Design Precedents and Identity

Last spring I revisited Beijing, a city that I had not seen for 16 years. I was told of the changes that have occurred in there, but even though the city is still overwhelming, Beijing is drastically transformed. I kept asking myself where were those million bicycles tinkling around and where all those highways, cars and high-rise buildings were coming from. Not much seems to remain of the Hutong residential area except neon sights advertising restaurants and bars, and some courtyard houses at the back of it. In fact, the monuments were the remains of a city in radical transformation. On the one hand, millions of Chinese might, like me, experience this radical transformation as overwhelming; but on the other hand, they know that in many respects their quality of life is improving with the modernization of their industry and technology, and the modernization of their city. This view of a mere visitor facing this great phenomenon of growth that is China today is the departure point of this exploratory paper where we deal with the notion of Identity and subsequently the notions of Change and Time. However, it is not in the scope of this paper to cover all determinant aspects involvin