THE PROJECT
The BBB project is a 20,000km long journey by bicycle, from Asia to Europe.
I will start from Tokyo and reach Paris through India, Middle-East and Europe. Ridding at an average of 80km a day, it should take me 8 to 10 months. I will carry an HD camera (besides my 20kg of equipment), and will work on the video edit once arrived in Paris.
Besides this, I will be supporting a French association for medical research on a rare disease: the mastocytosis.
I do not intend to achieve an exhaustive vision of the world, but I rather want to take a snapshot of things that will come to me within the time frame of this journey. My simple question is: What are today’s behaviors for tomorrow’s heritage?
THE DOCUMENTARY
The goal of this BBB project is to achieve a long format documentary (60~90min, HD format) on the theme of tomorrow’s life style identities in a globalized world. I will have a series of interviews, carrying my camera and equipment on my bicycle. Once in Paris, I will work on the edit… and hopefully be able show it to you all!
THE THEMES
Having studied and worked in the field of architecture for the past 10 years (and still NOT being a registered architect yet!), I will seek answers to questions related to “today’s behaviors for tomorrow’s heritage”.
1. What do we know about our uniqueness?
- Is it a necessity to have exceptional events to build strong identities?
ex: Religious impacts, Chinese communism, ’sakoku’ during Japanese Edo period, western colonialism, Egyptian pharaoh, cities rebuilt after war destructions …
- Point of view from our neighbors: can the eyes of others help to have a better consciousness of ourselves?
ex: what do Japaneses know about their Chinese neighbors (and vice versa) ? what do the Turkish know about their Iranian neighbors (and vice versa) ? what do Austrians know about their Slovenian neighbors (and vice versa) ? …
- Definitions of borders: land territory / language / Internet. Is the ‘One country = One life-style’ vision over?
2. What about heritage?
“We don’t inherit the Earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children”, Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
- What will we pass down to our children ? materialism / spirituality
- What room is there for spirituality when materialism looks alike everywhere?
- Do we look at the same stone, but with different thoughts?
- Time scale: a little everyday for a lot tomorrow.
3. Which behaviors?
- How to balance between keeping the past and building the future?
ex: downtown European cities turning to museum cities, Asian cities getting rid of their historical sites in the name of economic/hygienic issues…
- Architect’s responsibilities: will there be local architectural styles tomorrow?
ex: impact of hallmark architecture (the Guggenheim effect), impact of worldwide events to reshape cities by superstar architects (Olympic Games, World Cup, World Expo…), influence of international magazine trends and its ‘copy/paste’ architecture…
- Exchanging vs melting, what could be the respond ? a raise of nationalism or more tolerance?
- Would an increasing in communication avoid misunderstandings?
THE INTERVIEWS
Within the ’short’ time I will spend in each country, I will try as much as I can to interview 3 types of persons:
kids: in primary schools: I will try to observe the naive vision of children.
ordinary people: I will ask people I meet during my travels what they think about their neighbors’ life styles, and what they know about it. I will cross people’s wishes and see where there are universal trends or local uniqueness.
professionals: meeting architects/designers I will ask them what their position is in the international architecture’s trend and talk about their responsibilities in building tomorrow’s life styles.
Again, I don’t intend to achieve an exhaustive vision of the world, but I just want to take a snapshot of the things that will come to me.