Surveilliance plaza
Urban Intervention | 70,000 sf
, 6,500 smDesign: Jiageng Guo,
Cultural Consultant: Wanghao Lou
Inter-ethnic violence with its subsequent terrorism has sent the government’s repressive tendencies into overdrive: security outposts are installed every 200m, CCTVs with AI facial recognition seamlessly cover every citizen, and QR codes engraved on daily appliances can be considered “weapons” like kitchen knives. This totalitarian surveillance regime has generated three spatial conditions—space as container, space of power relationships, and ambivalent emotional space—which have completely changed the nature of public space. Underneath the People’s Square, Ramp-scape utilizes surveillance driven by ethnic tension as an architectural instrument. A series of slits, ramps, and islands facilitate new narratives under these surveillance conditions: untouchable encounters, temporary dissent and consensus, chaos, and serenity. In other words, it explores possibilities of constructing new publicness within pervasive monitoring.
Up | Existing Plaza Under Surveillance
Down | Proposed Alternative Plaza w. Public Programs
Left | Proposed Plaza
Right | Existing Plaza w. Alternation on Surface