BEIJING
reports from Tony Zhu and Sam Basu
On the fortieth anniversary of the protests in Paris of May 1968 a new study of the phenomenon of the barricade has been begun by the AESD to see how it has evolved in the ensuing years. The study will be architectural in nature examining how the barricade functions as an extension of the planned architecture of the city, and revealing how the fluid, spontaneous nature of the barricade can re inform contemporary architectural practice.
Paris offers a logical staring point for understanding the barricade. Its history is also the history of the barricade from the Day of the Barricades, 12 May 1533, through the July revolution of 1830 on to the events of May 68. But the phenomena are universal, incorporating everything from military strategy to traffic control techniques and any improvised modification to the planed flows of space. It is as the temporary modification of built space that the barricade can most enlighten the functions of architecture and its relations to politics.
Through an unprecedented act of will, contemporary Beijing has begun a massive program of transformations. This process has brought the city into a state of architectural flux that closely informs the understanding of the barricade.
EDITING THE HOUTONGS
And of coarse this is not the first wave of demolitions. Below is evidence of the damage left after the Europeans put down the Boxer Uprising in Beijing 1900
