS @ Beijing Design Week
// The NODE and The FIELD

In the discourse on China’s megacities, dizzyingly dense centers and vast suburban fields vie for our attention. But in reality they are part of the same cityscape and produced by the same urban forces. These dialectical urban realities are drastically divergent yet have forged similarly artificial landscapes born out of the infraspace remnants of China’s flash urbanization.

During Beijing Design Week 2017, MARS Architects will introduce two works of critical research that examine the dialectically opposite extremes of compression and dispersion: The NODE and The FIELD. The Node is large 3D printed sculpture that reveals a detailed prognosis of hyper densification at the heart of the city. The Field is an interactive video installation. As a clinical observation of China’s existing suburban expanse it slices through the landscape, allowing endless snapshots of a near infinite suburbia.

The two provocative installations are the starting point of a discussion on how the Chinese city is forging new notions of urbanity that straddle the extremes and demand radical new strategies for its consolidation, livability and sustainability.

THE NODE //multimodal city
节点//多样交通的城市

THE NODE // multimodal city is a large, highly complex 3D printed model that exists in a place of architectural hyperbole, interrogating a future that will evolve around nodes of hyper density and maximum mobility.
节点//多样交通的城市模型是一个依附于夸张建筑群的高度复杂的三维模型，它质问着在高密度节点和最大迁移率下发展的未来。

Crossroads have always been the heart of urban life. From the footbridge to central station, urban vibrancy coalesces around the places through which we move. The NODE examines how the scale of Chinese infrastructural projects might be maintained while their footprints are reduced. Stations in the suburbs don’t immediately seem to require urban levels of density, but as Chinese urbanization continues to unfold, hyper density will be required in order to prevent unending sprawl. The NODE takes a transit node the scale of Shanghai’s Pudong and make it fit extreme, yet healthy urban density. By folding infrastructure often built on a plane to a 3D form creating layered structures, we attempted to answer the question: what is the maximum extent to which infrastructural systems may be compressed?

A large, highly sophisticated 3D printed model, the NODE exists in a place of architectural hyperbole, interrogating a future that requires density in the extreme. As a work of critical design, we seek to test the functions and a
esthetics of network density where human space emerges from infrastructural monuments. The NODE aims to understand the power of immense intersections, and how vibrant urban life can be built out of concrete and steel monoliths.

十字路口一直是城市生活的中心。从天桥到中央车站，城市的活力聚集在我们走过的地方。该作品考察了中国基础设施项目的规模在减少的情况下如何生存。郊区车站似乎并不需要同城市水平一样的密度，但是随着中国城市化的持续发展，需要高密度的枢纽去抑制无休止的扩张。该作品采用了和上海浦东相似规模的交通节点，并使其适应了极端但有利的城市密度。通过从平面出发建造分层结构的三维形态从而实现了基础设施的穿插折叠，我们试图回答这样一个问题: 基础设施的最大压缩值是什么?

这个大型的、高度复杂的3D打印模型---------“节点”：依附于夸张的建筑群，质问一个需要极端密度枢纽的未来。作为一项重要设计的工作，我们试图测试网络密度的功能和美学基于此，人类空间从基础设施的遗迹中浮现出来。此作品试图去了解大型交叉路口的力量，以及从钢筋混凝土中诞生的城市生活是如何充满活力的。

THE FIELD // endless city
领域 // 无垠城市

A clinical observation of China’s unique hybrid landscapes, THE FIELD is an interactive video installation that utilizes the common experience of a train ride to examine the evolving nature of what was once ‘the countryside’.

这个作品是中国的独特的混合景观------啮合的农村和城市的临床观察。该作品是一个交互式视频装置，利用乘坐火车的共同经验，审视曾经的农村发展的本质”。

This interactive video installation is a clinical observation of the expansive ruralurbanindustrial hybrid that has come to dominate the Chinese landscape. The buttons allow the viewer to stop and start the video to carefully examine the reality of this endless city from the train slicing through the landscape. This allows infinite snapshots of a near endless suburbia. The abundance of functional space in these urban tracts relies on an expanding net of infrastructure, further stretching the granular dispersion consuming open and productive land. This provocative installation is a starting point of a discussion on how the Chinese city is forging new notions of urbanity.

这个交互式视频装置是对不断扩张的中国乡村/城市/工业混合体的临床观察。这些混合体已经主宰了中国的景观。按钮让观众可以随意控制视频的暂停和播放，当火车飞驰，通过窗口映出的景色，得以审视这无边的城市，形成一个无尽的近乎无限的郊区快照。这些城市中丰富的功能空间依赖于一个不断扩大的基础设施网络，进一步拉伸至分散的颗粒状，消耗广博和肥沃的土地。这种挑衅的安装是一个探讨中国的城市是如何锻造城市新概念的出发点。