Next Chinese Architecture

Just before the break I received the latest issue of the Spanish magazine Arquitectura&Viva (A&V), which exclusively dealt with Chinese architecture executed by Chinese architects. We’re all used to see the prolific works of the “starchitects”, creating icons of contemporary architecture. The 2008 Olympic Games were an exhibition of the latest craze in style and magnitude. Renderings of various projects for Ordos 100 in Inner Mongolia, another example, are widely publicised.  A&V shows a view of the model with all the little icons thrown at the poor landscape; it looks like a railway accident, which demonstrates an obsession with individualism lacking any archetypal common sense.

So it was quite a revelation for me to realise that a home-grown generation of Chinese colleagues has – in my opinion – quietly developed a Chinese architecture deeply rooted in local context and tradition. The magazine features twelve projects located all over the country.

Amateur Architecture Studio, founded 1998 by Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu in Hangzhou (150km west of Shanghai), is presented in the magazine with their Xiangshan campus. I think their choice of materials and the sensitive integration of the fairly large buildings is masterful. Even such mundane detail as egress routes are matched to the serene shape of the roofs. Did we forget the design potential of a roof shape because we succumbed to the modernist banality of the flat roof? After their grunty Ningbo Historical Museum from 2005 the campus shows the architects being attentive and bold at the same time.

Lei Tao Architect built this house for a prolific artist in the northeast Chinese town of Benxi. It’s composed of buildings that are intricately interwoven and comprise three courtyards; a re-interpretation of a traditional theme in Chinese architecture.

Shanghai-based Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, founded in 2004, shows The Waterhouse at South Bund Hotel, a cool conversion of an old colonial building into a boutique hotel, which creates a tension between old and new by choice and treatment of the material.

StandardArchitecture&Zhao Yang Studio present their Niyang River visitor Centre in Daze (Tibet); a tiny structure built of local stone which blends it into its surrounding perfectly. The expressive openings of the distorted, soft-edged pavilion are contrasted with bold colours, rendering the building cheerful and contemporary despite its ancient stone walls.

Urbanus’ circular apartment building in Guangzhou is derived from the traditional Tulou houses. Whereas they were supposed to protect the inhabitants from bandits, this modern version creates a quiet, introverted environment, set apart from the urban chaos around. The Kahn-like, precise geometry organises tightly balanced spaces for social interaction.  

The community centre, which was created by Zhang Lei & AZL Architects in Yangzhou, comprises an assembly of small gabled ‘houses’. For me this project demonstrates that the aim for comprehensiveness within a collective form is possible in contemporary Chinese architecture. We can hope there won’t be too many Ordos in future.

My impression from reading this magazine was that China might soon dismiss the western model of architecture because they won’t need it anymore. In the shadow of the iconic mega-projects of the last decades, such as OMA’s CCTV headquarters, emerging talents may change the basis of Chinese architecture. Many Chinese architects have been educated in the best western universities, so they are familiar with the western model, but at the same time are aware of the rich tradition of their country and are starting to fuse both into an evolving, fascinating, next-generation Chinese architecture.

All images from Arquitectura&Viva #150, Made in China, Madrid 2011

- Posted Jan. 23, 2012