Beyond the local process and the materiality of spatial transformation

The essay illustrates how four different cases of spatial transformations in the vicinity of water bodies in Italy and China were analyzed, de-constructed and visualized during the months that preceded the exhibition "Watersheds" at Urban and Architectural Bi-city Biennale in 2013 (Shenzhen). In particular, it is clarified that the scope of the entire research project differentiates from 'good practice' analysis, and aims instead to test common languages for ordinary yet diverse processes of urban transformation. Such processes are inclusive in so far there is no 'other matter', without 'us' and 'them', all cultural and political structures reduced to the production of documents or material effects.