Digests | Report

China Digest #03

By Bert de Muynck on March 6, 2008

Olympic Fever

There can’t be any doubt that in the coming months we are going to be swept away by articles, opinions and reports on the architecture of the 2008 Olympic Games. Like we have been swept away the past years with images of the bird’s nest and the watercube. Now there are less than 200 days to August 8, 2008, some newspapers think it is a good idea to recycle and update some of their material. The bulk of these articles have repeated and echoed each other during the last years and it is sad to realize that not a lot of progress on the architectural or urban debate has been made. It still seems Western vs Eastern, foreign architects vs Chinese architects. In a country that is making such an amazing progress in its architectural and urban development it is sad to see and read that the focus of the (foreign) reports on it do not differ so much as, let’s say, five years ago.

The Guardian seems to be at the forefront of this coverage and feeds the public over and over with the same two/three Olympic buildings; the birds’ nest, watercube and media building. Probably not unsurprisingly for a newspaper that is based in the country that will host the 2012 Olympic Games in a fairly simple, not to say disappointingly simple, building. Focus of attention is of course the bird’s nest. Two recent articles aspire to heat up the discussion as follows; “Beijing has splashed out $440m (£224m) on the spectacular “Bird’s Nest” stadium to underscore its rising economic power and ambition.” While another tries to contextualize the Olympic Green as follows; “If all goes to plan, the Olympic Park might yet turn out to be an Unforbidden City, a people’s palace gardens of the future.”

Guardian
Guardian
Guardian

China Daily also featured a piece on the Olympic Architecture, called This bubble is not bursting any time soon. In the article Tsing Hua University’s professor of architecture Li Xiaodong states that “The Water Cube looks very Western. I think architecture in China should reflect ideas about its identity instead of just copying Western architecture all the time, just as the Chinese did in ancient China.” John Pauline, Australian firm PTW Architects’ regional director, of course, disagrees with this and states that “This is a perfect hybrid of Chinese and Australian sensibilities and styles.” And as such the eternal debate on Chinese architecture can keep going on for a while.

China Daily

Alex Pasternack reports in a lengthy article more on “The Water Cube, Bubble-Clad Olympic Wonder” and contributes at a certain part to the Chinese architecture debate as follows; “Though its design has been criticized by some as “not Chinese enough,” the building, which was designed in cooperation with a Chinese design institute, is modeled in part on the rectilinear shapes of traditional Chinese architecture: Beijing’s courtyard homes, the old city wall, and the Forbidden City are all rectangular in shape.”

Tree Hugger

And this, almost seamlessly brings us to another hot topic in China; what is Chinese architecture? A discussion not only limited to architects but also to the apple-crew. Their new Beijing is soon to open near Qianmen Street, an historic half-mile long avenue at the south end of Tiananmen Square and according to a press release “Apple’s store will blend in with the Chinese architecture rather than use its standard storefront designs.”

Apple Store

For the laymen, Chinese architecture is all about fengshui. And imagine what just recently happend? Talking about a coincidence. The Feng Shui Institute (FSI), an international resource and research center for the promotion of traditional Chinese and contemporary feng
shui, names the following structures who designs are faithful to feng shui principles; Burj Al Arab (Dubai), City Hall (London), The Kingdom Center Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Sydney Opera House (Australia), British Airways Headquarters (UK) and the Kansai Airport Terminal (Osaka). To what conclusion can this lead? That contemporary fengshui has taken over the world and we do not even realize it?

Feng Shui Institute

More about Chinese architecture can be found in the article ‘Germs in the concrete jungle’ which deals with a report on a judging panel of internationally known architects that visited Shanghai in December 2007 to tour five of the best examples of excellently designed buildings by Chinese mainland architects. The experts were judging the Taiwan-based 2007 Far Eastern Outstanding Architectural Design Award, in cooperation with Tongji University’s Urban Planning and Architecture Institute.
The winning design was the Exhibition Center of Qingpu District New Town, by Liu Jiakun.

Shanghai Official Website

If you happen to be interested in real traditional Chinese architecture and happen to be in the neighborhood of Brussels, Belgium, it might be worthwhile checking out the exhibition “La Chine sous toit: First international exposition of Chinese architecture.” A grand exposition highlighting the evolution of Chinese architecture runs until April 20, 2008 at the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels, Belgium. The landmark exposition entitled “La Chine sous toit” (China under one roof), organized in cooperation with the Hunan Provincial Museum, showcases over a hundred miniature models of domestic structures and other daily objects recovered from tombs dating from the Han dynasty (202-220). All those above discussing Chinese architecture should jump on a plane to Brussels and meditate a bit in the museum.

Radio86

We end on a more contemporary note.

The Crystal Mountain Development Tianjin, China is a project designed by the Dutch firm De Architecten Cie, in association with international engineering group DHV. The total Crystal Mountain site area is 43km². 28km² will be land reclaimed from the Bohai Sea by DHV. The master plan for client TEDA Investment Holding Co., Ltd. and TEDA Ocean Development Co., Ltd. incorporates 9.2 million square metres of office space, 7.9 million square metres of residential development, 0.8 million square metres of hotels, and 2.5 million square metres of commercial space, including educational establishments and hospitals.

Design Build Network

While in New York, Yung Ho Chang, Ma Qingyun, Doreen Heng Liu, Ackbar Abbas, and Mark Wigley will discuss the reciprocating influence of contemporary Chinese architecture and urbanism on spatial practices worldwide. The China Lab Charrette: Mixing Up the Mega-Block will be held at GSAPP in conjunction with the forum. Charrette entries will be reviewed by a jury including Jeffrey Inaba (Columbia GSAPP, C-Lab), Doreen Heng Liu (Principal, NODE Architecture), and Eric Chang (Associate, OMA Beijing). The China Lab has the following mission statement; Over the next 25 years, it is projected that China will account for 50% of the world’s new construction. Much of this built environment will be designed in a fraction of the time, and with about one fifth of the manpower, normally considered necessary. It is the mission of the China Lab to be an active agent, both through research and design, in this rapidly-moving wave of spatial production.

China Lab

Bert de Muynck is an architect, writer and director of movingcities. He lives and works in Beijing, China. Bert de Muynck|movingcities