The Urban Village section at the Biennale presented a number of interventions within the sub-theme of “Hybridity and Coexistence” which reflected the unique urban reality that urban villages present in Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta region.

Within this theme MVRDV, together with The Why Factory, contributed interventions exploring future cities: The Future City is Wide: Products that will Change our Cities, (W)ego House and The Vertical Village. In addition to these installations The Next Hutong, a research project by MVRDV that reflects on the hutong’s development over the last decades and proposals for a better way to model its future, was presented.

The Vertical Village: Individual, Informal, Intense envisioned a new model for the development of Asian cities. MVRDV and The Why factory proposed The Vertical Village, a three-dimensional community intended to bring back personal autonomy, diversity, flexibility and neighbourhood life to cities in Asia.

The Next Hutong is based on research conducted on The Xianyukou Hutong located next to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. With redevelopment imminent residents have relocated leaving the hutong almost entirely vacant. How to respond to this unusual situation? The hutong’s prominence in the urban fabric and the collective memory of Beijing means that its redevelopment comes with great responsibility.What should it become? MVRDV used this moment to reflect on hutong developments over the last decades and the need to create a better model for the future, the next hutong.