Symbol: A City of Two | Wutopia Lab

Wutopia Lab was invited by Mr. Zhang Xingyu, the curator of the Unknown City: Chinese Contemporary Architecture Installation Image Exhibition (Ping Shan) to design an installation called Symbol: A City of Two. The exhibition is based on a genealogic structure of the current discourse on the profession and was held for discussions of contemporary pan-architectural development issues.  

Anastasia

Anastasia is a 6m x 6m micro city created to imply the life of two persons on a spatial form.  The city represents the life itself with a short history, but it could be everlasting on the macro aspect. 

There will be light

Darkness comes first right before we are born, with no coldness or warmness. You might be nervous and trying to hold his hand. Weak light penetrates through the rough wall and the tunnel has no end. There will be light and it’s getting brighter and brighter. A world is coming after the light.

Infinity comes after

You’ll see temptations and desires, some are as beautiful as love. But you will also see twisted faces on the mirror because there are temptations man and woman are always struggling on and it’s that temptation and struggling made our city as a container, an inevitable reincarnation that made the infinity of world. 

Red Redemption

You might be stumbled in this twisted city, but you can still find the red house hidden on the back. There must be something you are willing to fight for and you can take a breath and lick your wound in that spiritual castle. Your mind is wandering and you start to question the reality. 

White Arcade

Most people would sit under the shadow of arcade, watching curious people passing by again and again. Will you be one of them? Will you still recognize each other and keep each other on your memory? 

Exit

There is a narrow gap in the city, an exit, waiting for all kinds of people ready to find the way out. Sometimes things change and the light will start peep in the city from that exit. You will think of lyrics of Kohn’s song and at that moment he will can to your mind. 

Memory and symbol are the evidence of her existence

Lots of friends said they saw traces, traces of references of historic evidences. Géricault, Munch, Dali, Rothko, Le Corbusier, Barragan, Scarpa and Michelangelo, they have all been randomly rewritten and become a part of this collaged city, their ambitious ideas and humble minds are decorations.

There are 18 implications in this city. Can you find them all or there are more to be found? Your interpretations will support my authorship but eventually the city will be yours, only for a while.

For a moment, the city becomes everything to you. No desires will be failed while you are part of it. 

For a moment, you had a flashback of your life and it belongs to the city. It feeds the city with memory and desires, eventually produces implication. Implication goes on and on and wants you to remember it, but all these are just evidence of her existence. 

Project: City of Two

Design Office: Wutopia Lab

Principal Architect: Yu Ting

Project Architect: Mu Zhilin

Project Manager: Ding Ding

Photography: CreatAR Images

Address: Shenzhen

Area: 36 m2

Material: Wood, Floor Glue, Sticker, Sculpture

Completion: March, 2019