Schlagwort: urban studies

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NEW article on Urban Reconstruction in Xinjiang by Madlen Kobi

This article investigates the relatively little explored urban development in China’s Northwestern Uyghur homeland of XUAR (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). Based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork between 2010 and 2017, the article outlines the ways in which Sinicization, modernisation and globalisation have simultaneously changed the morphology of XUAR’s cities. The restructuring of material urban infrastructure has also challenged local ethnic place-making. The article highlights the ways in which Uyghur urban middle-class citizens negotiate ethnicity, social status or the relation to the state through reflecting on the construction and perception of architecture.

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NEW article on thermal practices to cope with summer heat in Chongqing by Madlen Kobi

Until the 1990s and the spread of air-conditioning, cooling down during the hot, humid, and windless summers in the city of Chongqing (Southwest China) was mainly practiced outdoors: sleeping on the rooftops of multistorey buildings, playing mah-jongg in the streets, fanning oneself with a hand fan or installing bamboo beds in the compounds’ leafy courtyards. With the availability of affordable electricity and the popularisation of mechanical cooling, refreshing oneself has been relocated to the indoors. The article engages with the ways in which individual cooling practices and devices are intertwined with the architectural history of the city, for example, building design, construction materials, green spaces, or the arrangement of houses.