Gregotti & Associates : the architecture of urban landscape

The architecture of urban landscape -the summary of a working method covering the whole span of Gregotti & Associates' activities- integrates urban design and buildings with natural features, open spaces, and infrastructure. The condition that unifies the projects developed by the studio over seven years (2008-2014) in North Africa, China, and Europe is the definition of a new horizon in architecture territory, which stands out with the very same methodology used both in the sprawl of Chinese post metropolises and in the archipelago of broken-up landscapes characteristic of the geocultural multiplicity of Europe, and in the farthest reaches of the outermost desert of the Maghreb and Egypt. This idea of interpreting the landscape as a project is detailed in the studies for five new towns to be founded along the route of the Trans-Saharan Highway in Algeria and in a new urban hub planned for the furthest branch of the Sahara, in the outskirts of Cairo -unique voluntary geographies for new conditions of habitability. Against the enigmatic backdrop of China, the relationship between architecture and postmetropolis is redefined on the scale of entire territorial divisions (Zhuhai Coast), by grafting new parts onto cities within the historical urban system (Zhujiajiao and Suzhou), by urban expansions (Pudong Financial District) and the development of new settlements (Central Belt of the New City of Pujiang).