Horrible Histories of Urban Spatial Production is a project created by Unform Studio as part of the research Urban Lab 8 carried out for Urban China magazine on the topic of urban housing, workspace, and commercial space. The project comprises writing pieces and a series of diagrams. Taking inspiration from the well-known British educational book and TV series Horrible Histories, the project adopts a playful yet insightful approach – using humorous historical narratives, bold imaginations, and accessible language to uncover the deep and complex interrelations behind the planet’s urbanisation history. So far, the research has covered urban housing and production, with the urban consumption segment forthcoming.
Approaching the subject through the lens of Marxist critiques of capitalist urban spatial production, the project understands urbanisation as a historical process shaped by capitalism’s mechanisms of spatial and temporal production and reproduction. The project further divides global urbanisation history into five stages and explores:
- How production/work spaces, as vehicles of social relation production and alienation, have participate in the development of bureaucratic societies, the evolution of labour, and social stratification.
- How urban housing has undergone a three-way struggle: as a fundamental condition for labour reproduction, as a commodity with symbolic and identity-driven meaning in a consumer society, and as an ideological architectural statement resisting capitalist domination.
- How consumption/commercial spaces, as carriers of social reproduction, have facilitated capitalism’s shift from material consumption to symbolic consumption – ultimately driving the transition from economic alienation to political alienation.
Through specific historical events and case studies, Horrible Histories of Urban Spatial Production aims to educate general readers on the historical development of urban workspace, housing, and commercial space while indicating the connection between Marxist critiques and the urban conditions we’re experiencing today. At the same time, by employing absurdist and satirical visual and textual storytelling, the project encourages professionals to reflect on the contradictions of capitalist urban development – where the rational and inevitable coexist with the irrational and even absurd. It further suggests that the historical moments of collective and individual resistance have offered Chinese cities alternative visions for their post-globalisation/post-neoliberalism urban transformation, and socialist urban planning and design towards the future.
不正经历史研究：城市空间生产 是 城市八部 为《城市中国》杂志所进行的城市办公、居住和消费研究的一部分，由 Unform工作室 创作，包含文字研究和 系列图解。该研究通过诙谐的历史梳理、天马行空的事件联想和通俗有趣的表达方式，揭示人类城市化历史中多种复杂因素的深层关联，就像英国知名科普童书和节目Horrible Histories（《糟糕历史》）一样。研究现已完成关于城市生产与城市居住的部分，并将完成城市消费板块。
不正经历史研究 以马克思资本主义批判下的城市空间生产理论为切入视角，将城市化理解为一种历史过程、资本主义的时空生产与再生产机制。在此之上，研究将全球城市化历史划分为五个阶段，讨论了以下核心问题：生产空间作为社会关系生产和异化的载体，如何参与科层制社会的发展、劳动方式演变及社会阶层的塑造；城市住房作为劳动力再生产基础条件、作为消费社会下带有符号和身份认同的消费品、作为带有意识形态的反抗资本宰制的建筑宣言，这三者之间的阶段性较量；消费空间如何作为社会关系再生产的媒介，推动资本主义社会从“物的消费”向“符号的消费”转变，并完成从经济的异化到政治的异化。
通过具体的事件和案例，不正经历史研究 向普通读者科普城市生产、居住和消费空间的发展历史，提示马克思主义理论和现代城市的空间现状之间的关联。同时，借助荒诞戏谑的视觉和语言表达，研究也试图促进专业读者反思，在资本主义通过制度和技术驯化身体、构建空间秩序的历史进程中，有其理性、必然的一面，也有非理性，甚至荒谬的一面；而在其中，集体与个体的阶段性反抗，则为中国城市的后全球化转型、社会主义城市空间规划和设计，提示了另一些图景。
不正经历史研究：城市空间生产
