Shanghai, air and other stories - Casual dissemination for a biological transformation

Giuditta Vendrame (1)

1 INDACO

Two years ago I lived for 11 months in the 17th floor of a high-rise building in Shanghai. My bedroom had a small bow window, a privileged observatory; wherefrom everyday I looked at the city. From there, there wasn't architecture anymore, there wasn't social life; there was just a big pattern. On the contrary when I was walking on the street, Shanghai appeared to me a crowded city full of signs, people, messages and objects: a tremendous chaos. Looking from my window every thing was appearing differently: it was calm and diffuse. My glance was wondering in front of that view that every morning was changing. Every morning the city was more or less suspended, it was wrapped in a thinner or thicker layer of haze. This opacity made the city lighter, impalpable, almost fragile in front of my eyes. This aesthetic quality won me; I was every day inside a fairy-tale. I connected my visual experience with the "Air" of Shanghai. Here it started "Shanghai, Air and other stories".

Mots clés: air; opacity; third landscape; dissemination; garden; promenade

Domaines: Architecture, aménagement de l'espace; Sociologie

Giuditta Vendrame. Shanghai, air and other stories - Casual dissemination for a biological transformation. Ambiances in action / Ambiances en acte(s) - International Congress on Ambiances, Montreal 2012, Sep 2012, Montreal, Canada. pp.621-626. ⟨halshs-00745045⟩