Exhibition at the Bi-City Biennale of UrbanismArchitecture of Shenzhen and Hong Kong

MIC-HUB is delighted to be among the exhibitors of the world’s most visited architecture exhibition, the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture of Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
MIC-HUB, alongiside Tong-Ji University Professor Tiziano Cattaneo and MIT Phd Candidate Carmelo Ignaccolo, presented their vision for the future of mobility of the Greater Bay Area, the biggest mega-city in the world.
In the last decades China has become the country with the highest number of car sales per year, about five times higher than the second largest market, the United States. Nevertheless, China’s motorization rate is still relatively low (179cars/1000 inhabitants) but, if it were to reach the vehicle per capita values of western countries, we could expect the largest wave of motorization ever witnessed by the planet, worsening the already problematic traffic conditions of many Chinese cities and having a gigantic impact on climate change.

For this reason, we have to imagine an unprecedented social, technological and economic shift that will fundamentally change the way people and products move. The proposal consists of two main components: the first one looks at the possibility of utilizing driverless technologies supported by A.I. systems, imagining a new generation of electric vehicles that will exploit the road network to become the backbone of a new mobility that will rapidly move away from fixed guided infrastructures.
The second component looks at a new generation of vehicles as an opportunity to reconnect the passenger with the external environment rather than isolate him, as per traditional cars. By sensing both the user and the environment, the new generation of cars will enable contact between the user and the outside world, reconciling the passenger with other road users and the surrounding landscape.

The installation “Transforming the landscape of mobility” by MIC-HUB with Tiziano Cattaneo and Carmelo Ignaccolo will be on show from December 21, 2019, until March 2020 in Shenzhen, as part of the “Eyes of the City” exhibition at the 8th edition of the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB). “Eyes of the City” is curated by MIT professor Carlo Ratti (Chief Curator), Politecnico di Torino and SCUT (Academic Curators), and explores the impact of new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence and facial recognition, on urban life. The title of the exhibition was inspired by the “eyes on the street” phrase coined by urban activist Jane Jacobs in the 1960s. As new technology permeates the urban landscape, cities themselves are acquiring the ability to see, thanks to sensors and data that enable the built environment to respond to people’s presence in real-time.
American historian of technology Melvin Kranzberg said that “technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.” Using critical design as a tool, “Eyes of the City” seeks to create experiences that will encourage people to form an opinion and become engaged citizens.
“Eyes of the City” will be the first exhibition to integrate facial recognition on its own premises. Located within Shenzhen’s Futian high-speed railway station and covering a surface of more than 5,000 square meters, the exhibition reacts to its transportation-hub location with a unique design, inspired by duty-free shopping areas. The creative spatial layout, devoid of clear gateways, was developed by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and Politecnico di Torino, while the visual language was conceived by the Dutch graphic designer Mieke Gerritzen.
The exhibition is the result of an “open-source curatorship” process. Exhibitors were selected through an open call and provided blueprints to ensure installations would be fabricated locally, without resorting to international shipping. “Eyes of the City” aims to spark conversations of global relevance, engaging people far beyond Shenzhen.
The blueprints of each project will be available for download on our website in order to allow anyone to replicate them.