MARS + MORE have invited eight world renowned Chinese and international offices and experts, including OMA, McKinsey and Rockbund Art Museum, to work together on an integrated planning strategy. In a live session during Beijing Design Week the eight proposals will be consolidated into a single future vision that integrates cultural and business management with architectural heritage and virtual technology: the first holistic approach for 798 and Chinese creative clusters at large. 

798 and the Creative Cluster Conundrum 

Chinese cities face a new urgency: to move away from the mass production of built space, and instead nurture the rise of healthy, diverse and creative urban centers. To this end, creative clusters are a pivotal planning tool. Creative districts the world over have been able to assimilate into existing urban fabric and effectively reinvent themselves as unique and profitable destinations. However, 798, the first district to complete this cycle of gentrification in China, has become a victim of its own success. The area now has the resources to develop and densify, but has lost the involvement of the artistic community that would ensure new buildings contain and generate creative content. The challenge: ‘Can we plan what is essentially unplanned?’

CITY = MUSEUM is a project initiated by MARS + MORE, two Dutch architecture firms based in Shanghai. The project applies a unique new collaborative format of working in relay. The goal: to develop an alternative for 798’s harsh gentrification. The eight firms have been invited, based on their distinct backgrounds, integrating perspectives on business models, cultural management, new media technologies and architecture and heritage. This multidisciplinary team consists of: OMA, McKinsey, CAFA/Moujiti, HybridSpaceLab, XML, Rockbund Art Museum, AIM Architecture and WAI Architecture Think Tank.

As a preliminary exploration, MARS + MORE have put together a special issue of Urban China Magazine titled 798 and the Creative Cluster Conundrum. Through interviews with key figures of 798 it maps the emergence of the district, and case studies of contemporary Chinese creative zones. The September issue of Urban China will be presented at ALL Gallery, Beijing, Saturday 27 September 7pm.