Winner of the RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship 2018
Subnatures
of the
Modern City
a taxonomy of the unplanned
unplanned
subnatural growth
over time
unplanned
subcultural growth
over time
unconscious
urban reality
planned
urban
design
extreme nature
extreme culture
Diagram of subnatural environments
What is subnature?
All known environments are hybrids of subnatural and subcultural events, in variable and ever-changing degrees. From the wilderness of a bamboo forests, to the chaotic movement of a Tokyo scramble; each and every environment is constantly being reshaped by, and is actively reshaping, the extremes of 'nature' and 'culture'.
The modern city can be typified by its human-dominated design agendas. Highways, parks, tower blocks, pedestian walkways, and ferry ports, all provide a safe and cleansed network for subcultural events to thrive in. But the aesthetics of the modern city also have a universal and unavoidable subnatural side too. Despite their complete absence in urban designs and glossy architectural renders - events such as dust, smoke, and pigeon faeces, still remain ever-present in the modern world.
A window is designed to "look out onto nature". Rather than attempting to expunge these subnatural realities in pursuit of
Wilder Cities
Annual Journal
The Vogue
Hong Kong's Obsession with Palms
The Primitive
Pink Dolphin
The Cleansing
The Filthy
Nara Deer fill the streets
The Cute
Houtan Cat Village
The Fearful
Spiders
The Factory
China's changing cuisine
The Uncontrollable
Killing times (china ordered to kill 3 insects
Cormerant fishing in Japan
The Patriot
The Stray
China's Pandas