#unborn cities

[jeroenapers]

Chinese spooksteden in de fotoserie 'Unborn Cities' van Kai Caemmerer.

“Unborn Cities” is a body of work that explores the architectural structures and physical growth of new cities located in the middle of China.

The project revolves around three new cities: The Kangbashi District, a subdivision in the city of Ordos in Inner Mongolia; the Yujiapu Financial District near Tianjin; and the Meixi Lake development near Changsha.

Unlike the urban model of many Western cities, these areas are built to the point of near completion years before they become populated. My images revolve around the shifted sense of reality felt in a city that has yet to be inhabited by the people it was built for.

Devoid of human scale and lacking the marks of history, these structures represent the origins of a future metropolis that will soon be home to millions. At present, however, they seem more like architectural models than places for living.

—Kai Caemmerer

[quichje]

[the-entangler]

Kai Caemmerer

[prsprsrvv-blog]

[wired]

Kai Caemmerer’s photos capture the eerie sensation of standing on a silent street surrounded by empty skyscrapers and public spaces devoid of life. 

For his ongoing series Unborn Cities, Caemmerer visited Kangbashi and two other Chinese cities. Kangbashi is one of hundreds of sparkling new cities sitting relatively empty throughout China, built by a government eager to urbanize the country but shunned by people unable to afford it or hesitant to leave the rural communities they know. The buildings rise as strange concrete specters, displaced in time and lacking any sense of history.

 Check out more photos and read about Caemmerer’s project.