Professor of Practice in Architecture Mary-Ann Ray has received a grant from the Graham Foundation for the forthcoming publication of the project Caochangdi : Beijing Inside Out – Farmers, Floaters, Taxi Drivers, Artists, and the International Art Mob Challenge and Re-make the City, authored by Robert Mangurian and Mary-Ann Ray. The content for this work has involved nearly sixty students from Taubman College to date through their involvement with seminars in Ann Arbor and with the Beijing studio that has taken place at BASEbeijing for the past three years with Mangurian, Ray, and Associate Professor Robert Adams.

Caochangdi, one of nearly 500 urban villages in the city of Beijing, tells the story about itself and its mostly illegal residents, including farmers, “floaters” (members of the Floating Population who are rural to urban migrants), taxi drivers, and world-class artists. The village also has embedded within it both the problems and possibilities of a new urban space that is redefining the city of Beijing at this pivotal point in human history when cities make up half of the world’s population. The authors, who live and work in Caochangdi for part of each year, dissect the multiple phenomena that form this dynamic urban condition.

Caochangdi : Beijing Inside Out will be published by Timezone8 publishers, Beijing, and distributed by DAP (Distributed Art Publishers), and will include never before published texts by Pi Li and Ai Weiwei. The book is expected to be published in the spring/summer of 2009.