March 11, 2010 | Broadcast News

Interview via ArtInfo

Being ethnically Chinese totally allows me to see how the architectural metaphor, or just the plain-dumb overly-literal metaphor totally works in China. Its the reason why the number 8 is so popular, why Chinese superstition is the way it is – its all classic symbolism. So this leads one to wonder how far one can take the brand of architectural hyper-metaphorism, (let’s call it AHM for now) if there ever was such a term, in light of China’s recent interest in architectural projects that, not surprisingly, take the shape of a river….a lake…a mountain…a swan… you name it, they’ve got it in building form.

MAD Studio, founded by Ma and Yosuke Hayano, isn’t the only practitioner of AHM, another Ma, by the name of Qingyun, has also been known to produce variations of it, and recently Steven Holl won a competition in Shan-shui, Hangzhou which included interventions that were duly named Water Tower, Canal Spreaders, Lantern Towers and Mountain Tower, to name a few. It’s a compelling project, notwithstanding Holl’s obvious ability to graft and reinterpret his Iowa University Art building in contemporary Chinese terms.

Anyway, we digress. Enjoy the Interview.

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JJ is the co-founder of 5ft Creatives and is presently enrolled as a graduate student at the Yale School of Architecture.