Macao: Parallel Worlds maps the contested urban identity of one of the world's most densely populated territories — a city whose architectural reality far exceeds the reductive shorthand of the "Las Vegas of the East."
About This Book
Macao exists in a state of productive contradiction: a UNESCO-listed historic centre pressed against monumental casino complexes; traditional urban grain absorbed by high-density contemporary development. This publication, produced for the Macao exhibition at the 19th Venice International Architecture Biennale, refuses easy categorisation. Edited by architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu — the exhibition's curators — it presents Macao's co-existing urban worlds not as conflict but as condition. Iwan Baan's photography anchors the visual argument, documenting an architectural landscape in which ambition, density, and historical preservation occupy the same city block. Essential reading for those tracking the evolution of high-density urban development in contemporary Asia.
Key Features
- 256 pages of architectural photography and urban documentation by Iwan Baan
- Edited by Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, curators of the Macao exhibition at the 19th Venice International Architecture Biennale
- Published by Lars Muller Publishers, ISBN 9783037787960
What You'll Discover
- How Macao's historic centre has been preserved alongside — and transformed by — rapid large-scale development, producing genuinely hybrid urban typologies
- The spatial logic of Macao's casino district, where newly built leisure and entertainment complexes have reshaped the city's identity at an urban scale
- The curators' argument that Macao's density and complexity demands a more nuanced critical framework than comparative shorthand allows
- Iwan Baan's photographic method applied to one of Asia's most architecturally layered cities, capturing urban ambiguity with documentary precision
About the Author
Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu are the founding principals of Amateur Architecture Studio, based in Hangzhou, China. They served as curators of the Macao exhibition at the 19th Venice International Architecture Biennale, for which this publication was produced.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 256
- Dimensions: 12.8 x 19 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783037787960
- Publisher: Lars Muller Publishers
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects, urban designers, and researchers with a focus on high-density Asian cities, urban complexity, and the intersection of heritage preservation with contemporary development.