Lexian Hu

Lexian Hu is an architect, researcher and model maker based in London and Shanghai. He is an MA Architecture graduate from the Royal College of Art. During and after the completion of his Architecture (MA Hons) Degree at the University of Edinburgh in 2018, Lexian worked in junya.ishigami+associates in Tokyo and llLab. in Shanghai as a professional architectural designer.

During his time at the RCA, he conducted research-based projects that provided spatial solutions for social and political urgency. His research "Digital Empire" examines digital infrastructures through an analysis of their impacts on social, economic and political lives. In doing so, he designed "NoBeijing" as a strategy of spatial organization for constructing local and diffused mesh networks hidden behind surveillance of state-own digital infrastructure.

As a model maker, Lexian Hu uses physical models to experiment and present spatial relations. He also looks at the architectural model in relation to architecture in the broader historical and social context, to investigate its role in generating and formulating new designs during critical moments of change in historical, social and political practices in his research "Model as Protagonist".

The deployment of Chinese internet started from 2000, and till now, the country has the largest group of internet users among the world. The digital infrastructures of China impact on people’s social, economic and political lives. There are over 1.1 million CCTVs installed in the city, equal to one camera for every eight residents. There is an urgency to emerge an alternative network system that can form new spatial organisation and navigation in order to return agency to the residents of the city.

Beijing will be a testing ground for bringing forward a different network that adapts to the complexity of the urban territory and suggests a different relationship with the digital infrastructure. NoBeijing is a new data autonomy for the city. It operates as a strategy of spatial organization for constructing local and diffused mesh networks hidden behind surveillance of state-own digital infrastructure.

NoBeijing is not a solution, but a mechanism for generating solutions. This is a conscious relationship between people and digital infrastructures. NoBeijing is not only a digital enclave for freedom of speech, but it determines more and more social and communication aspects of our urban lives.

Digital Surveillance Technology in Beijing

Censorship of Music Contents

Big cities in China are among the earliest cities to have begun the transformation process toward smart city infrastructure. The aim of this type of digital infrastructure is to make cities more efficient and technologically advanced. However, it should be emphasised that this transformation is not only about efficiency, but also about ecological, social and democratic sustainability. The use of digital infrastructure is something that has to be critically reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Beijing's monitoring system processes 21.5 million citizens daily, to say nothing of visitors. Thousands are employed to review posts and search keywords on social media and compile reports for authorities. State-owned digital infrastructure formulates Beijing as a regulatory city, and citizens need to have a method as a refusal of the current censorship regime enforced.

Journey Toward Jiangjinjiu Music Bar

Renovation into Music Venue

This project is located in Gulou, Beijing, once the centre of underground culture in China. Situated at the northern end of the central axis of inner Beijing, underground culture was born right underneath the centre of power. The spatial characteristics of Gulou provided a certain vivosphere for underground venues in the past. The layers of sound and objects applied to this rough district reflected how the livehouse survived back in the day.

However, in the year 2012, an array of underground music venues were shut down due to inadequate fire safety design protocols. Graffiti, posters, and street vendors were removed from the city under the Beijing Renovation Guidelines. This rectification also extends into the digital environment: several policies are established to rectify online music content.

Beijing Freedom Politics

Existing Buildings, Urban Markers, Daily Objects & Vehicles

NoBeijing Network

NoBeijing - Shop(Data Exchange)

NoBeijing - Shop(Social & Communication)

NoBeijing - Communal House(Data Exchange)

NoBeijing - Communal House(Social & Communication)

NoBeijing reflects on concepts of individual initiative, self-construction and customisation. A NoBeijing network can be built by anyone, anywhere, by attaching the nodes to available objects to receive signals. The objects here can be categorised into existing buildings, urban markers as practical elements, and daily objects, vehicles as social elements. A series of facade intervention as a transition layer between private and public space is proposed for gathering all different objects and elements within the district. The new facade is a spatial organisational solution for the digital mesh network to operate under public surveillance.

Data Model Object

Lexian Hu

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Royal College of Art