High profile architects and real estate developers are accused of using China as a place of experimentation. Zhang Xin, Co-CEO of SOHO China, the country's most successful real estate developer, asks: What's wrong with that? Every creative industry needs to experiment. Zhang Xin talks to Daragh Moller.
Biography in Brief: Zhang Xin
The Cambridge-educated merchant banker moved to Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland at an early age, but returned to invest in her homeland in 1995. She has won globally prestigious awards for her role as an architectural patron and business entrepreneur. These include the 2002 Venice Biennale Special Prize, 2004 Montblanc Arts Patronage Award. In 2004, the young urban visionary and entrepreneur won the 2004 Stars of Asia Award.
In 2002, the special prize at the 2002 Venice Biennale was awarded Commune By The Great Wall, a large-scale development in the Shuiguan Valley, just outside Beijing.
SOHO
SOHO China is the nation's pre-eminent development company. It is led by entrepreneurs Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, currently high on any list of China's movers and shakers.
SOHO projects reflect the kind of poise and self-confidence that attracts world attention.
BTM:Real estate developers like SOHO China have been criticised for passing over the opportunity to highlight the work of Chinese architects in favour of working with international architectural "stars." Some of SOHO China's most ambitious projects are designed by international "star" architects such as Peter Davidson, Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher and Riken Yamamoto.
What does this say about China's architects and the state of a national or "indigenous" modern architecture?
ZX:I haven't seen anything that could be described as Chinese architecture in the last hundred years, frankly. When you consider Chinese architecture you immediately refer to architecture like the Forbidden City. A lot of China's urban architecture was built between the 1950s and early 1970s and mostly in a Russian style that was already no longer Chinese.
We [SOHO] have really worked with the best Chinese architects already - earlier than anyone else. I was Yung Ho Chang's very first client. Yung Ho is representative of this generation of Chinese architects and he and I have worked on many projects together. He designed one of the houses, the Split House, at Commune by the Great Wall.
Here in SOHO New Town the first six towers were built as a collaboration between me and Cui Kai, again a leading Chinese architect.
For the front section of New Town, we worked with Zhu Xiaodi, now head of the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design. These are probably the three most prominent architects in Beijing. They were featured in all of our projects.
If anything I think we have moved ahead now. We didn't want to repeat ourselves by continuously working with the same architects, again and again. The important thing is to continuously discover talented architects and bring them to new projects.
That's what drives the whole selection process rather than issues of Chinese versus foreign.
"Some cities in China have become 'experimental sites' for both noted foreign architects and some second- and third-level ones," Wu Liangyong Professor of Architecture, Tsinghua University.
I was recently told that older generation Chinese architects such as Wu Liangyong have been saying China has become a place for foreign architects to experiment. I think it is the nature of the work of architects to discover new ground and to experiment.
The essence of every creative industry is that their work is experimental.
I think Wu Liangyong is seen as a representative of the older generation of modern architects. To say something like this has the connotation: Chinese architecture versus foreign architecture and that China is naive in letting them experiment. I think this attitude is very unhealthy. One should never label [architecture] with nationalism.
For us, as for any creative industry, the only criterion is good or bad design, good or bad architecture. There is no such thing as nationalism for Chinese architecture.
The world has become globalised, and design, fortunately, now moves around the world. Zaha Hadid is a London-based architect but she has never built anything in London. Her work is scattered around in many European cities and countries. She works in Singapore, Germany, Italy, France and New York. It is the global nature of the work.
BTM: and when SOHO China projects get this kind of response or criticism?
ZX:I don't pay any attention.
You have to trust this is what people want otherwise we wouldn't be able to sell anything. We are not building for ourselves. We are building for the market. If people don't like modern architecture, if they don't find modern architecture interesting or comfortable, why would they spend their money on it? People are spending their lifetime savings.
It is easy to be critical and say things, but if thousands of people are putting their life savings into something, there is reasonable justification for it. That is the beauty of a developer's project: everything is for sale.
"It is the nature of the work of architects to discover new ground, to experiment."
"One should never label [architecture] with nationalism."
BTM:I read that you favour architecture that records historical character; that you like buildings that capture history and carry it forward.
ZX:Yes.
BTM:In Beijing so many buildings are being indiscriminately torn down. Is there a need for a greater sensitivity towards building something like a national architecture, something indigenous that captures history in a way that many European cities have done?
ZX:I don't think this is the character of modern architecture. Modern architecture, whether it is in the United States or France, in Britain or Hong Kong, Singapore or Tokyo, looks identical. There is one style which is modern architecture. The last time we tried to inject "national character" into it, what did we produce? Green-topped pagodas. I think we have made enough jokes about that!
BTM:Presumably though there is more to Chinese traditional architecture than the roofs, eaves and gargoyles
ZX:Yes, but there is a much more fundamental issue here. There is a modern architectural movement happening all around the world that is not about China, and every country faces that pressure. There are always people nostalgic for tradition.
Why don't people ask for the national character of mobile phones, or cars? Why don't they ask that question? Because these things are new.
BTM:Are you aware of elements in architectural design that are specifically Chinese?
ZX:I think the contemporary spirit that captures history today is technology.
If we have to think about one character of contemporary architecture that is strong and of the moment it is that. Modern architecture must embody technology. That is a way of capturing what is available to us today.
Just as everything captures its moment, architecture captures its moment.
For example, the Forbidden City captures the moment of the imperial system of the country and the culture at that time. The Great Wall captures a moment and a time when you were able to mobilise immense manpower, all working for just one empire. The Eiffel Tower is an embodiment of what was available then. They wanted to show the power of iron, the power of structure. Every great architecture embodies a moment, and the character of that moment. To me, ours is technology.
The fact that architecture -- as a concept and as a design service -- moves around the world is a phenomenon of today. One should face it instead of saying "We're Chinese; we only want to use Chinese." The world has changed. We don't live in a place where people live in courtyards and wear chang bian zi (long ponytails worn by men during the Qing Dynasty)!
BTM:The architects' public Dialogue at the opening of Jianwai SOHO created great excitement and I noticed many architectural students there. Do you particularly support the profession's students?
ZX:We try in every possible way to promote Chinese architects and architecture, in fact, not just architecture, but anything Chinese. We decided to keep Commune (Commune By The Great Wall) as a semi-museum and not to sell it. We want people to see it. We have received close to 200,000 visitors now. We especially want architecture students to see it, the more people that see it, the better.
BTM:With Commune By The Great Wall you did something pretty original. And you attracted international attention and won the Special Prize at the 2002 Venice Biennale for it. But what kind of message do you think it sent to an industry looking to SOHO perhaps for support and guidance?
ZX:When I first came back to my hometown Beijing in 1995, I was ignorant about architecture and nobody in the real estate industry paid any attention to architecture. Developers here thought architects were just workers from the streets. In this sense I feel I have made -- if anything -- a small contribution to architecture in China
"We are not building for ourselves. We are building for the market."
Commune put Chinese architecture and Asian architects on the world stage [six of the twelve architects were Chinese]. Today, architects are stars and celebrities; people talk about them and invite them to speak. Developers pay so much more attention to them and compete for who they work with. We have contributed some to that in China. I remember, when I first worked with Cui Kai, design firms in Beijing were called No. 1 Design Firm, No. 2 Design Firm and so on. They [architects] were employed as technician's not creative people. They were not taught to think creatively. Their job was to carry out instructions. In fact, they looked down on people who thought creatively. China has become more international then ten years ago and so it would be unfair to say we single-handedly changed this.
In the future we hope to establish an award to promote the work of Chinese architects, with criteria encouraging the use of Chinese culture.
BTM:What do you think attracts international architects like Zaha Hadid and Peter Davidson's Lab Architects to China?
ZX:Architects are naturally interested in new countries and new cultures and places that are delirious and uncertain. They come to build. I don't think these architects are passionate about China. If the movement looks to Russia, they'll go to Russia. An architect's primary concern is to build. And it's so difficult to build.
"I think the contemporary spirit that captures history now is technology."
"When I go to firms around the world, you see Chinese architectural students. This is going to make a considerable difference. People will come back; they will have their own studios; they will design. China's going to have its own Picasso. China's going to have its own Le Corbusier."
BTM:Easier to build here than elsewhere?
ZX:Yes, but really it's not easy anywhere. Look at [Rem] Koolhaus. He's tried every possible way to get his building built [the new CCTV building, currently shelved] and Herzog & de Meuron's [Olympic Stadium, halted for a time]. It's just not easy.
BTM:How do you get round these problems?
ZX:We are developers. We are not bureaucrats. Our job is not to predicate what government tells us to do. Our job is to predict what market wants.
I have to say that China is a consumer market. It is very healthy and very interested in new things and it's very open. Why? Partly because we are so lacking in tradition, destroyed during the "Cultural Revolution," people are now open-minded. Remember, we grew up by criticizing everything old. It is very Chinese.
You don't [usually] get half way through your life, [then] everything you were taught and the values you grew up with suddenly change. This is what the Cultural Revolution did to us. We were told everything old is bad. With an opening-up policy, you don't suddenly change.
Today, China has had more exposure to the outside world and the outside world has had more exposure to China. When I go to firms around the world, you see Chinese architectural students. This is going to make a considerable difference. People will come back; they will have their own studios; they will design.
China's going to have its own Picasso. China's going to have its own Le Corbusier.
Commune By The Great Wall
Zhang Xin won the Special Prize at the 2002 Venice Biennale for promoting the work of 12 Asian architects at Commune By The Great Wall, a large-scale SOHO China development in the Shuiguan Valley, the first major Chinese work to exhibit at the Biennale. It includes the work of six Chinese architects.
In an initial $24 million (199 million yuan) investment, 11 individual houses and a club house were built, five of which will be reproduced in subsequent developments in the Commune complex.
Commune is a showcase for the very best in Asian architecture and is an architectural installation as much as a living museum.
Yung Ho Chang
Born in Beijing in 1956. Received Master of Architecture degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984. Became a licensed architect in the United States in 1989. He is principal architect of Atelier FCJZ, Beijing's first private architectural firm, as is the head of the Peking University Graduate Center of Architecture where he also serves as a professor.
He has lectured at U.C. Berkeley; at Rice, Yale, Princeton, and Cornell universities; the Southern California Institute of Architecture and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2002 and 2003, he held the Kenzo Tange Chair at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.
Notable buildings:Split House - Commune By The Great Wall
Awards:Part of the winning team at the 2002 Venice Biennale for Commune By The Great Wall, 2000 UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts, Progressive Architecture Citation Award in 1996.
He says:"In history, Chinese culture assimilated more than a few ideas from the outside. In fact, cultures have been able to take something from others and make it their own. During the process of assimilation, the idea loses its foreignness and becomes just an idea. Therefore, to understand Chinese architecture today through an East versus West argument could be too simplistic."
Cui Kai
Born in 1957, Beijing, Masters Degree in Architecture, Tianjin University. Has worked with the Architecture Design Institute of the Ministry of Construction (1989-2000) and has been chief architect of the China Architecture Design & Research Group since 2000. He is vice-president of the Architectural Society of China and is a deputy member of the Union Internationale des Architectes. He has lectured extensively and is a professor of architecture at Tianjin University and at Nanjing University.
Notable buildings:See and Seen House - Commune By The Great Wall
Awards: Part of the winning team at the 2002 Venice Biennale for Commune By The Great Wall
He says:"Many developers know nothing about domestic architects."
Zhu Xiaodi
Zhu Xiaodi is president of the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (founded in 1949). The institute built some of the most important symbols of communist power in China: the Great Hall of the People and the National Museum of China both located on Tiananmen Square, Beijing. The institute has a staff of 400 architects and 500 engineers.
He says:"A lot of the projects invite only foreign firms to bid, or require us to work with foreign firms in order to bid. It is as if we in China have nothing to offer."
Yung Ho Chang on the city
"If you look at Chinese and Asian cities, you will find the lack of clear traditional urban structures. Various urban models have existed in Europe since the Middle Ages; China has had only one, an introverted city, exemplified by the "Li Fang" system in ancient Chang An (now Xi'an). The entire city is divided by enclosed walls along streets. And the city only opens up behind these walls and in the courtyards. However, this introverted quality is at odds with a modern lifestyle and the openness demanded by a highly developed commercial society."
PETER DAVIDSON
SOHO China's latest project SOHO Shang Du kicks off in Beijing in October 2004. The urban development on a 2.2-hectare site at Dongdaqiao Lu next to the CBD will have a total space of 170,000 square metres. Australian "star" architect Peter Davidson (Lab Architects) is chief architect.
