PLANNING AND RESEARCH

FASTE(A)ST CITIES: NEW TOWN IN ASIA. 11

Design and Research
2007-2011
Location​
South Korea and Asia
Client​
Contest
Lead Architect
Davide Longhi
With
Young Dal Lee
Research Subject
Asian and Korean new towns

PROJECT

Korean new towns today represent the most mature and widespread example of new cities in Asia, which especially in recent years is becoming a practice in the rest of the emerging Asian countries.

Although the phenomenon is vast in size, Western sources devote very little space to reading and interpretation. Urbanization patterns in Asian countries with strong economic growth are the condition and outcome of rapid changes. The adoption of unprecedented forms of state capitalism is achieved by linking the market to urban and infrastructural programs of considerable financial commitment, generating immeasurable competitive advantages. Territorial transformation plans, programs and projects appear as enormous construction sites with closed management models, with simplified urban structures and repetitive models of living in which public spaces are formed in minute social interaction. Structural simplification creates efficient production conditions and, while generating inevitable inequalities on itineraries of dubious sustainability, favors the development of a new and inhomogeneous urban culture. The simplification of complexity seems to be the preferred way to minimize the construction times of cyclopean structures, large districts, infrastructural and technological systems. The speed of the manufacturing processes allows, in fact, to promptly respond to unavoidable social questions and guarantees high profits in the short term.
PORTFOLIO

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Davide Longhi

Davide LONGHI was born in Vasto, Italy in 1969.
He graduated with honors in Architecture in Venice with an urban design thesis.
Winner of Max Kelly postgraduate scholarship to study Sydney Harbour’s Metropolitan
Strategies, promoted from the Australian Government of NSW .

He obtained a PHD in International Quality of Design with a thesis on urban
development in Asian cities.
He lives and works in Padua where he founded in 1999, PWSA, PatchWork Studio
Architects, a versatile container of studies, designs and projects.

The most important of his research themes is about the origin and transformations of
public spaces and wide-area planning; he won the national prize of Gubbio for the
squares of Pastrengo-Verona.
He has been following through the years, a lot of urban projects in Veneto Region,
working since 2006 on the PTRC, the Strategic Regional Plan of Veneto.

He has also worked on many residential projects around the world.
He loves a functional and creative home, at the same time. Fresh spaces but full of
life, and where the internal-external relationship is the key to interiors paths and
perspectives.
He is a lover of 1950s / 1970s design, especially Italian and American, and he loves to
include vintage pieces of modern design in his projects that he looks for with care.
Often the design of the stairs inside his own homes are coming a spatial landmark
and an interesting opportunity for a change of perspective within domestic spaces.
He loves designing the scenographic transitions of environments with light, which,
especially in the evening, light up with atmospheres.

He has followed numerous projects for shops and chains, and tries to respond with
innovative and functional spaces to the different types of merchandising.
Behind choices it often hides a very complex marketing strategy and a strong focus
on cost control. Above all the shops tell the expertise and professionalism of industrial
groups or enthusiasts about watchmaking, wine, food, coffee or producers of sofas
and furniture dealers.

He was the curator of the exhibition “Twentieth Century. Architectures and cities of
Veneto”, event of the XIII Biennale of Architecture in Venice and the author of the
eponymous volume.

He has held seminars, conferences and workshops In many universities: Sydney
(Sydney University and University of Technology, Sydney), Seoul (Myongji University),
Beijing (Tsinghua University), Brussels (Institut Supérieur ’’Architecture Saint-Luc),
Nancy (Ecole de Architecture), XXV and XXVI ILAUD (International Laboratory of
Architecture and Urban Design).

He has taught at:
2014-2015, University of Ferrara;
2014-16, Future University, Sudan;
2001-2013, IUAV University of Venice Faculty of Architecture;
2012-2013, University of Padua, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture;
2011-2013, Erasmus Intensive Programme (IP)
2004-2008, IUAV University of Venice, Faculty of Spatial Planning;
2005-2006, École National Supérieure d’Architecture in Strasbourg;
2003 École d’Architecture de Nancy;
2000 and 2001, I.L.A.U.D., International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design,
directed by Giancarlo De Carlo.