Representation for new Scenarios: the work of Li Han

The set of portraits of an urban production space can be read as the story of a troubled relationship – at the same time of need and opposition – between the production spaces and the city. Almost always placed in a space “elsewhere”; depicted in plans, using graphics and textures that enhance their diversity: in the collective sensibility the places of production acquire a sense of strangeness that even the most innovative visions (Olivetti) fail to dent. In 2011, Li Han, a Chinese architect/designer, published A Little Bit of Beijing. This small volume employs a series of very detailed isometric splits for the portrayal of District 798: a former suburban industrial district, now artistic district, similar in history and in forms to many disused European industrial areas. He shows the changes that the complex has undergone through the mutations of use; in addition to the physical space, the volume depicts furniture, graphics, and people living in and animating the spaces. The representation developed by Li Han opens the way to a possible contemporary solution to the “city/industry” duo, proposing an unusual scenario: the industry is the city; the production spaces, now latent at the edges of European cities, are the answer to the question of cities.