Practice for Contemporary China

Zhu Xiaofeng December 15, 2007 October 30, 2008
Lecture at Tongji University School of Architecture and Planning, Li Xiangning’s class of Graduate Program .
The complexity of contemporary China’s situation is at such a high level that perhaps no other countries in the world now can match.  From the eastern coastline to western inland, from developed and accelerating metropolis to poor and slow countryside, from politics to economy, from society to culture, from survival to environment, one can see almost all the imbalanced scenarios that happened in western countries in the past 200 years now at one time, simultaneously, in today’s China.  Since I came back from New York and started my business here in Shanghai in 2004, I have been realizing that my country is now a place not only full of developments and opportunities, but also experiencing tremendous transformation and instability, at almost every corner.
What does this mean to architects in China?  My answer is that if you are practicing in this country, you then have to confront much more impacts from a grand variety of social forces than from those of other places and other times.  I think this is the most crucial reality.  It is beyond the question of the fusion of modern and tradition, east and west, and the emerging advantage or danger of global share of forms and technologies.  
Chinese modern architecture has experienced 20 years of hyper-practice, which forms a design vision that is trying to match the West.  As Rem Koolhaas said in Great Leap Forward, “Chinese architect is the most powerful architect in the world” — yet this power, unfortunately, mostly refers to quantity, to scope and to speed of imitation.  In recent years, the country’s policy is turning to support sustainable development, self-creativity and quality.  I believe this would be supportive to a healthier environment for architecture in China.      
Instead of evading or complaining about the social pressures on our practice, the real meaningful key we would like to consider now is how to consciously explore positive and new design strategies from the existing reality.  During this highly concentrated era of change, immense problems and energies arise at the same time.  We frequently discover the problems yet often ignore their energies.  As the spontaneous outcome from the transformation of industry and social life, the fresh urban and architectural typology always emerge without architects and urban planners but with tremendous and real potentials on design.  These are something that architects could collect, digest and use as precious resources, hence to inject new and progressive power into architecture and urban environment.  We believe this is the fundamental hope of the quality of Chinese modern architecture in the coming era.
It is also an experimental way to keep architecture fresh and away from an international trend of formalism.  After 4 years’ experience, we would rather see our practice as a continuous agenda of designing by learning this dramatic society.I hope the following 10 projects that I will share with you here may reflect our active interactions with some of the most important social and cultural characters of contemporary China.
Projects
1. Capital: low-key luxury The Green Pine Garden New Hongqiao Holiday Express Hotel, Shanghai
2. Religion: desire of scope, or power? Jingze Church, Shanghai
3. Community: reluctant to be public Vanke Holiday Town Community Center, Shanghai 2010 Shanghai Expo Vanke Pavilion, Shanghai 
4. Grandness: for confidence and respect Dashawan Beach Swimming Facilities, Lianyungang
5. Nostalgia: an emotional pursuit Zhu Jijiao National Granary Renovation, Shanghai Renjie Riverfront Club, Shanghai The West Garden of Qiuxiapu, Shanghai
6. Survival: severe reality to be improved
New Socialist Worker Apartment, Shenzhen 2007 Biennale