The new generation of Chinese architects is neither interested in contemporary Chinese architecture nor the western style,” says Zhang Ke, one of the three principals at standardarchitecture, a Beijing office engaged in the practices of urban planning, architecture, landscape and product design since 2001. “And we don’t want to sell Chinese style abroad, either.” In search of tomorrow’s architectural design agenda in China, OK Do met with four emerging local architects at the Architecture Snowball event in Shanghai to talk about their views on designing in and for the country undergoing rapid growth and massive change.

Having spent 6 years studying in the US, Zhang Ke doesn’t have time to work too much outside China where there’s a lot of demand for urbanism. The same goes for almost all the other local architects we talked to. Wang Shu, the principal of Amateur Architecture Studio and the head of the architecture department at CAFA in Hangzhou, only traveled outside China for the first time in 2001 when presenting his work at the Venice Biennale. “My work has its roots here, it entails a Chinese philosophy,” Wang Shu explains his architecture known for experimental building processes and indigenous use of materials.

Wang Shu, Amateur Architecture Studio. Photo by Hanne Granberg.

With their study history overseas, Meng Yan and Lou YongQi also work in the field of architecture in China. Meng Yan is one of the founders of URBANUS, a think tank operating in Beijing and Shenzhen providing strategies for urbanism and architecture, and Lou YongQi is the vice dean and associate professor at the department of architecture at Tongji University as well as the representative of the Sino-Finnish Aalto & Tongji Design Factory project. Aalto & Tongji Design Factory sets out to combine design, business and technology education in Shanghai. Meng Yan and Lou YongQi share their views on the changing role of an architect today. “Design is changing from design doing to design thinking, and architecture needs to contribute to new ways of development,” Lou YongQi says. “Many aspects of our lives should be re-evaluated and re-designed, and architects should push the boundaries of their traditional role and act as a progressive force in the society,” Meng Yan continues. “For me, any building activity without comprehensive thoughtfulness will be insignificant,” Wang Shu concludes.

Meng Yan, URBANUS. Photo by Hanne Granberg.

Lou YongQi, Aalto & Tongji Design Factory. Photo by Hanne Granberg.

The discussion with the foursome revolved around design methods, some thoughts of which we have compiled here as a sample of an article we’re writing for a publication on Finnish and Chinese architecture to be released at the World Expo this spring.

Anthropology

“China has many different cultures within it. When designing to a new area, it’s important to go and stay there for at least a couple of weeks with no preconceptions; get to know the agriculture and talk with people. One should neither look up to a culture too much nor look down on it. It’s important to be neutral and not to imitate, yet do something that the locals will accept.” –Zhang Ke

“The spatial layout of our Tulou affordable housing project in Guangdong reflects the traditional Hakka architecture; a collective way of living between the city and the countryside. For this project, we explored inexpensive ways of living together, allocating everyday activities and sharing important information. You know, unlike rich people, these people need to collaborate in order to find jobs and maintain a nice living – and their rooms are so small that they need to extend their lives outside them.” –Meng Yan

Spontaneity

“Modern architecture is too clean, too far away from the real life. If you compare a clean space to the local market, it’s easier to control it – but I like surprises, being more a bazar kind of a man.” –Wang Shu

“I’m interested in processes where I give guidelines, a sense of direction, to craftsmen who can then think by hands and come up with new things.” –Wang Shu

“Spontaneity is the most interesting thing about China.” –Wang Shu

Co-design

“We as architects and designers need to learn to give up things. The most beautiful cities are not designed by architects, they’ve been built over the years by many different people.” –Lou YongQi

“If you can’t involve a majority of people, it’s really difficult to realise a dream.” –Lou YongQi

Photo by MovingCities.

NOW hosted the Snowball Helsinki after party at their old studio space in Kamppi. We had fun and dim sum!

Photo by MovingCities.

Photo by MovingCities.

Photo by MovingCities.

Bert de Muynck talks about Chinese architecture. Photo by Mónica Carriço.

On the eve of the Chinese New Year, Snowball Helsinki – Arkkitehtuurivientiä Kiinaan event was held today at Kiasma. The event started with an overview on the field of architecture and urbanism in China by Bert de Muynck. He is the other half of MovingCities, a Shanghai based duo of “shrinks in the urban debate” as Bert and his partner Mónica Carriço like to describe their practice. MovingCities are also the curators of Snowball Shanghai – Event on Finnish Architecture to be organised in Shanghai this March.

To begin with, Bert quoted a Demos report from 2007 saying: “As China continues its explosive growth, so does the market for speculation about its future.” So, let’s speculate. In search of tomorrow’s design agenda in China, Bert presented different viewpoints to architecture and urbanism in the country undergoing massive change. Here’s some of them:

Scale and pace

“The scale and pace of China’s urbanisation promises to continue at an unprecedented rate,” reads McKinsey Global Institute’s 2009 report. “If current trends hold, China’s urban population will expand from 572 million in 2005 to 926 million in 2025 and hit the one billion mark by 2030.” The McKinsey report also projects that China will build almost 40 billion m2 of floor space over the next 20 years, requiring the construction of between 20.000 and 50.000 new skyscrapers.

The Chinese city

China’s urbanisation is and will be fundamentally different from its experience from the past 15 years, and eco cities are the current trend in urban development.

When it comes to design, many cities have a similar construction style. “It is like a thousand cities having the same appearance,” like Qiu Baoxing, the vice minister of construction at PRC has noted. A common feature seems to be that each constructor wants to build the highest, most expensive building – and sometimes “just to have a beautiful thing without considering its function, or how the city will work,” remarks Kongjian Yu, a professor at the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at the Peking University.

Learning by doing

In architectural projects in China, there’s often a conflict of creativity between the client and the architect. The client is the most powerful person who determines how a building looks like and has the power to change design decisions.

In addition to learning the local methods of working, practicing architecture in China requires the understanding of the socio-cultural transformation of the Chinese society. It’s also important to ask oneself the question of how to deal with cultural continuity. Like Bert noted in his presentation, “it’s important to remember that life is more important than accelerating economic growth”.

Case studies

To conclude, Bert presented some case studies of unique solutions for China through the architecture and urban design of practitioners such as Urbanus, Ai Weiwei, Wang Hui, Wang Shu and Xu Tiantian to mention a few.

Still from the movie Last Train Home by Lixin Fan (2009).

Last Sunday, OK Do went to see Last Train Home, a movie by the Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan (2009) at DocPoint documentary film festival in Helsinki. The movie was about the largest mass migration known to mankind: 130 million Chinese people setting out for their holidays on the eve of Chinese New Year.

Last Train Home documents a migrant couple caught up in this desperate annual migration seeking to get to their children in a rural village they left behind to seek work in the booming coastal city of Guangzhou. Moreover, it is an exploration on China, a country discarding traditional ways as it hurtles towards modernity and global economic dominance.

This year, the Chinese New Year is celebrated on February 13. In Helsinki, the main event is organised at Lasipalatsi Square by the cities of Helsinki and Beijing.

Big Mouth Cup project by Pan Jian Feng.

Helsinki International Artist-in-residence Programme brings Pan Jian Feng, a versatile Shanghai-based artist, for a residency in Suomenlinna as part of their Urban studies project on Finnish and Chinese environmental art. Jian Feng will hold an exhibition at the Lasipalatsi gallery as part of the Invitation to Helsinki project. The exhbition opens on February 12 at 17.00 – right after the Snowball Helsinki Seminar. OK Do met with Pan Jian Feng in Shanghai at the Design Snowball event in November 2009.

Pan Jian Feng (b. 1973) has a background as one of China’s foremost typeface creators and design strategists. Having worked for big multinational agencies and having later founded his own company, Alt-Design, Pan recently changed the corporate world to a life of an artist. Exploring Chinese daily life, his projects range from photography and video installations to ink painting and porcelain.

“It’s all about life,” Pan Jian Feng tells about taking up art. “Art is more like a continuation of my life while in an agency you always had to work according to a brief.” However, in China, moving from the corporate world to the artistic one is rare. “It made my mom very angry,” he says.

One of Jian Feng’s projects is to paint all the interesting people that he meets. “It’s my daily practice – like a visual diary,” he explains. “I document at least 20 people each day. Some are my friends, some are neighbours, some I’ve never met before.” His paintings have a close connection to Chinese calligraphy. Instead of “painting” people, he actually describes his activity as “writing” people. And just as in Chinese calligraphy, he respects the process: “It’s not about writing correctly, it’s about meditating.” Like this project, many of Pan Jian Feng’s works seem to reflect the contemporary meaning of Chinese skills – or Chinese life in general.

“When I was travelling in southern France, I was very impressed by the blue colour of the sea,” Pan Jian Feng explains another project on Chinese identity. “I wanted to share this blueness with my Chinese friends, but didn’t know how to bring the blue back to China.” In China, the concept of blue is linked to the Western world and during the past century, China has been trying to learn from the West and find its own way at the same time. “The question that emerges is, what is the true blue that China should study and how,” he continues. As a reaction to the fast pace of change, Jian Feng has used traditional Chinese objects like enamel cups as media for his work in a country, where people tend to be in constant search of something new, forgetting the old.

Like the Western blue or the enamel cup, Pan Jian Feng’s work involves a lot of symbols that require some knowledge of Chinese culture and aesthetics to understand. For instance, while studying Visual Communication at the University of Central England, he made a design with red images representing longevity and happiness, which his tutor interpreted as bloody and violent. Moreover, his typography often involves hidden messages playing with the Chinese writing system.

Currently Pan Jian Feng is focusing his skills on experimental typography with the aim of developing a forum for international dialogue in the field. His latest works include a game which applies Chinese calligraphy styles and techniques to Western typography and contemporary communication. In the meanwhile, he keeps on reading and writing people.