Abstract

Abstract: Since early use of its documentary power (e.g. Mumford 1939), in the 1970s film has become a primary tool for observing and analyzing the real city (e.g. Banham 1972; Whyte, 1970s). This presentation will discuss two recent experiments of using cinema to examine complex urban space: the transforming Nanjing City under rapid urbanization and the declining Long Canal Town under the pressure of globalization. This study focuses on the relationship between observation and documentation and on the capacity of cinema as tool for the pre-study of design and research projects.

Biography: Andong Lu received his PhD in Architecture from the University of Cambridge and is now a Research Fellow of Wolfson College. His research interests include narrative organization of space, cinematic aided design and contemporary Chinese urbanism. He taught modules at Nanjing University (M.Arch.) and Cambridge University (M.Phil. in Screen Media & Cultures). He has recently published in the Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes (Routledge) and arq: Architectural Research Quarterly (CUP). He is co-editing with François Penz the Urban Cinematics (Intellect Books, forthcoming 2011).