"What will define a city as being beautiful in the future?"

I’ve long been interested in the way we aestheticize cities, and how that’s played out throughboth media and experience. Some cities have beauty imposed on them (Paris), while othersslowly acquire it, not just physically but through a build-up of associations andfetishizations—of, say, power (New York), novelty (Tokyo) or even decay (Havana).

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Aric
Chen

Aric Chen is an independent writer and curator based between Beijing and New York. Born and raised in Chicago, he has organized exhibitions and projects for venues such as Art Basel Miami Beach/Design Miami, ExperimentaDesign Amsterdam, and the Center for Architecture New York. As a writer, Chen has contributed to dozens of publications including the New York Times, and has worked as contributing editor for several of them. He has also consulted internationally for companies such as Swarovski in 2008 and 2009, and is founder and co-creative director of 100% Design Shanghai, affiliated with the 100% Design fairs in London and Tokyo. Currently, he is the creative director of Beijing Design Week.

Esther
Perbandt

Esther Perbandt was born and grew up in West Berlin, was hardened by an artist in Moscow and polished in Paris where she finished a European master in fashion and textile design as well as a postgraduate study at the IFM – Institut Francais de la Mode. After this intensive time of education, she worked in the design-team at Chacok in the South of France. With a lot of experiences she came back to Berlin at in the beginning of 2004 she founded her own fashion label esther perbandt. The collections of esther perbandt with typical androgynous elements, are complemented by the accessory line esther perbandt – bags and pieces which presents portable art objects like high-quality pockets, belts and jewellery. bags and pieces became an independent successful accessory label.

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To me, a city in the future can only apply as beautiful to all participants, if each of the inhabitants interacts with the city and the borders between man and material become fluent.

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Citys become bigger, compact and more narrow. Infrastructure and activities become more perfect, the pace of information flow rises, get more intense and more difficult to handle by each individual. The pressure of coping these developments and of growing lonely is already on a larger scale. Cities seem to already be alike. How could one know where your home is?

A city in the future can only apply as beautiful, if it manages to make each of us feel at home. The city has to offer us intimacy and individualism, something personal and familiar and something to smile about.

A city is beautiful, if its inhabitants find space for personal freedom, a personal oasis, are allowed to carry their lives in its own hands. Everyone should be able to loveingly engage with the default and create a small piece of daily happiness by taking over responsibility.