xin shixiang's city in the rain is an urban utopia of virtual realistic superposition

the concept of ‘city in the rain’ is a virtual and augmented reality proposition firstly presented by xin shixiang, designed by yeah archkids, and actualized by baidu map‘s panoramic technology. the city street view has been officially launched on baidu map, and you can enter it by simply searching ‘city in the rain’ in the application. since this is a utopian project, there is no need to consider its location when designing it, thus the whole process has been quite extraordinary and interesting.

the city street view has been launched on baidu map and you can enter it by searching ‘city in the rain’

architects, project leaders, and netizens have all participated in the project. first, an idea has been proposed on the internet about people’s emotional needs in rainy days — to build a city in endless rainy days. people’s creative ideas have been collected on this subject. then, these tens of thousands of ideas are screened to create a story based on the information recollected. the details of the life in the city are delivered in the story. later, the whole city system is visualized according to the detailed story and the virtual street scene is  designed based on the city system, allowing people to experience an online tour in it. in addition, the project team has superposed the virtual rendering of the city with the realistic one through augmented reality technology and adjusted the real view based on the superposition. finally, the city in the story is turned into a real one.

the virtual rendering of the city is superposed with the realistic one through augmented reality technology

legends are designed for its origin to give the project a solid foundation: the emergence of the city is not known, while what we know about it are two legends circulated in the city — one of belief, one of science. the legend of belief depicts the world of the city as a living body, which has a symbiotic relationship with a sluggish water-spraying beast. there are nutritional ingredients in the rain that can form a cycle with the giant beast, thus nourish the whole city. the legend of science tackles the ecological problems on the planet. a tech giant started a big tech project, constructing a rainwater cover for the city by using the large-scaled rainwater circulatory system. the source of water in the city may come from underground water system, surface water system or other purified water resource.

a large-scaled rainwater circulatory system is constructed to nourish the whole city

in the setting for the world of the city, seasonal changes are dependent on the latitude and longitude position. the temperature maintains within a range that is suitable for life and development. the weather is permanent rainy days, with the rainfall diminishes outwardly from the center. the natural light environment changes as that of the main world at the same position does and its biological system is evolved from the hydrophilic and aquatic organism of the main world. the terrain is smooth and the landscape is composed of  rivers and lakes. the underground is hollow and serves as an empty space for water cycle.

the emergence of the city is not known, while what we know about it are two legends circulated in the city

under the influence of the environment, the overall shape of the city is organic. from the mysterious babel in the center, three radial arteries and three main channels unfold uniformly, forming the transportation lifelines together with the leaves-shaped roads derived from these arteries and channels, cutting the texture of the blocks. streets crisscrossed on the land, with rivers and lakes all over the place. streets in the city are distributed organically like cluster of cells. each cluster includes business, life, public areas, etc. the border between these areas is blurred and interpenetrated.

the influence of dimension to city space

the huge design of a transparent sky pump at the center of city is the science and technology core area. the energy in the city is from the planetary energy — solar energy. collected through the photoelectric film on the top of babel, the energy is converted by water — the main energy medium. water plays a role in meeting the requirements of nourishing the life, living, environmental maintenance, and energy conversion in the overall process. under the management of intellectual agricultural system, the three-dimensional farms distributed around many areas provide food and a variety of natural landscapes for the city. the efficient intellectual unit computers are all over the city, providing production and maintenance service.

generate texture

understanding the canons of ‘city in the rain’, the proposal’s self-development can be divided into three periods . in the first period, baidu map’s panoramic technology is used to present the street view in the app, allowing people in the real world to wander in it through virtual reality technology. in the second period, virtual online communities are established. people can socialize with others in these communities out of interest, and a variety of cultural content, like words, games, films, and cartoons, are derived. in the third period, the virtual view of the proposal is superposed with the real one by augmented reality technology, and even materialized the scene. it influenced the real world and is integrated into it. this means there is nearly no end, and ‘city in the rain’ will keep telling a story about exploring inwardly and outwardly.

positive and negative of architects

the design of energy circulation

the design of private space

overall layout of the city

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: apostolos costarangos | designboom