Down-to-earth Design
This year has been designated to reflect on the international architectural industry.
In January, 48-year old Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious of its kind in the world. Aravena is renowned for designing low-cost public housing to be jointly built by governmental entities. He and his team construct just half of the basic space and leave the other half for the residents to do themselves, according to their own needs and tastes. A celebrated architect from a developing country, Aravena has focused on exploring the origin of architecture based on practices. As director and curator of the Architecture Section of the Venice Biennale 2016, Aravena proposed the theme of this year’s exhibition: Reporting from the Front.
The Front of China’s Architectural Industry
The “front” has attracted particular attention in China.
“Over the last three decades, the front of the architectural field has represented the front of China’s industrialization,” remarks Liang Jingyu, curator of the China Pavilion in the Architecture Section of the Venice Biennale 2016. “With regard to overall architecture, China has made great improvements in terms of materials and management of large-scale public architecture projects. In particular, its high and super-high buildings have reached world-class.”
“China should have enjoyed excep- tional advantages and led the world in the industrialization of housing, but it missed its chance,” Liang continues. “Every country dreams of developing more advanced building technology and industrial chains capable of integrating buildings, furniture and electric appliances. Developed countries like Germany and Japan have made
great progress, but they lack substantial market demand.”
The fact that China missed the chance to lead development of the urban housing industry is regrettable. And then where is the forefront of Chinese architecture? It has become public consensus to give priority to shaking off poverty and improving the housing conditions of poor people. In reality, however, focus seems to have been placed on “economic growth.” “In order to develop the economy, we are willing to sacrifice anything,” wrote Liang in the preface for the exhibition. “As a result, we lose our tradition and environment, and even development is not sustainable.” He advocates turning back and focusing on the ‘ignored front’: dignity, welfare and equality.
“Before building a house, ancient Chinese people banged drums and gongs for three days,” Liang says. “I used to think they were celebrating the commencement of work on the new house. After I read up on the subject, I discovered that they were doing this to inform the insects and worms living underground that they were planning to use their land and give them enough time to move. This is a respect for nature.”
Liang believes that immodest human desire is the root of environmental and resource problems. Blind optimism about technology contributes to greater material desire, but each technological development brings more complicated problems. To escape a complete halt, China should seek help from its traditions of working hard, frugality and respect for nature. This is how the theme of the China Pavilion became “Daily Design, Daily Tao.”
The Ignored Front
Since 2014 when Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas called people to search for things lost during the hundred-year modernism trend, more and more industry insiders have begun to actively practice reflection.
At the Venice Biennale from May 26 to November 27, the China Pavilion promotes ideas like that of Koolhaas. “Modernism emerged to solve social problems,” Liang explains. “But after a century, its functionality has increasingly deteriorated, so we have to return to the origin of architecture to see the real problem.”
The China Pavilion invited nine exhibitors and organizations, including architects, landscape architects, fashion designers and artists. Its floor space is divided into three parts: textiles, food and housing. The works are displayed both in the pavilion and outdoors in the Virgin Garden next to the pavilion. Among them, the conservation and renewal of Yangmeizhu Xiejie (an ancient Beijing street) illuminates innovations in protecting old streets. Nine years ago, Wang Lu designed Maoping Village a low-cost and highly site-adaptive school building. A Chinese University of Hong Kong team led by Zhu Jingxiang developed many prefabricated buildings made of light materials.
Liang believes food and textiles are critical pieces of a value system, so Ma Ke, founder of the fashion brand “Useless” who is known for her criticism of consumerism and regard for traditional handicrafts, is featured. Song Qun, whose works focus on series utensils from field to table, is another standout. Cases demonstrating countryside construction are also on display. Although the exhibition doesn’t have space to cover every practice of China’s architectural field, it does reflect some current trends of historic significance.
“Daily Design and Daily Tao endeavors to promote enduring ancient wisdom that can improve today’s ordinary lives,” concludes Liang. “By doing this, we re-establish cultural traditions, the backbone of sustainable development. Let design serve the ordinary majority. This is the ignored front of architecture that we cannot afford to ignore. Only when we return to serving ordinary people can architecture recapture the forgotten ideals of modernism.”