Commune by the Great Wall

'Collect the Art of Architecture - Commune by the Great Wall', a mega residential development by the husband-and-wife team of Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, of Redstone Industrie Co Ltd, is a highly-publicized project in China located at the Shuiguan valley in the Beijing suburb of Yanqing, just under an hour's drive from Beijing. Head north along the Badaling Expressway, pass Nankou Road, wind through the scenic vistas of the Shuiguan Great Wall, pass through an untouched traditional rural village, and you will come to green rolling hills amid a landscape of rocks and walnut trees. This is the site for the 'Commune'; it is within the preservation area that prohibits construction within 200 meters of the Great Wall. Launched in February 2001, with an investment of about 100 million yuan (about US$12 million), Phase I of the 'Commune' consists of 11 villas and one clubhouse designed by 12 prominent architects from Asia. They are: Antonia Ochoa, Cui Kai and Yung Ho Chang from China, Chien Hsueh-Yi from Taiwan, Gary Chang and Rocco Yim from Hong Kong SAR, Kanika R'kul from Thailand, Kay Ngee Tan from Singapore, Kengo Kuma, Nobuaki Furuya and Shigeru Ban from Japan, and Seung H-Sang from South Korea. The master planner is Rocco Yim and the landscape designer, Ai Wei Wei from China. The houses range from the smallest at 250m2 to the largest at 500m2. Most of them average at 400m2 in area. The clubhouse, with a total area of 3,744m2 has a swimming pool, a western-style restaurant and bar, a Chinese restaurant with a private courtyard-style dining room, mini cinema, art gallery, children's play area, grocery shop, administrative offices, staff dormitory and a dog kennel. Phase II and III will include another 24 private villas for sale. Redstone Industrie has decided not to sell the 11 villas in Phase I, but instead to promote them as boutique hotels. This will enable a wider public to appreciate the exciting architecture of the individual houses as they participate in the cultural activities to be planned here.

What inspired the 'Commune'

Says Zhang Xin, 'After 50 years of Communism, China is transforming and re-inventing itself socially, economically and artistically. City planners are catching up with modernization plans, real estate developers are busy building "dream homes" for first time home owners, architects are working days and nights, and are still unable to shorten the queues for drawings outside their offices.

The frantic level of energy and the huge amount of construction in such a short period of time has given China almost no time to search for her own contemporary identity. We are worried that the whole "construction age" is going to be completed within the hurriedness and that this golden opportunity to do something meaningful will be wasted.

As developers we felt a sense a responsibility to build something meaningful beyond pure profitability. For this reason, our grand vision is to build a contemporary architectural museum for private houses in a valley of 8 km2 next to the Great Wall, to influence a whole generation of architects, developers and consumers in China, and hopefully it will contribute to the history of architecture in our reborn "young" country.

The emphasis on the experimental spirit for the "Commune" reflects our role as a patron of architecture, and so did our choice of architects, the added flavour here is that we limit our invitations to only Asian architects.'

About the architects selected all being Asians, Zhang Xin remarks, 'Asian identity came as our way to symbolize the rise of development in Asia, particularly China. Last century the majority of architectural innovations were formulated in Europe and America. That stage of architecture was theirs.

However from the turn of the century, a great deal of construction has been happening in the East. We felt strongly that it is about time that Asian architects come out from the shadow of European architects and take center stage. That's why we limit the invitation only to Asian architects.

In fact, when I gave a presentation in Europe recently, the European architects were asking me why wasn't the invitation extended to them as they would love to work on projects like this. Well, the luxury of a developer is that we have a choice. Who we choose and what we choose becomes our identity, becomes an indicator of who we are.

'

And choose she did, with the help of Yung Ho Chang, the Head and Professor of the Graduate Centre of Architecture, Peking University. 'The architects involved are all the young and prominent ones in their respective countries. The reason we chose young architects is that they have avant-garde ideas.

They emphasize concepts and insist of transcending form. They challenge people's present ideas about living. These architects are already well known among the younger generation in their own country. In fact, out of the 16 Asian architects to be presented at the Venice Biennale, 14 of them have worked or have been working with us.

You can see that this generation of architects are already very active in the international scene.'

The process

'People asked me why don't I choose the architects and design to my own liking. Well, that should not be the way as if I do that, then it defeats the purpose of the museum, then it becomes my own collection. In that case, many of the houses wouldn't be there in the first place.' - Zhang Xin.

When the invitation was sent out to the architects, all of them accepted it readily even though the fee may not be what they are used to. Indeed, who would give up such a golden opportunity of designing a private house in a valley next to the Great Wall of China? Zhang Xin said: 'When the architects first came to visit the site, I arranged a programme for them to better understand Chinese architecture and the context they are working in.

They visited old Chinese traditional architecture like the China Club that is still being well preserved. They were invited to the new house of Ai Wei Wei, showing them what is contemporary Chinese architecture. We showed them around SOHO New Town, that we developed. They made presentations and gave speeches to the younger designers from the institutions.

Media were called upon to interview them. The whole idea is to introduce them to China and also China to them. Indeed, the whole purpose of creating the Commune is to influence a whole generation of Chinese planners, architects, developers, consumers, and undergraduates who will contribute to this "construction age" we are in.

We wanted to show them the possibility out there.'

The architects were told that the developer is targeting 'wealthy clients' who can afford to purchase a lived-in, functional, collectable piece of 'artwork' and who will continue maintaining it. Other than a few ground rules laid down in the design programme, Redstone Industrie had almost no specifications, except that the architects are to use their 'maximum imagination' to design houses with a high level of flexibility.

The ground rules included that which required that the houses do not sit on top of the hills but cradle the contours of the valley slopes. Also, the architects should use local materials, resources and labour in the construction.

An 'experiment'

'I am evolved from a monkey. No matter if the others believe it or not, I believe so. From the bottom of my heart, I love mountains; mountains with nimbus. For millions and millions of years monkeys live in the mountains and were attached to the trees and the green in the mountains. This was passed down to human 'genes', which brought us an internal affection towards the mountains, the tress, and the green. We decided to build a house of our own in the mountains. The monkey is moving to the mountains.' - 'We Build a House in the Mountains' by Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi.

'Commune by the Great Wall' seems more of an experiment than being a conventional housing project. Yet, this is an experiment that occurs at many levels, both for the architect as well as for the developer. In fact, it is a dream come true for any architect to be presented the chance to build by the Great Wall with little interference from the client.

The entrance to the development is marked by Ai Wei Wei's four-to-five metre tall RC sculpture of thick fragmented planes. Relatively tiny, rectilinear roadside lamps, covered in corten steel plates, line the winding mountain road that leads to the way into the site. The development appears like a montage in the landscape, composed of houses each with its own thumb-printed design yet which are perfectly in harmony with the natural surroundings, set against the Great Wall in the distance.

Although all the architects had to deal with the same given geographical and social context, each house is imbued its respective uniqueness stamping from the architects' own socio-cultural background and their respective beliefs. Among the issues they had to deal with in their designs were: the relationship between architecture and environment, integration of culture and nature, creativity under the limitation of local construction expertise and local materials, expressing unique architectural concepts in this specific environment.

An unprecedented project

The 'Commune' project certainly deserves its high profile. It has been regarded as 'avant-garde', 'alternative', 'experimental', 'cutting edge', and such descriptions. Given the engineering challenges of constructing in a mountainous rural landscape, the 'Commune' project can be said to be unprecedented.

With seductive branding, it has generated a lot of attention and anticipation. When I visited the site, there were already many visitors, even though the project was yet to be fully completed. In spite of the fact that only three villas were available for viewing, architects and design students from other parts of China, Korea, Hong Kong and elsewhere, were already pouring in to catch a glimpse of this much-hyped project.

As a historic first, it has even been selected to participate as a single project entrant at La Biennale di Venezia, to be held from September this year. Deyan Sudjic, the Director of La Biennale di Venezia wrote to Redstone: 'The theme this year is "Next" - we are looking for key projects around the world that are setting the agenda for architecture for the decade to come.

Your project with its combination of aesthetic ambition, and the reinforcement of Asian identity through architectural innovation does that in so many ways.'

Commune By The Great Wall - 12 Houses
Gary Chang (Hong Kong SAR)
'Suitcase - unfolding the mechanics of domestic leisure' is a simple rectangular 45m-long timber-clad box raised on a smaller RC plinth-like box volume. Internally, the notions of hierarchy, intimacy, privacy, spontaneity and flexibility are challenged. This is Gary Chang's experiment with a conceptual house that accommodates the ultimate flexibility made possible by 'secrete gadget doors'. The house consists of three strata - the bottom one holding domestic fittings, equipment, services and maid quarters; the middle is the free-flowing space for habitation; and the top stratum a series of blinds that can be lowered or raised to divide the space. At first glance, the living area looks extremely empty and unfurnished without the usual divisions like bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and storage. These facilities are in fact 'objectified' into service. With a lift of the 'trap doors', one is able to transform the loft space into any arrangement to suit the occasion and need. The building envelope is also layered: the outer skin is a wrap of full-height double-glazed folding doors, while an inner layer comprises a series of screens forming a matrix of openings.

Rocco Yim (Hong Kong)
Rocco's villa design refers to the disappearing traditional Chinese courtyard houses in Beijing. It embraces nature in its hermetic space while responding to views and topography. Rocco has skewered the four sides into a parallelogram partly because of the contours of the site, but also because he wanted to transcend the traditional courtyard by elevating the living area to capture the magnificent views of the valley and the Great Wall. Conceptually, the house is 'distorted', with the courtyard providing warmth and protection from the harsh exteriors; yet, the communal domain is opened to engage the wild environment in a contemporary, adventurous spirit.

Cui Kai (China)
As the only mainland China-trained architect, Cui Kai has evidently embraced western design influences in his villa design. An intersection of two rectilinear bars, one stacked on the other, completes the house diagram, the spatial organization is simple, with the lower bar housing the communal area of living, dining and kitchen spaces, partially embedded in the hillside below; a 30m-long upper bar contains the bedrooms. With the concept of 'see and seen', Cui Kai emphasized the importance of scenery in his scheme, not only will the residents have unobstructed views of the valley, so will the neighboring villas. This informed his villa sitting strategy and why he sat the 30m-long bar on stilts. The main feature that connects the two intersecting bars is the double-storey high lighting chamber, where natural light and shadow 'paint' natural patterns on the wall.

Shigeru Ban (Japan)
Noted for his daring and original use paper as a building material, Ban is more of an inventor than a designer. A few considerations guided his design, one was his concern about the lesser than usual control he had over accuracy and precision of details, exploration of construction sites and furniture factories convinced him that while the standard on site is doubtful, those in the factory are of good quality. Here, he introduced a development of his earlier Furniture House idea with local materials, in which prefabricated furniture actually forms the structure of the house. He experimented with bamboo plywood, a cheap and widely available material largely used for constructing concrete frameworks. While the original color was an unappealing dark red, Ban successfully substituted it with white glue, and also proved that bamboo plywood is indeed stronger in strength compared to normal timber plywood. As the environment was overwhelmingly wild, he introduced a traditional Chinese courtyard design I a bid to confer a sense of intimacy to the house. Behind its seemingly simple yet rich design, the Bamboo Furniture House is one that Ban has managed, once again, to push the boundary of material innovation.

Kay Ngee Tan (Singapore)
Designed to seamlessly integrate with the natural context, the house consists of two volumes forming an L-shape with the convex side expose to the view of the Great Wall and the concave side embracing an internal courtyard. The larger building houses the living areas and bedrooms, and the smaller one contains the dining and the kitchen. The two buildings are connected by a series of stepped timber decks, which also connects the house with the landscape. The most impressionable feature of the house is the design of its fenestration, The bedrooms have small, truncated, odd-shaped windows whereas the bathrooms have big translucent glass windows facing the public road outside. The facade is cladded with metal and local stone.

Chien Hsueh-Yi (Taiwan)
Hsueh-Yi's design attempts to 'lock' the house into the site. The most eye-catching feature of the villa is its three extending blocks lined up against the rough hewn, dark colored stone wall which serves as the main circulation spine. Cladded with stones collected from the site, this main spine wall contrasts with the ground's steep slope and bears a resemblance to the Great Wall. Called the 'aircraft hanger arms'; tongue-in-cheek by site staff, the living spaces are generously glazed to connect the inhabitants inside with the natural environment outside. The bedrooms are deposited on the other side of the spine wall, facing the mountain.

Antonia Ochoa (China)
As Chief Architect of Redstone Industrie, Venezuelan Antonio has been a long time Beijing resident. His villa occupies the most privileged position with a sweeping view of the entire development, complete with rooftop garden, Jacuzzi and a barbecue area. It is a simple, double-storey, rectangular box cantilevered out from the base of the mountains and enclosing its own garden. It is painted red, giving the house a strong Latin American flavor. Utilizing materials such as concrete, red bricks, bamboo, wood, glass and stones, Antonio has attempted to create a villa with different spaces suited for different seasonal usage.

Kanika R'kul (Thailand)
The only female architect in the group, Kanika wants to 'expose the spirit of the site'. She sees the weekend villa as a place to free urbanites from the 'inwardness' and 'non-physical' nature of their relationship with the city. She wants to expose them to the positive energies of the natural environment, while protecting them from the possible harshness of it. There is a wonderful relationship of graduated space from indoor/covered to outdoor/opened, as manifested in the various courtyards and roof decks.

Kengo Kuma (Japan)
Kuma wanted to learn from the Great Wall its integration with the environment, how it runs endlessly along with the surroundings and is never an object of isolation. Seeking to apply this spirit of integration, he designed the 'Great (Bamboo) Wall', the material of which is significant in both Chinese and Japanese cultures, the plan is simple, with the heart of the house being a semi-outdoor tea room, open to the views of the distant Great Wall. The rest of the house is organized around this 'heart', with the living spaces of kitchen, dining and living on one side, and the private zones of bedrooms on the opposite. Although this is a single storey development, subtle changes in height and partitioning of spaces through variation of the diameter and density of bamboo used, created a variety of spaces with different sensations. The Great Wall had been a boundary of cultures. However, Kuma hopes that this bamboo wall will not separate but instead, connect two cultures.

Nobuaki Furuya (Japan)
Furuya believes that the house should offer new experiences, encounters and insights to the people who will occupy it. He sees the weekend house as a meeting place of many people, where they can discover the unique geography and get distant views of the Great Wall beyond. The house is an L-shape block with a lot of structural brick piers setting the vertical rhythm of the elevation. One enters the house at the junction of the two arms and is immediately greeted by a Beijing-style heated bed. Living and guest spaces are on the 1st story, and the more private zones of bedrooms are on the 2nd storey. There is a Japanese feel in the treatment of the spaces, and in the material used as well as the detailing. 'The interior space resembles a hollow tree, so the people inside the house can have the feeling of being embraced by a grove, an experience somewhat similar to what Alberto Giacometti has had in the "empty forest" - the "sense of the luminous sphere".

Yung Ho Chang (China)
Entitle the 'Split House' or 'Shan Shui Jian' (between/separating mountain and water), the house is located on the highest vantage point of the Communes Phase I development. Chang wanted to blur the boundary between the man-made and nature by 'splitting' the house through the middle into two rectangular volumes, and creating a semi-internal courtyard in between them, thereby bringing in the 'shan shui' (mountain and water, or commonly interpreted as landscape). A creek of water runs through the glass-floored entrance foyer, bringing the 'shui' element. The 'Split House' is adaptable to all kinds of topography as the two halves can be adjusted to fit various terrains. Although trained in America, Chang has gone back to his cultural roots. The load-bearing walls of the house are made of rammed earth with partial wood framing, besides being ecological, the rammed earth wall also keeps the house warm in winter and cool in summer, Chang has managed a reinterpretation of traditional Chinese elements in very contemporary architecture.

Seung H-Sang (South Korea)
Sueng wanted to create architecture as landscape. While preserving natural features such as the rocks, trees and artificial structures on site, he broke down the given mass of the clubhouse into several articulated pieces, and let the filled spaces communicate with the void spaces, the design of the clubhouse also embodies his understanding of Western and Eastern cultural differences, for example, the Chinese restaurant has 10 private dining rooms, each with its own internal courtyard, whereas the Western-style restaurant has a wall of windows with views out to the Great wall. Interestingly, the blocks are externally cladded with corten steel.