ABSTRACT
This text reflects on how a travelling design studio that visited Xixinan, in Anhui Province, China in April 2019 has extended the observational urban analysis work Nigel Bertram and Marika Neustupny have been involved with over a 20-year period. The studio studied the use of water in a traditional Chinese urban society and how this knowledge may be used to address contemporary environmental problems. The group explored the use of multiple projections within the one view, and the combining of different viewpoints and scales to communicate more fully the spatial, social, and environmental complexity and local nuance. In this process of hyper-specificity and focussing on the drawing as an end in itself with its own internal discipline and rules (rather than as a tool) – the possibility of the translation of principles and future design potential of the drawing’s content also unexpectedly became more apparent.
