Interviewer: Ma Weidong
Ma: Please tell us about the SOHO China projects that have already been undertaken.
Pan: There are four so far. First was the SOHO New Town in Beijing. This was followed by the Commune By The Great Wall, Boao Canal Village on Hainan Island, and the Beijing Jianwai SOHO. A fifth project is currently in planning to the south of the Jianwai SOHO.
Ma: Please tell us about the fifth project.
Pan: It is larger in scale than the Jianwai SOHO, and we have invited architects such as Zaha Hadid and MVRDV. Zaha is consulting with our company.
Ma: What are the key points that distinguish SOHO China from other Chinese developers?
Pan: There are two problems with the majority of developers. The first is that there is a tendency to simply imitate the forms and methods of foreign countries without understanding the unique characteristics of the area being developed. Such developers are found particularly in small- to medium-sized cities in China. The other is state-controlled developers. In order to avoid researching foreign precedents and users needs, they are continuing to make the same kind of architecture as they did in the days of the old planned economy. We are not like them. We are constantly taking into account the characteristics of our era as well as the fashions of our era, and we consider our primary mission to be the production of cutting edge architecture.
Ma: Why is it that in all your projects up until now you have relied on foreign architects?
Pan: For us, there is only one criteria for choosing an architect: whether or not they are skilled designers. We make no distinction between Chinese and foreigners. I m sorry to say that there are very few contemporary Chinese architects that we would commission. For architecture, design is very important. Nowadays, most developers don t understand this. For them, development projects are simply about profits, and they don t understand architecture as an art. Even if they did invite a talented architect, they would not genuinely respect the architect, and the architect s design would be altered arbitrarily. In our case, we place complete trust in the architects, and aside from planning regulations, we place absolutely no limits on them.
Ma: Please allow us to hear about yours future plans.
Pan: For us as a married couple, increasing our assets is not the main objective. Whether small or large in scale, our development projects will become symbols of their era and of human compassion, and our greatest goal is to leave a mark in history.
23 September, 2003
