Website review: Asia Times Online :: China News - C...
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laodan rated 12 months ago- China chasing an urban utopia in AsiaTimes by Daniel Allen
Today the majority of Beijing's high-profile building projects attempt to steal the limelight with bold architectural gestures such as impossibly angled roofs or hanging glass exteriors. However, some home-grown architects are pushing innovation in a different direction - one that focuses on the intrinsic issues of materiality, limited-budget construction and local context. In their own small way these pioneers are contributing to something huge - a radical new identity for Chinese architecture. Instead of attempting to fuse Oriental esthetics with Western-style design, leading architects such as Chang Yung Ho and Ma Yansong are exploring more sophisticated ways of connecting today's construction to their nation's culture. Combining an understanding of local craft traditions and the fabric of urban life with contemporary approaches to technology and new materials, these designers are pushing the creative envelope and changing the built environment in a way that has never been attempted before. China chasing an urban utopia
China's architecture has a glorious past: refined, daring and sometimes very creative. This past is not going away nor is it forgotten in the minds of China's contemporary architects and artists. The story of China today is one of extremely rapid change creating a reality that is pure chaos. But China's history has seen chaos along much of the way the country followed and its people have thus learned to surf on the waves within chaos that are bringing about change. While still not being mature China's architecture, and other arts, could well soon be eye openers for the rest of the world, for, as Ma Yansong says"China has grown very fast and the country faces very distinct challenges. This gives China the opportunity to create unique solutions and do something different for the future."
- China chasing an urban utopia in AsiaTimes by Daniel Allen
