Hyperarchitecture and hyperdesign: New urban models in 21st century China.

This book brings together a selection of images captured by José Manuel Ballester in China following the usual procedure in his way of working, both in architectural painting and in urban photography. His records are ultimately equivalent to the artist's discoveries resulting from his repeated trips to China and his investigation of the new cities that emerged from the spectacular economic growth experienced in this country. The Chinese city has become the model or archetype of a growing city that aspires to sustainable development and whose transformation is being more radical. The immense cement blocks recently built or being built constitute true silent agglomerations of monoliths deployed in space, as if they were implanted dolmens that have aged prematurely. The prefix “hyper” designates excess, abundance, excess, and the terms “hyperarchitecture” and “hyperdesign” are respectively inseparable from what is understood by “hypermodernity.” After the fourth trip to China, the author closed the photographic series with an exhibition that opened in Casa Asia and later went to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, in Beijing.

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