THE NECK AS A SPINE - CHONGQING
CHINA, 2016

“The Neck as a Spine” is a project that proposes an urban development in the steepest area of Chonqings’s peninsula.

A main road crosses the city organizing it in a linear disposition. However, the most diverses uses are located in the flat areas, missing an opportunity to connect the city through rapid infrastructure (in the neck of the peninsula, the thinnest area between the north and south part), and to get advantage of city views.

In so, the project represents an investigation about typological posibilities in rich topographical areas as well as potential connections between low and high areas of the city.

As a result, the project consists of three strategies. First, the recovering of the main avenue, diminishing the protagonism of the car and creating a pedestrian friendly environment. Secondly, the re-orientation of the buildings surrounding the main avenue, that instead of being parallel to the road, the project proposes to have a perpendicular orientation from it, opening new views of the city. Moreover, several treatments for the landscape fill the space in-between the buildings and different strategies are deployed according to the programs proposed and the level of privacy needed. In so, the buildings can acommodate housing, hotel and workshop spaces. And third the insertion of a bridge building (cultural infrastructure) that would be able to connect the metro rail station located in the low part of the peninsula, with the highest part and the main avenue.

Regular City Chongqing Studio - Joan Busquets
Harvard Graduate School of Design