Vanke Dignified Life
ARTIST RESIDENCY CHINA — HANGZHOU, no. 34

A short distance from the Liangzhu Museum is the Vanke Dignified Life Cultural Village, a retirement zone of residential, hospital, nursing and rehab services, shops, restaurants, an international youth hostel, and 35% green space. The bus dropped us off near the non-denominational church Mei Li Zhou. It was designed by Tsushima Design Studio of Tokyo and built in 2010, not by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, as my hosts said before being corrected by Mei Li Zhou staff.



umbrella is essential for sunscreen as the day heats up

regional cuisine cafeteria lunch, choice of fish or meat and three vegetables plus rice, at the Liangzhu Cultural Village, a recently created retirement park-town near Hangzhou

Not far from the retirement village we visited a second Liangzhu Culture Museum designed by David Chipperfield Architects, also not by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. It has not yet opened. The building was locked and empty. A guard let us roam the outdoor terraces as a professional courtesy to the university faculty.






return trip to Shanghai

farm plots between train beds beneath highways north of Shanghai


apartment construction that is evidence of the massive human migration from rural to urban areas

seemingly endless apartment tower groups



Sky SOHO designed by Zaha Hadid, first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize

Non-Sky shopping

bamboo wrapped new construction

constant demolition and rebuilding

return to Shanghai University & end of a two day bus trip to Hangzhou
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