City of walls

Team

Name: Lide LI

Nationality: China

Institution / Company: University of Cambridge

– FINALIST of 2020 Monument Competition

The year 2020 has witnessed how Covid-19 pandemics incentivized an unprecedented physical separation between people and, thus, reshaped citizens’ social life. Living in the city is like being surrounded by invisible walls that restrict flux. 2020 revitalized ‘the city of walls.’

The city wall was originally a product of the old era that citizens were about to destroy, but it started to get rehab as soon as the virus came. Firstly, people reconstructed the city border, hoping to thwart the flux from the outside. Later, the massive panic gave rise to the explosive growth of inner barriers. Since then, the city is full of walls.

Here, travelers can hardly survive because it would be impossible to pass through mountainous walls to get from one place to another; people have to stay isolated. Here, love has difficulty maintaining because lovers are promising to meet, but part forever in the maze of walls; people have to talk to themselves. Nevertheless,  people still like to travel and love; they believe in one city without borders. 2020 is about quarantine, but also about the confidence and urge to break the barrier and get back to normal.

#Public Space organization & maintenance  #Quarantine #invisiblecities #Sense of belonging & Placemaking  #Mobility and transportation