A-SYMMETRY©. All phenomena that restore, maintain or intensify the
inequalities that define the COED©.
COOP-ETITION©. Without COOP-ETITION© no COED©. Newly minted
Singaporean word that perfectly describes the constructive component
that competition can have in the Asian context.
BORDER-MANIPULATION©. Boundary in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) drawn,
and re-drawn, open or closed, according to fluctuating strategies of
inclusion, exclusion, desired or undesirable elements.
MARKET REALISM©. Is there a connection between China's recent communist
history and its present idolatry of the Market? Socialist Realism is
the Stalinist doctrine that suggests that art should depict, in the most
realistic way, a final condition of realized Utopia, rather than dwell
on the imperfections of the present, or the sacrifices on the road
toward its implementation. It is a brilliant formula for desire
simultaneously deferred and consummated. The present interval between
Market promise and Market delivery is explained by MARKET REALISM©, a
speculative fervor that does not demand instant gratification in the
form of profit, rentability, or a real relationship between supply and
demand - the first overwhelming, the second still defined by ORACULAR
MAGIC©. Socialist Realism: MARKET REALISM© = toil: speculation. (See
FAUSTIAN MONEY©.)
NEGLECT©. Another word for freedom. Best illustrated by an old Chinese
proverb: "The sky is high, the emperor is far away…"
PHOTO-SHOP©. The facility that allows PHOTO-SHOP© to combine everything
into anything - uncritical accumulations of desire - is applied
literally in the PRD as urbanism.
FAUSTIAN©. A FAUSTIAN© contract can exist on any scale; an entire
nation of 1.3 billion people made a deal with the devil (or rather Deng
made it for them) when the "open door policy" introduced the socialist
market economy into China. In the same way Faust join-ventured with
Mephistopheles, China's communist state entered the global market
searching for FAUSTIAN MONEY© (investment, foreign currency, foreigner's
bribes). Just as the Hell Bank Note in Confucianism finances an
ancestor's stay in the hereafter, FAUSTIAN MONEY© in China finances the
interval between the present speculative excess, and the eventual
collective wealth of a socialist market economy.
CULTURAL REVOLUTION©. Culture: cultural revolution = city: TABULA
RASA©.
ARCHITECTURE©. Property value, otherwise only marginally related to the
art or science of building. Designed in the PRD under unprecedented
pressures of time, speed, and quantity.
CHINESE ARCHITECT©. The most important, influential, and powerful
architect on earth. The average lifetime construction volume of the
CHINESE ARCHITECT© in housing alone is greater than thirty 30-story
high-rise buildings. The CHINESE ARCHITECT© designs the largest volume
in the shortest time for the lowest fee. There are 1/10 the number of
architects in China than in the US, each of whom designs 5 times the
project volume in 1/5 the time, while earning 1/10 the design fee. This
implies an efficiency of 2,500 times that of an American architect.
CURTAIN WAR©. The competition between ARCHITECTURES© utilizing the
maximum variety that the glass-panel allows. The curtain wall is in
China no longer associated with simplicity, precision, and tautness, but
with a new baroque that can assume its place in the larger PICTURESQUE©
order of things.
SHENZHEN SPEED©. Unit of abrupt growth. Architectural design in China
has accelerated to keep pace with SHENZEN SPEED©. Record design SPEEDS©
set in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone: 5 designers x 1 night + 2
computers = 300-unit single family housing development; 1 architect x 3
nights = 7-story walk-up apartment; 1 architect x 7 days = 30-story
concrete residential high-rise.
MORE IS MORE©. Definitive conclusion of the triad that began with
Mies: less is more, passed through Venturi, less is a bore, and now
ends in a paroxysm of the quantitative in the PRD: 500 square
kilometers of urban substance is built every year (6.4 million square
meters in Shenzhen alone, when vacancy rates hover near 50%); 5
international airports are open, with 2 more nearing completion; 12
different curtain wall panel systems are used in one building (see
CURTAIN WAR©); 10 revolving restaurants are constructed within 4 square
blocks; 414 holes of golf are open for play, and 720 more are under
construction; 5 lighting systems are deployed in a 15 square meter
living room…
MERGE©. DIALECTICS© collapse into MERGE©: the first a method to
understand and define opposites, the second a method to collapse
opposites and create new conditions. Landscape and city --> SCAPE©,
business and pleasure --> BUSINESS VACATION©, socialism and the MARKET©
--> the socialist market economy.
R KOOLHAAS