Recovering Urban Memory: Beijing

The UIUC Plym Studio, in collaboration with Dong Gong of Vector Architects and Professor Botund Bognar, embarked on a project to redesign an abandoned farmer's market in the historic heart of Beijing's Baitasi District. The studio encouraged students to explore lost cultural practices and spaces in the district from the turn of the century through to the late modern period. The aim was to devise an intervention that would resurrect collective spaces such as farmers' markets and cafes, which had slowly disappeared from the community fabric. See an interview about this project with Mayur Mistry.