STUDY HALL SITTING IN ASSIGNED SEATS GREEN CARDS OUT ON DESKS NOT TALKING!
Sitting On Afloating Green
2
306090 13 FAN, Ling Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m stainless steel units are assembled and topped with turf on-site 294 295 Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m stainless steel units are assembled and topped with turf on-site The lawn represents social common- wealth, an urban substitute for the productive soil of the rural environ- ment. An ambiguous surface, infill for urban designers’ master plans, palliative for the scourge of urban development. Green looks great filling the spaces between buildings on all those drawings, but once those lawns are seeded do we all have to “Keep Off!”? Lawns are benign, hygienic and controlled; they cover all the horror, squalor and uncertainty of the ground. Lawns are a tactic on the battlefield between power and democracy—occupying and sometimes also inhabitable! Lawns are a visual representa- tion of nature in an urban context; but they are anything but natural. The lawn is an engineered product genetically enhanced, mass produced in rolls, cut into uniform strips, transported in a truck and installed on-site by hard human labor. Lawns are a little like urbanism in China; they consume little material, and cover large areas in a short time. Floating Green, a public art installation located in Shanghai Pudong Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, detaches the flat lawn from the earth it covers, folds it and structures it to form inhabitable urban furniture. Instead of “Keep Off!” we are encouraged to “Hop On!” and touch it, smell it, use it and sense it however we please. The thin structure shakes gently when people sitting on it burst into laughter. An architectural artifact is usually singular and monumental, while a city emphasizes density and multiplic- ity. Floating Green rejects sculptural iconography in favor of an urban surface articulated in diverse parts. LING FAN is an architect and critic based in Beijing. He is Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. FAN, Ling SITTING ON A FLOATING GREEN Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m stainless steel units are assembled and topped with turf on-site
description
Published in 306090
Transcript of Sitting On Afloating Green
306090 13FAN, Ling
Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m stainless steel
units are assembled and topped with turf on-site
294 295
Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m
stainless steel units are assembled and topped with turf on-site
The lawn represents social common-wealth, an urban substitute for the productive soil of the rural environ-ment. An ambiguous surface, infill for urban designers’ master plans, palliative for the scourge of urban development. Green looks great filling the spaces between buildings on all those drawings, but once those lawns are seeded do we all have to “Keep Off!”? Lawns are benign, hygienic and controlled; they cover all the horror, squalor and uncertainty of the ground. Lawns are a tactic on the battlefield between power and democracy—occupying and sometimes also inhabitable!
Lawns are a visual representa-tion of nature in an urban context; but they are anything but natural. The lawn is an engineered product genetically enhanced, mass produced in rolls, cut into uniform strips, transported in a truck and installed on-site by hard human labor. Lawns are a little like urbanism in China; they consume little material, and cover large areas in a short time.
Floating Green, a public art installation located in Shanghai Pudong Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, detaches the flat lawn from the earth it covers, folds it and structures it to form inhabitable urban furniture. Instead of “Keep Off!” we are encouraged to “Hop On!” and touch it, smell it, use it and sense it however we please. The thin structure shakes gently when people sitting on it burst into laughter. An architectural artifact is usually singular and monumental, while a city emphasizes density and multiplic-ity. Floating Green rejects sculptural iconography in favor of an urban surface articulated in diverse parts.
LING FAN is an architect and critic based
in Beijing. He is Assistant Professor at the
School of Architecture at the Central Academy
of Fine Arts, Beijing.
FAN, Ling
SITTING ON A FLOATING GREEN
306090 13FAN, Ling
Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m stainless steel
units are assembled and topped with turf on-site
294 295
Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m
stainless steel units are assembled and topped with turf on-site
The lawn represents social common-wealth, an urban substitute for the productive soil of the rural environ-ment. An ambiguous surface, infill for urban designers’ master plans, palliative for the scourge of urban development. Green looks great filling the spaces between buildings on all those drawings, but once those lawns are seeded do we all have to “Keep Off!”? Lawns are benign, hygienic and controlled; they cover all the horror, squalor and uncertainty of the ground. Lawns are a tactic on the battlefield between power and democracy—occupying and sometimes also inhabitable!
Lawns are a visual representa-tion of nature in an urban context; but they are anything but natural. The lawn is an engineered product genetically enhanced, mass produced in rolls, cut into uniform strips, transported in a truck and installed on-site by hard human labor. Lawns are a little like urbanism in China; they consume little material, and cover large areas in a short time.
Floating Green, a public art installation located in Shanghai Pudong Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, detaches the flat lawn from the earth it covers, folds it and structures it to form inhabitable urban furniture. Instead of “Keep Off!” we are encouraged to “Hop On!” and touch it, smell it, use it and sense it however we please. The thin structure shakes gently when people sitting on it burst into laughter. An architectural artifact is usually singular and monumental, while a city emphasizes density and multiplic-ity. Floating Green rejects sculptural iconography in favor of an urban surface articulated in diverse parts.
LING FAN is an architect and critic based
in Beijing. He is Assistant Professor at the
School of Architecture at the Central Academy
of Fine Arts, Beijing.
FAN, Ling
SITTING ON A FLOATING GREEN
306090 13
Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m stainless steel
units are assembled and topped with turf on-site. See “Sitting on a Floating Green” on page 294.
306090 13FAN, Ling
Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m stainless steel
units are assembled and topped with turf on-site
294 295
Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m
stainless steel units are assembled and topped with turf on-site
The lawn represents social common-wealth, an urban substitute for the productive soil of the rural environ-ment. An ambiguous surface, infill for urban designers’ master plans, palliative for the scourge of urban development. Green looks great filling the spaces between buildings on all those drawings, but once those lawns are seeded do we all have to “Keep Off!”? Lawns are benign, hygienic and controlled; they cover all the horror, squalor and uncertainty of the ground. Lawns are a tactic on the battlefield between power and democracy—occupying and sometimes also inhabitable!
Lawns are a visual representa-tion of nature in an urban context; but they are anything but natural. The lawn is an engineered product genetically enhanced, mass produced in rolls, cut into uniform strips, transported in a truck and installed on-site by hard human labor. Lawns are a little like urbanism in China; they consume little material, and cover large areas in a short time.
Floating Green, a public art installation located in Shanghai Pudong Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, detaches the flat lawn from the earth it covers, folds it and structures it to form inhabitable urban furniture. Instead of “Keep Off!” we are encouraged to “Hop On!” and touch it, smell it, use it and sense it however we please. The thin structure shakes gently when people sitting on it burst into laughter. An architectural artifact is usually singular and monumental, while a city emphasizes density and multiplic-ity. Floating Green rejects sculptural iconography in favor of an urban surface articulated in diverse parts.
LING FAN is an architect and critic based
in Beijing. He is Assistant Professor at the
School of Architecture at the Central Academy
of Fine Arts, Beijing.
FAN, Ling
SITTING ON A FLOATING GREEN
306090 13FAN, Ling
Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m stainless steel
units are assembled and topped with turf on-site
294 295
Floating Green, Fan Ling, Zhangjiang Art Park, Pudong, Shanghai, 2008. Four 2x1.5 x 1.2m
stainless steel units are assembled and topped with turf on-site
The lawn represents social common-wealth, an urban substitute for the productive soil of the rural environ-ment. An ambiguous surface, infill for urban designers’ master plans, palliative for the scourge of urban development. Green looks great filling the spaces between buildings on all those drawings, but once those lawns are seeded do we all have to “Keep Off!”? Lawns are benign, hygienic and controlled; they cover all the horror, squalor and uncertainty of the ground. Lawns are a tactic on the battlefield between power and democracy—occupying and sometimes also inhabitable!
Lawns are a visual representa-tion of nature in an urban context; but they are anything but natural. The lawn is an engineered product genetically enhanced, mass produced in rolls, cut into uniform strips, transported in a truck and installed on-site by hard human labor. Lawns are a little like urbanism in China; they consume little material, and cover large areas in a short time.
Floating Green, a public art installation located in Shanghai Pudong Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, detaches the flat lawn from the earth it covers, folds it and structures it to form inhabitable urban furniture. Instead of “Keep Off!” we are encouraged to “Hop On!” and touch it, smell it, use it and sense it however we please. The thin structure shakes gently when people sitting on it burst into laughter. An architectural artifact is usually singular and monumental, while a city emphasizes density and multiplic-ity. Floating Green rejects sculptural iconography in favor of an urban surface articulated in diverse parts.
LING FAN is an architect and critic based
in Beijing. He is Assistant Professor at the
School of Architecture at the Central Academy
of Fine Arts, Beijing.
FAN, Ling
SITTING ON A FLOATING GREEN
