Mad.Lab - literally the mapping and design laboratory - is a collaborative urban laboratory set up in 2012 comprising three areas of activity: education, research and practice. Mad.Lab programs take place in the context of ever-changing, always-challenging urban conditions in China. The fast-growth development model of the last three decades is under review - on hold in some cities. Chronic proble
ms abound; over-building beyond needs, environmental pollution, infrastructure severances, de-humanised streets, community dislocations, inequality, personal and economic security questions, employment, education, healthcare and ageing population. Leaders are asking for less greenfield development, integration, location specific urban character, culturalisation and smartening. What then is the ‘new urbanism’? Who is it for? Our system is to map in the field: not only not only in the physical and environmental dimensions, but by also mapping behaviours, flows and interactions. Intending enrichment, our plural approach is to interweave multiple readings of the city. Our approach is to design at the micro, medial and macro scales. We have focused on Chongqing; a fascinating, feisty and complex mountain city of 12m people some 2000km up the Yangtze River in South West China. Mad.Lab is supported by: DFAT, New Colombo Plan, Australia China Council, Priestman Architects, CQubed, Sichuan Fine Art Institute, UNSW Australia
