China Daily Global Edition (USA)
PLANNING A BETTER FUTURE An ongoing exhibition highlights the increasing role that architects are playing in shaping China’s urban landscape, Lin Qi reports.
Over the past decade China has become a demonstration ground for international architects to explore ideas and technologies.
However, since local planners have come to realize that a good city needs not just landmark high-rises, but also welldevised areas that make residents’ daily lives convenient and comfortable, while at the same time preserving and respecting historical buildings and architecture, experts are getting even more involved in the country’s rapid urbanization. As well as designing buildings, architects are also increasingly participating in the planning of city districts.
Examples of such projects and collaborations, both completed and still under construction, are explained through models, renderings and text at Foster and Partners: Sustainable Communities, Shared Futures, an ongoing exhibition at the Tsinghua University Art Museum.
The exhibition looks at case studies of some of the firm’s classic designs from around the world. Established in London in 1967 by the prominent British architect Norman Foster, the company now has offices around the globe, including branches in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Additionally, visitors to the exhibition are introduced to the firm’s Chinese projects, which seek to incorporate Foster and Partners’ vast global experience into local elements and traditions.
Projects on display include some of China’s iconic buildings, such as the 183-meterhigh HSBC Main Building in Hong Kong, and Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport, whose soaring aerodynamic roof and dragonshaped form have been praised.
Spencer de Grey, the firm’s senior executive partner and head of design, says, while 40 years back, the materials needed for the construction of the HSBC Main Building project were largely exported from Europe and the United States, Terminal 3 is totally “made in China”, and is of high quality and complexity.
He adds that it represents a major investment in infrastructure, which is the key to the future development of cities and human civilization, noting that in that area, China has taken the initiative.
The firm’s increasing projects in China show a diversity of requirement within the nation’s cities, especially when it comes to urban planning.
One featured model at the exhibition introduces a 40-hectare master plan conceived for the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, now under construction.
“Hong Kong has always excited us as a city. It has a vibrancy, a life which is very exciting,” De Grey says.
“What we didn’t want to do was to create a sort of cultural complex where there is a string of beautifully designed, individually designed cultural buildings in isolation from the rest of the city.”
The design mirrors a Hong Kong tradition — a high intensity cultural district was created so that people’s work, lives, shopping and entertainment are all mixed up together in a very rich pattern. It also includes a major park, a critical element for Hong Kong which is lacking in good, open public spaces.
A similar philosophy of respecting local history and tradition is also employed in the firm’s current renovation of the Sanyang Road area in Wuhan, Hubei province — a model of which is presented at the Tsinghua show.
De Grey says because Wuhan is traditionally lowrise and has a number of historic areas, the vast majority of the design of the site is also a low-rise, yet high-density, development, again, offering a mixture of residential compounds, retail space, coffee shops, restaurants and entertainment venues.
“The planning is essentially all about bringing the scale down to the traditional scale of Wuhan,” De Grey says.
A highlight of the exhibition is a selection of drawings done by Foster himself, covering a variety of signature projects over the years. They include those he did for the design of the eagle that sits behind the speaker’s desk in the debating chamber of the Reichstag New German Parliament. In 1992, the firm won the contract to renovate the edifice, a project which was completed in 1999. The design of the huge eagle was one of the most symbolic features in the design.
There are 18 study models on show, illustrating the thinking process of another critical feature of Reichstag’s design, the huge glass dome erected on the roof.
“The symbol of the unified Germany, which the Reichstag represented, was rarely reflected in the dome that sits on top of the building. On show are some of the study models we made at the time, exploring different options we conceived for the dome,” De Grey explains.
“We felt it was inappropriate to rebuild the original historic dome, but equally, that it was an opportunity to create a contemporary symbol for the people of Germany.”
The dome offers a great 360degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape and has since helped the Reichstag to become a popular tourist attraction.