FLORA YANTING ZHOU

KRONOPOLIS

The City of Kronopolis is constructed within the hollowed remains of the famous statue of Aphrodite. 

Long ago the original settlers stumbled upon this statue and as time passed they assembled scaffolding in order to expand to the growing population. 

The base layer of the city represents the culture and technological advances of the past, while each subsequent layer represents the city’s evolution across time. 

To visit the city, visitors portal via an activation of a QR code. As a rite of passage into adulthood, each person develops a QR code on their forehead. 

The code provides a form of identification and all interpersonal interactions are mediated through a hologram. Please join us on the next available scaffolding on a journey to Kronopolis.  

Participation

Mario - Modeling
Xiaomeng, Flora, Yining - Drawing
Blake - Video & Caption

CREATE A CITY

Group Project by Blake, Xiaomeng, Mario, Flora, Yining

Time: Sep-Oct. 2021
Course: Grad Lab 1
Instructor: Ben Hooker

Brief
Your city will be a creative and radical abstraction, a speculative imagining where certain conditions or situations are reinterpreted and amplified. Crucially, rather than taking a top-down approach to designing your city, you will create it from the inside out. You will let its form emerge through the act of combining custom parts which you will formulate. Consider your city as a condition which spreads out in all directions, an immersive environment without beginning or end. Your custom kit of design elements – the building blocks of your city – will emerge from your group's shared and individual investigations, interests, subjective experiences. Your city will ultimately take the form of a composite multimedia drawing, which you will collectively engineer, annotate, and imagine inhabiting. 

DESIGN PROCESS

Week 1

- Get out into the city – both literally (physically) and virtually – and creatively document your encounters. Undertake three inspiration excursions, ideally one of which is IRL/physical.

Field trip of a village in Jiangxi, China

As an initial form of city I found everything here have stronger connection with nature. And I’m pretty interested in some texts and signs on the old wall that reflects the religious or political beliefs, which is a combination of nature and culture.

Virtual tour of Pasadena Street Greening

Virtual tour of Pasadena Street Greening

I found succulents are prevalent street plants here. Plants are indispensable in city. The arrangement of greening is not only about the climate, but also how people invite the nature into, and even work for their own system. That’s an interesting topic.

Mexican supermarket in Pasadena

Foods here were different from downtown because of tradition, which reflect the diversity in culture within a city. Food markets also indicate the cultural difference between neighborhood.

Week 2

- Choose three specific interest areas derived from their research excursions, and for each develop a catalog or kit of speculative design actors or elements, which expand on this interest. 

Kit of Parks

Kit of Parks

Parks suggested how people plan nature’s place and appearance in a city. Evidence show that parks strongly related to the happiness of residents. It’s interesting to observe the distance between each parks and their relation with life quality.

Kit of Native Plants in Southern California Coast

These plants are originated from here and only grow in here, witnesses the formation of the coast city. Plants are also citizens that they connect each other through insects and soil. This is how nature’s network woven together with human society.

Kit of Street Art

Kit of Street Art

Wall paintings are ancient language that can trace back in the caves. In today’s city, graffiti are also common-seen. Some of them are tags of gangsters and others are pieces from artists. The walls tells so much, from the cultural prosperity, the conflicts to what people believe in.

Week 3

- Create three constrasting 'imaginary city' drawings which utilize the kits/collections generated in week 2. Each drawing should be a representation of an "idea world", an entire world where everything in it, and everything that happens in it, relates to one idea. 

City of Island

Inspired by the empty nester problem raised by Xiaomeng, I imagine a city of islanders connected to parks. The characters are only lighten in parks, through which I want to address parks are the sources of joy for the old. And the colors of lines indicate how distance affect their happiness.

City of Community

I use my collection of local plants of California as the residents of the city. I simulated the gathering and distribution of urban community in a cultural diversity context. The duplicated individuals emphasis their breeds and density and thus compose a map of connection.

City of Structure

City of Structure

I used the inner structure of the buildings from Yining and my stencil characters from street art to compose a streetscape. Both of the elements are extracted from the inside or the surface of buildings and have the implication of reversal. I tried to rebuild an absurd but storytelling scene using these elements.

Week 4

- Expand the depth, scale, scope and canvas size of your chosen drawing. Imagine that your drawing will be printed big – taking up the size of a wall. Your drawing should not represent a single scene, it should be an abstract spatial plan, and evoke ideas about how the urban fabric is organized. 

City of Nature

City of Nature

I developed my city of island into an ecosystem sustained by nature in combination of the concept of parks and plants.
The giant tree supply all the energy and power of the city. The maze act as the root and network.

Some Inspiration

"Garden City" in Denmark

"Mircale Garden" in Dubai

Concept of SolarPunk

Week 5

- ​Work as a group. Create a composite city. Bring that city to life by taking us on a tour of some of the goings-on in your city.