Old Town of Xinchang

Urbanized Landscape is the general name of a series of urban panoramas created by Drawing Architecture Studio (DAS). The purpose of this series is to simultaneously document the macro and micro phenomena in a specific area of a contemporary city through the practice of architectural drawing. Old Town of Xinchang is the latest addition to the series as collaboration between DAS and Shanghai AMJ Architecture & Planning Design. Based on the redevelopment planning and a vast 3D model by AMJ for Xinchang Town in Shanghai, DAS completed a panoramic scroll to represent the contemporary scenes of this old town.

  The image of Old Town of Xinchang has covered the major area of the town. In this piece, DAS has experimented with axonometric projection from two sides of the architecture – the top and elevation. As the three dimensional world is usually constructed by three sides, axonometric projection from two sides might be the minimum requirement to show a three-dimensional view. Because of this, the three dimensional space created by a two-sided axonometric projection shows a strong effect of flatness.

The drawing of Old Town of Xinchang is heavily inspired by Persian miniature paintings. There are two characters from miniature paintings that inspire DAS most. Firstly, the collage by two-sided projection – among plan, elevation, and section – is often used to present three dimensional spaces, which is very similar to the way how Old Town of Xinchang is composed. Secondly, and more importantly, the fineness of the miniature painting doesn’t lie in the details of forms, but rather in the meticulous textures. In miniature paintings, regardless of architecture or figures, their outlines are generally simplified. Greater efforts are put into textures of the buildings, e.g. bricks or stones, and patterns of the clothes of on the figures.

Drawing Architecture Studio and AMJ Architecture & Planning Design, Old Town of Xinchang
DAS project team: Li Han, Hu Yan, Zhang Xintong, Yang Mengxi, Wang Zirui, Guo Qian, Li Kejia, Han Jizhe, Deng Lu, Qiu Xiaohan, Luo Dian
AMJ project team: Xue Minghua, Wang Lin, Wang Xutan, Yang Congxiong
Year: 2017