Yiqiao Hao

City Stage: An Exploration of Street Culture

The street is “the most important public space in the city, which not only bears traffic, but also provides an easily accessible site for social and economic activities”.¹ The street serves a variety of needs and it is the most basic unit of a neighbourhood or a community. The street is a perfect site to meet and communicate with different people, like an impromptu, full of surprises and discoveries. This thesis starts with the street life in ancient China as a foundation where most events and social activities took place. With different kinds of structures, people, performances celebrated life through the vitality created in the streets. 

Winnipeg has a different kind of street culture, according to its own history and population background. The climate situation which Winnipeg is facing may reduce the vitality of the street in a way. However, people’s desire for celebrating public space still impacts the city. By looking for the potentials and possibilities of the street as a proper public space, this thesis will attempt to translate the dynamic, lively atmosphere of Winnipeg based on its own culture and environmental conditions. At the same time, this thesis will explore ways to increase interaction between people and the city by raising people’s awareness and perception of urban life.

The street is the theatre of urban life which reflects urban diversity. The City Stage is not a place only for performance, but also as a place for people’s everyday life in the connection with surroundings. The street is the gathering place of uncertainty and flexibility, it provides potential and possibilities. How the traditional Chinese street culture and its atmosphere can impact the modern city? What role can architecture play in achieving people’s desire for dynamic urban life? How to activate the city in different sites without breaking its own fabric and memories? How architecture will inspire uncertainty and instability in people’s experiences and reactions? These questions and ideas will contribute to a series of public architectural spaces of different sizes. City Stage thesis attempts to activate downtown Winnipeg in both architectural and cultural ways. 

¹Wang, Di.2003. Street Culture in Chengdu : public space, urban commons, and local politics, 1870-1930. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.