Beijing: The Moral City

2014
First Prize and Farm Prize: 2014 Beijing Cityvision Competition
jury: Ai Weiwei, Sou Fujimoto, Greg Lynn, Eric de Broches des Combes
collaborator: Vittorio Lovato

In response to the rapid deterioration of Beijing’s society, the People’s Committee for Moral Stability has initiated the Clean Citizen Program. It involves the implementation of an unprecedented technological advancement to undo the current social trajectory. Believing that the problems lie in the fundamentals of the human mind, the program seeks to intervene through the brain. Known as the Beijing Morality Software, the capacity to be moral is surgically inserted into the brain, providing for a new evolutionary mechanism designed to bring back long-abandoned Chinese values.

With the Morality Software, younger generations living in the city desire to better engage with their families in rural communities. The entire urban structure has been built anew such that the urban and the rural have collided and compressed together. This heterotopic mix not only allows for better access to food sources, commercial enterprise and mitigates income inequality, but ensures that the legacy of each family is built upon multi-generational wisdom.

This new sense of community has reshaped the daily lives of all citizens. The rich feel compelled to give their extra funds to the poor because of an overwhelming desire to be benevolent. Large enterprises remain righteous and avoid corruption. There is no need to wait in queues when everyone is honest and patient. Government censorship is eased as people cannot help but make the wise decision. Goods and services deemed as vices are cast aside and forced to consolidate for they no longer seem necessary. We have even recorded a historic number of individuals ‘giving up their seats’.

You will notice great positive change in our people, and for that reason, creative changes to our city.