Caochangdi, one of more than 300 urban villages in the city of Beijing, tells a specific story about itself and its mostly illegal residents (including farmers, floaters, taxi drivers, and world-class artists). Embedded within it are both the problems and the possibilities of a new urban space that is redefining the city of Beijing. Robert Mangurian and Mary-Ann Ray dissect the multiple phenomena that form Coachangdi’s dynamic urban condition, and open up an original discussion of issues of development in China in a way that is both historically informed and oriented to emerging social, political and cultural processes.

The lecture is introduced by Mirko Zardini, Director and Chief Curator of the CCA.

Mangurian and Ray are principals at Studio Works, a Los Angeles-based practice founded in 1969.

The James Stirling Memorial Lectures competition is a collaboration between the CCA and the Cities Programme of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The lecture was also presented at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in New York on 6 April 2009, and at the LSE in London on 19 October 2009.