It takes a certain lifestyle to be able to discern the appeal of a new concept; it takes a certain unique voice to reject the monotonous or the hackneyed.
At Guangzhou's Flower Garden Hotel, I met with Pan Shiyi in his hotel room. After changing into a wool suit, he faced the camera lens for our photo shoot. Despite the often very "western" tenor of his comments, the camera reveals Pan Shiyi to be very eastern in look and manner. Though his eyes are intelligent and direct, he certainly doesn't look the part of a pioneering, cutting-edge property developer. Instead, he appears more like a kindly Chinese doctor...that is, until he opens his mouth and begins to speak, drawing you into the Zen atmosphere of his personal philosophy...
Yearning is just yearning
Journalist: You've always maintained that, in order to conserve land, it is necessary to build high-rise buildings. But it seems that high-rise buildings tend to create walls between people, and this leads to a sense of alienation and distance in human relations. For example, when the writer Wang Xiaobo passed away in his high-rise apartment, it was a full two days before anyone discovered him. In light of this, how do you - an architect - view this problem?
Pan: You're right. That's a question every architect should have to consider and answer to. It's true that the relationship between people and the spaces they live in have an influence on the relationship between people themselves. This sense of distance between people is a problem common to every industrialized society. Since houses are, after all, built for their human inhabitants, they should possess a certain humanity. When we design architecture, the things we should keep in mind, first and foremost, are human needs and human nature. In the not-so-distant past, Chinese housing was built in a fashion that was too open, leaving absolutely no room for privacy. Chinese housing today, on the other hand, is built with too much privacy, creating a sense of isolation. There are problems with both approaches.
Good architectural design must have white, black and grey space, the entire spectrum of public and private space. Bedrooms and bathrooms, for example, are "black space" - they are places where the individual can have total privacy. The living room is an example of "grey space", because it is a place where people can interact with friends and invited guests. Corridors and walkways are "white space", public space that is open to everyone. Sometimes this "white space" is neglected in architectural design, which leads to situations such as the one you mentioned, in which a writer can die without anyone even noticing. My method is to create "courtyards in the sky", which are community spaces where residents of the same floor can hold discussions, chat and interact. It is a space where you could install, say, an abstract sculpture, to see what everyone makes of it. Some will like it, some won't - but either way, it is a conversation piece. It provides a topic of conversation, which encourages everyone to voice his or her opinion and helps smooth human interaction. If you're talking with someone you don't know very well, this eliminates any social awkwardness. These sorts of community spaces are particularly important for us, people raised in a collective society. It is impossible to imagine society without this all-important "white space".
Journalist: But right now, the trend in residential housing doesn't seem to be so much about bringing people together with other people, but about bringing people together with nature. For example, on this trip to Guangdong, you participated in a forum whose topic was "the townhouse". The sort of townhouse, that is, that offers blue skies, clouds, green grass, streams and other natural scenery. That's the environment that everyone longs for - particularly those who grew up in the countryside and are hoping to recapture that memory. Even people who grew up in the city yearn for that type of natural environment. What's your view of this?
Pan: I've always felt that yearning is just that and nothing more - yearning. People may say they "yearn" for the countryside, but when it comes down to it, they are still very attracted to the diversity and convenience that city life offers. Townhouses have been in vogue in the U.S., Japan and many other countries for the past twenty or thirty years, and I've been abroad and seen them for myself. But I've found that when people get older, they tend to want to move back to the city, simply because the city is a more convenient place to live. If you were to take a child raised in a townhouse environment and compare them with one raised in a city, you'd find an enormous difference in their social and people skills. Of course, country life has a certain romance, but I think that the vast majority of people - if they were asked to choose - would prefer to live in the city rather than in the country. That's the way "yearning" is. Even if you yearn, every now and then, for the sweet potato gruel you loved so much as a child, would you really want to eat it each and every day as an adult?
Taking SOHO to the limit
Journalist: Your SOHO New Town Project seems to have a very futuristic flavor. Does that mean that you aren't you concerned about people's sense of nostalgia or tradition?
Pan: From a design standpoint, I'm far more concerned about the future, especially the way our lifestyles will evolve in the future. The industrial age has brought about specialization and fragmentation in everything. Even people's lives have been divided into sectors: work, leisure, shopping and entertainment. Yes, my SOHO New Town project has received its share of criticism. People have accused me of trying to return to some noisy, muddled sort of agrarianism. The agrarian age was certainly a jumble of disparate elements. A single farm family might raise livestock, have a granary, and run a small inn. That style of agrarian dwelling is a mix of different elements, different functions. But SOHO New Town isn't simply a return to the past, some brand of regression. We're living in a new era, the information age, in which many people working in culture-related professions no longer spend their days in high-rise office buildings. With a personal computer and advanced communications technology, they can work from home - or anywhere. In this electronic age, in which everything is digital, that sort of criticism doesn't really make sense anymore.
Journalist: I've heard that all of the walls in New Town homes are movable; they can be set up or dismantled at will. Is this an attempt to adapt to the many possible functions of the homes?
Pan: It is, in a way, but the key is not so much to express the "functionalism" of the homes, but to allow the homes to adapt to future changes in residents' lifestyles. Not long ago, I attended a conference in Europe that focused on future trends - the blurring of boundaries, diversification of functions and the increasing interdependence of the global economy. Housing design must be able to adapt to these global trends.
Journalist: Don't you think that your approach is a bit premature? After all, the average lifespan of a home is only 50 to 70 years, isn't it?
Pan: Not to worry. My homes - any first rate home, in fact - will have a life-span of 300 years. In other words, even 200 years from now, these homes will not be out of style. The success of SOHO New Town is already assured. I'll let you in on a little secret: Lately, I've been thinking quite a lot about how to determine the smallest unit of space that people interact with in homes. I want to find out exactly what that minimum space is, then use it to create a wide variety of "free combinations". Despite the fact that every person has different personalities, interests and hobbies, they can always find some common ground.
Journalist: That sounds more like a question for the philosophers.
Pan: A truly great architect, a master architect, shouldn't avoid these philosophical questions. Recently, I spent a great deal of money hiring a group of first-rate Japanese and Hong Kong architects to work on a project with me. The designs that I liked the most were the designs without any pre-defined limits. The Hong Kong designer defied the idea of a pre-defined space by taking an approach not unlike scooping out a watermelon. He "hollowed out" the space, eliminating concepts like lighting and "flow", until the design was simply empty space. He left the space to residents to define, and arrange, for themselves.
The Japanese designer chose to define a "basic unit" of space in his design - a space 3 X 3.8 X 3.8 meters, because he felt that this size was best suited to Chinese people's physical height, and to the volume of their conversation. Then, using this "basic unit" of space as his reference, he proceeded to think about the design of the house, asking questions such as: Where would you hold a party? Where would you play, put the dining table, or watch a movie?
In other words, the best type of architectural design is one that preserves boundless flexibility and limitless possibilities - and leaves these qualities to be defined by the future. So if someone were to ask me, right now, what the shape of these new houses will be, I would absolutely refuse to answer that question. That's something for the future to decide.
At heart, I'm really quite 'feudal'
Journalist: Your wife, Zhang Xin, was raised in the west and graduated from Cambridge University. In the time you've been together, has she been a big influence on you, on the way you view the world?
Pan: At first, we used to clash quite often. At times, our clashes were so serious that we even considered getting a divorce. One example - at meetings she likes to take a western-style democratic approach in which everyone is allowed to voice their opinion. But that creates so much argument and disagreement that it is hard to get anything done or have any kind of meaningful exchange. I really hate that noisy, disorderly process of making decisions. Sometimes, I'm absolutely convinced that I am right about something, but I can't quite find the words to refute my opponent's opinion, and that frustrates me. My wife says that this stems from a deficiency that I have, a lack of communication skills. But I'm still a big believer in authority, so I suppose I'm really quite feudal in that way.
Journalist: So, did you compromise in the end?
Pan: I don't think anyone should compromise their self or their principles. When I'm working on a project, I usually follow my own intuition. I believe in individual intuition, and my intuition is rarely wrong. I think that is the essence of eastern culture. But, on the other hand, if someone else has a truly better idea, I'm ready and willing to accept that. For example, westerners are very respectful of women - they open doors, give up their seats, or offer to carry bags for women. At one time, I was very old-fashioned, and I really felt that sort of behavior was demeaning to men - it was like putting yourself in an inferior position. But as I began to have more contact with foreigners, I came to realize that sort of chivalry is really quite natural.
Journalist: SOHO New Town has managed to log RMB 2 billion in sales in one month. How long do you think SOHO can continue like that?
(Translator's Note: RMB 2 billion is approximately equal to $240 million U.S. dollars)
Pan: Naturally, I'm not planning to continue to walk the same old paths. As I emphasized just now, we have to leave boundless flexibility and possibility for the future. Recently, I've been thinking that I'd really like to do a collection of designs by Chinese architects - something like a "Chinese architectural commune". I'd like to set it the foot of the Great Wall, on a wooded, natural site about one kilometer square. It would be interesting to have China's best architects design a series of houses, in a variety of styles, and see whether they could design true architectural "masterpieces" - masterpieces for today.
Biography
1987 Quit his job in southern China to begin a career in business.
1993 Unveiled Beijing's Wantong Industries, Ltd. Held position of General Manager.
1995 Established Beijing Redstone Industries, Ltd. Merged with another company to form Beijing's Zhong Hong Tian Real Estate Company, Ltd. Began development on the 480,000 square meter SOHO New Town project.
Sept, 1999 Based on his solid entrepreneurial credentials, was invited to sit on the Admissions Committee of Beijing University's Guanghua School of Business Management.
Oct, 1999 Was appointed to the Beijing City Government's "Panel of Experts for Planning for the 21st Century", becoming the only real estate developer on the panel.
Personal Interests and Tastes
Favorite thinker or writer: Wang Xiaobo
Favorite director: Zhang Yimou
Favorite music: Singer/songwriter music
Favorite housing environment: A place with mountains and rivers, and good neighbors
Favorite city: Beijing
Favorite leisure activity: Sports
At Guangzhou's Flower Garden Hotel, I met with Pan Shiyi in his hotel room. After changing into a wool suit, he faced the camera lens for our photo shoot. Despite the often very "western" tenor of his comments, the camera reveals Pan Shiyi to be very eastern in look and manner. Though his eyes are intelligent and direct, he certainly doesn't look the part of a pioneering, cutting-edge property developer. Instead, he appears more like a kindly Chinese doctor...that is, until he opens his mouth and begins to speak, drawing you into the Zen atmosphere of his personal philosophy...
Yearning is just yearning
Journalist: You've always maintained that, in order to conserve land, it is necessary to build high-rise buildings. But it seems that high-rise buildings tend to create walls between people, and this leads to a sense of alienation and distance in human relations. For example, when the writer Wang Xiaobo passed away in his high-rise apartment, it was a full two days before anyone discovered him. In light of this, how do you - an architect - view this problem?
Pan: You're right. That's a question every architect should have to consider and answer to. It's true that the relationship between people and the spaces they live in have an influence on the relationship between people themselves. This sense of distance between people is a problem common to every industrialized society. Since houses are, after all, built for their human inhabitants, they should possess a certain humanity. When we design architecture, the things we should keep in mind, first and foremost, are human needs and human nature. In the not-so-distant past, Chinese housing was built in a fashion that was too open, leaving absolutely no room for privacy. Chinese housing today, on the other hand, is built with too much privacy, creating a sense of isolation. There are problems with both approaches.
Good architectural design must have white, black and grey space, the entire spectrum of public and private space. Bedrooms and bathrooms, for example, are "black space" - they are places where the individual can have total privacy. The living room is an example of "grey space", because it is a place where people can interact with friends and invited guests. Corridors and walkways are "white space", public space that is open to everyone. Sometimes this "white space" is neglected in architectural design, which leads to situations such as the one you mentioned, in which a writer can die without anyone even noticing. My method is to create "courtyards in the sky", which are community spaces where residents of the same floor can hold discussions, chat and interact. It is a space where you could install, say, an abstract sculpture, to see what everyone makes of it. Some will like it, some won't - but either way, it is a conversation piece. It provides a topic of conversation, which encourages everyone to voice his or her opinion and helps smooth human interaction. If you're talking with someone you don't know very well, this eliminates any social awkwardness. These sorts of community spaces are particularly important for us, people raised in a collective society. It is impossible to imagine society without this all-important "white space".
Journalist: But right now, the trend in residential housing doesn't seem to be so much about bringing people together with other people, but about bringing people together with nature. For example, on this trip to Guangdong, you participated in a forum whose topic was "the townhouse". The sort of townhouse, that is, that offers blue skies, clouds, green grass, streams and other natural scenery. That's the environment that everyone longs for - particularly those who grew up in the countryside and are hoping to recapture that memory. Even people who grew up in the city yearn for that type of natural environment. What's your view of this?
Pan: I've always felt that yearning is just that and nothing more - yearning. People may say they "yearn" for the countryside, but when it comes down to it, they are still very attracted to the diversity and convenience that city life offers. Townhouses have been in vogue in the U.S., Japan and many other countries for the past twenty or thirty years, and I've been abroad and seen them for myself. But I've found that when people get older, they tend to want to move back to the city, simply because the city is a more convenient place to live. If you were to take a child raised in a townhouse environment and compare them with one raised in a city, you'd find an enormous difference in their social and people skills. Of course, country life has a certain romance, but I think that the vast majority of people - if they were asked to choose - would prefer to live in the city rather than in the country. That's the way "yearning" is. Even if you yearn, every now and then, for the sweet potato gruel you loved so much as a child, would you really want to eat it each and every day as an adult?
Taking SOHO to the limit
Journalist: Your SOHO New Town Project seems to have a very futuristic flavor. Does that mean that you aren't you concerned about people's sense of nostalgia or tradition?
Pan: From a design standpoint, I'm far more concerned about the future, especially the way our lifestyles will evolve in the future. The industrial age has brought about specialization and fragmentation in everything. Even people's lives have been divided into sectors: work, leisure, shopping and entertainment. Yes, my SOHO New Town project has received its share of criticism. People have accused me of trying to return to some noisy, muddled sort of agrarianism. The agrarian age was certainly a jumble of disparate elements. A single farm family might raise livestock, have a granary, and run a small inn. That style of agrarian dwelling is a mix of different elements, different functions. But SOHO New Town isn't simply a return to the past, some brand of regression. We're living in a new era, the information age, in which many people working in culture-related professions no longer spend their days in high-rise office buildings. With a personal computer and advanced communications technology, they can work from home - or anywhere. In this electronic age, in which everything is digital, that sort of criticism doesn't really make sense anymore.
Journalist: I've heard that all of the walls in New Town homes are movable; they can be set up or dismantled at will. Is this an attempt to adapt to the many possible functions of the homes?
Pan: It is, in a way, but the key is not so much to express the "functionalism" of the homes, but to allow the homes to adapt to future changes in residents' lifestyles. Not long ago, I attended a conference in Europe that focused on future trends - the blurring of boundaries, diversification of functions and the increasing interdependence of the global economy. Housing design must be able to adapt to these global trends.
Journalist: Don't you think that your approach is a bit premature? After all, the average lifespan of a home is only 50 to 70 years, isn't it?
Pan: Not to worry. My homes - any first rate home, in fact - will have a life-span of 300 years. In other words, even 200 years from now, these homes will not be out of style. The success of SOHO New Town is already assured. I'll let you in on a little secret: Lately, I've been thinking quite a lot about how to determine the smallest unit of space that people interact with in homes. I want to find out exactly what that minimum space is, then use it to create a wide variety of "free combinations". Despite the fact that every person has different personalities, interests and hobbies, they can always find some common ground.
Journalist: That sounds more like a question for the philosophers.
Pan: A truly great architect, a master architect, shouldn't avoid these philosophical questions. Recently, I spent a great deal of money hiring a group of first-rate Japanese and Hong Kong architects to work on a project with me. The designs that I liked the most were the designs without any pre-defined limits. The Hong Kong designer defied the idea of a pre-defined space by taking an approach not unlike scooping out a watermelon. He "hollowed out" the space, eliminating concepts like lighting and "flow", until the design was simply empty space. He left the space to residents to define, and arrange, for themselves.
The Japanese designer chose to define a "basic unit" of space in his design - a space 3 X 3.8 X 3.8 meters, because he felt that this size was best suited to Chinese people's physical height, and to the volume of their conversation. Then, using this "basic unit" of space as his reference, he proceeded to think about the design of the house, asking questions such as: Where would you hold a party? Where would you play, put the dining table, or watch a movie?
In other words, the best type of architectural design is one that preserves boundless flexibility and limitless possibilities - and leaves these qualities to be defined by the future. So if someone were to ask me, right now, what the shape of these new houses will be, I would absolutely refuse to answer that question. That's something for the future to decide.
At heart, I'm really quite 'feudal'
Journalist: Your wife, Zhang Xin, was raised in the west and graduated from Cambridge University. In the time you've been together, has she been a big influence on you, on the way you view the world?
Pan: At first, we used to clash quite often. At times, our clashes were so serious that we even considered getting a divorce. One example - at meetings she likes to take a western-style democratic approach in which everyone is allowed to voice their opinion. But that creates so much argument and disagreement that it is hard to get anything done or have any kind of meaningful exchange. I really hate that noisy, disorderly process of making decisions. Sometimes, I'm absolutely convinced that I am right about something, but I can't quite find the words to refute my opponent's opinion, and that frustrates me. My wife says that this stems from a deficiency that I have, a lack of communication skills. But I'm still a big believer in authority, so I suppose I'm really quite feudal in that way.
Journalist: So, did you compromise in the end?
Pan: I don't think anyone should compromise their self or their principles. When I'm working on a project, I usually follow my own intuition. I believe in individual intuition, and my intuition is rarely wrong. I think that is the essence of eastern culture. But, on the other hand, if someone else has a truly better idea, I'm ready and willing to accept that. For example, westerners are very respectful of women - they open doors, give up their seats, or offer to carry bags for women. At one time, I was very old-fashioned, and I really felt that sort of behavior was demeaning to men - it was like putting yourself in an inferior position. But as I began to have more contact with foreigners, I came to realize that sort of chivalry is really quite natural.
Journalist: SOHO New Town has managed to log RMB 2 billion in sales in one month. How long do you think SOHO can continue like that?
(Translator's Note: RMB 2 billion is approximately equal to $240 million U.S. dollars)
Pan: Naturally, I'm not planning to continue to walk the same old paths. As I emphasized just now, we have to leave boundless flexibility and possibility for the future. Recently, I've been thinking that I'd really like to do a collection of designs by Chinese architects - something like a "Chinese architectural commune". I'd like to set it the foot of the Great Wall, on a wooded, natural site about one kilometer square. It would be interesting to have China's best architects design a series of houses, in a variety of styles, and see whether they could design true architectural "masterpieces" - masterpieces for today.
Biography
1987 Quit his job in southern China to begin a career in business.
1993 Unveiled Beijing's Wantong Industries, Ltd. Held position of General Manager.
1995 Established Beijing Redstone Industries, Ltd. Merged with another company to form Beijing's Zhong Hong Tian Real Estate Company, Ltd. Began development on the 480,000 square meter SOHO New Town project.
Sept, 1999 Based on his solid entrepreneurial credentials, was invited to sit on the Admissions Committee of Beijing University's Guanghua School of Business Management.
Oct, 1999 Was appointed to the Beijing City Government's "Panel of Experts for Planning for the 21st Century", becoming the only real estate developer on the panel.
Personal Interests and Tastes
Favorite thinker or writer: Wang Xiaobo
Favorite director: Zhang Yimou
Favorite music: Singer/songwriter music
Favorite housing environment: A place with mountains and rivers, and good neighbors
Favorite city: Beijing
Favorite leisure activity: Sports
