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Expanding Megacities at MoMA

By Peggy Roalf   Thursday November 13, 2014

Everyone who lives in a large city is an end user of public policy, urban design programs, and large-scale urban development, such as the massive transit hub that accompanies the recent development of the Barclay Center in downtown Brooklyn. Rarely, however, does the public have a voice in the future of their cities (a notable exception being the defeat of the West Side Stadium, in 2005).

Next week, the Museum of Modern Art opens the exhibition, Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities, which examines new architectural possibilities that address the rapid and uneven growth of six global metropolises: Hong Kong, Istanbul, Lagos, Mumbai, New York, and Rio de Janeiro.

The project’s theme is the complex issue of the megacity, and the fast-growing urban environments that juxtapose disparate economic and social realities. By 2030 the world’s population will be a staggering eight billion people. Of these, two-thirds will live in cities. Most will be poor.

With limited resources, this uneven growth will be one of the greatest challenges faced by societies across the globe. As the world shifts toward a large majority of urban population, and as recent global economic crises call into question traditional modes of planning cities, different narratives and design tactics are urgently needed to address new urban conditions.

The exhibition features design visions comprised of drawings, renderings, animations, and videos produced by six interdisciplinary teams of local practitioners and international architecture and urbanism experts.

In addition the museum has created a user-generated Tumblr blog that collects examples of emerging modes of tactical urbanism happening in the six cities. So if you reside in Hong Kong, Istanbul, Lagos, Mumbai, New York, or Rio de Janeiro, your voice can be heard.

Uneven Growth: Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities opens on November 22, 2014, continuing through May 10, 2015. Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, NY, NY. InformationPostPublication.

Image above: Lagos Tomorrow. 2014. Transportation. Courtesy NLÉ and Zoohaus/Inteligencias Colectivas and MoMA.


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