deconcrete

Dear Lily,

When I first saw you, the “romantic Italian and dignified French style” of your place captivated me. Actually, I became a bit confused, since I sometimes had the impression of being somewhere else, neither teleported to a harmonious Toscana village, nor to a delicate villa in the Normandy. The “elegance and subtleness of your Mediterranean architecture” drove me rather to some other anonymous city: Zhenzhou, Hefei, Deqing or Haining, to some other similar compound also produced by Greentown, one of the top 10 Real Estate Groups in China[1].

How can the standard Chinese megacity turn out to be even more mega-standard? The strategic tool for these developers is the Model: a magic formula combining housing and public image, repeated all over the country. Common features reiterate, whether Hopson, Shimao, Evergrande, Vanke or Coli are the assemblers. Lily apartments have numerous twins: the Rivieras, Oasis, Splendors, Rosegardens… These homogeneous complexes differ only on diverse niche products, which have been carefully detected. What can we learn from the supply-demand market of housing, regarding dwellers’ needs in current urban China?

After analysing the G-10 of the Chinese contemporary Real scene, four strategies are to be highlighted:

First, as far as Geopolitics is concerned, Hopson prefers to focus in the 3 Chinese metropolitan areas (Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou). Meanwhile, Evergrande ventures himself to set up residential units in 22 second-tier cities, following the official “Going West” policy: Chongqing, Xian, Kunming, Chengdu… These new unknown urban centres are quickly becoming decisive for national economics, relieving oversaturated Shanghai. Diplomacy also plays an important role for the Hong Kong-based Coli. In order to “grace China” for letting them operate in Mainland, they are philanthropy masters.

Second, “the creators of perfect lifestyles” stand for marketing a public image. Every Western allure is subject to be duplicated, in form of French neo-Royalty or a Mediterranean patio, branding “art, elegance and culture” for the sake of luxury. Consequently, their Architecture and public space develop together with their bombastic slogans; Shimao’s theme park gardens blossom in every decent Chinese compound, making olive trees, Louis XVI mazes, and Hawaii coconuts distort the perception of place – unused gardens simply pretending to be.

Third, target customers are generally city-based consumers with high earning power. However, Vanke has found another niche product in the growing middle-class. In addition, Hopson leads the supply of custom-made services for dwellers through its on-line community (banquets, delicacy order, education…).

And finally, anticipating to future developments or decreases, every G-10 company is amassing vast land reserves as a secret weapon to shock the world. But Lily, don’t be overwhelmed about the future! It seems that star Jackie Chan launching compounds is being gradually replaced by starchitects launching Real Estate headquarters.

Looking forward to…“making your dreams come true”.

Distorted reality of the metro system in madrid, depending on the amount of users of each station. This scanning of the city leads to another mental map of what happens both above and underground.

With the gathered data of one working day from November 2006, this data-visualization was made in 2008.

Neukölln is a traditional working class district and former location of much of Berlins’ industrial employment. Many companies in former West Berlin times ran highly subsidized production sites here and created a high demand for workers. After the fall of the wall, subsidies, and therefore production, were eliminated. For many, this meant the loss of their existence, and was especially true for migrant workers. Today 160 different nations live in Neukölln. More and more enterprises are owned and run by migrants. Turkish and Arabic enterprise, but increasingly also African, Asian, and Eastern- European, take on an important role. The establishment of enterprise happens mostly out of necessity.

In order to get an overview of the area, we investigated all shops with regard to its ethnic economies along Karl- Marx- Straße, between Hermannplatz and Grenzallee. Most of the app. 350 enterprises have ethnic background. The job market is particularly difficult for migrant workers. „Unsatisfactory“ language skills are a big obstacle, as well as the unwillingness of professional degrees from their home countries to be acknowledged. Most of the businesses are established with private capital funds. Through these enterprises the creation of value is increasing in Neukölln. The high potential of the ethnic economies – those which can bring further changes for the Neukölln economy – are often not obvious. The project Local Heroes therefore aims to investigate special features of ethnic economies along Karl- Marx- Straße, and to show its potential. With regard to the concept of the reorganization of the Karl- Marx- Straße in Neukölln and a revitalization of the former shopping district, Local Heroes wants to preserve the existing multi- ethnicity within the development of the local site, and highlight its cultural diversity.

As a recall for the city of Berlin we organised a street performance, together with one of our Local Heroes.

Svetla Dimitrova was born in Bulgaria. She has been living in Berlin since six years, and opened her studio for bridal wear in the Karl-Marx-Straße one year ago. Svetla is a fashion designer and worked in the fashion business in her home country as well. Her dresses are self- designed and produced; her customers are welcome to bring in their own ideas. On average Svetla works 14 hours per day, seven days a week. She does not have any employees thus far. The business is going well. She already has regular customers though she has never used advertising. Her business works through “word-of-mouth”. Her customers are living mainly in Berlin, but originate from Turkey, Germany, Poland, Russia and the Balkan countries. Besides Bulgarian, Svetla speaks German and Russian fluently, and has a working knowledge of Turkish. She sees the existence of the many other bridal shops in the nearby environment as a potential. Svetla has good relations with other business owners, even friendships. With her customers she is friendly, almost familiar. And although it does not go as far as meeting privately – Svetla wants to keep the line between business and private life here – she still listens to her customers problems and supports and offers her advice. Svetla often gets invited to her customers’ weddings.

Wedding international was performed in June 2009, showing the differences of social habits in weddings configuring outfits. Polnish women like to wear short, since they have to dance all night long, Russian dresses need to glitter…

[A project with Katharina Rohde]