#12 Waiting for China

2005

From the mysterious Cathay, the land of fine silk and spices of which Marco Polo speaks, through tumultuous political and social upheavals of world shaking intensity to modern-day China, with its population of one billion three-hundred million inhabitants, a GDP that’s been growing for the last seven years running, and a demand that increases at a constant yearly rate of nine percent, the trek has indeed been great! As China now stands, it’s difficult not to consider it as a business person’s dream come true, both East and West!
To what extent has our Western view of the Celestial Empire changed? Practically all tog... Read More

When and why did you establish the Graduate Center? The Graduate Center of Architecture at Peking University (Beida) was established in 1999 and classes were first offered in 2000. I have always valued the importance of research in architecture and the ideal research platform has always been the one that is built upon interactions between practice...

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Vittorio's family-given name is Qun, but his love for and knowledge of Italy have led him to adopt this very Italian sounding name. Our meeting with Vittorio is at his interior design atelier in Beijing, where he has been working for eight years now, especially for nouveau rich Chinese families whom he furnishes with many Made in Italy products. ...

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Concept artist, painter, sculptor, designer, and calligrapher, Huang Rui is one of the founders of Le Stelle, the first avant-garde group in China. Founded in the eighties, the group challenged the strictures and prohibitions of officialdom against the creative freedom of artists. After living in Japan for ten years, he is now back on his home tur...

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Are Chinese artists then destroying the past to design the future? …we're creating the future so that we may redesign our past. Ai Wei Wei...

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In 1990 Lorenzo Fiaschi together with Maurizio Rigillo and Mario Cristiani opened the Galleria Continua (www.galleriacontinua.com) at San Gimignano. The idea behind the Gallery was to get ancient art, which is so pervasive in this city, and contemporary art on speaking terms with each other. In fifteen years the Gallery has carried on pioneering t...

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Realism, cynicism, tradition rejected yet yearned after and sought for. These would appear to be the catchwords characterising the latest, burgeoning generation of Chinese artist and the first to have been seen in Europe when Harald Szeemann brought a small party of these new artists to the Venice Biennale in 1999. They then looked to us a bit p...

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The architect Alessandro Mendini can truly be said to represent Italian design at its best. Founder of the Alchimia group, he now also holds top commissions from abroad, with clients such as Alessi and Swatch, and enjoys high academic and scientific standing. Mendini belies the prevailing stight-fistedness when it comes to sharing knowledge. He's i...

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With a population of one billion three hundred million inhabitants, a gross domestic product that's continually risen over recent years, and demand growing at an annual rate of nine per cent, it is no wonder that China has drawn the attention of large and small entrepreneurs and business persons from all over the world. Judging from the enthusiasti...

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Eugenio Perazza is a tireless explorer, always one step beyond the here and now with a gaze ever turned forward to the upcoming future. A seven-second intuition twenty-nine years ago is all it took for him to decide to revolutionise his life. That's when he started experimenting, turning designinto his mission. In 1976 he establishes Magis (www.mag...

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It's fairly apparent by now that China's economic standards will soon be on par with those of the West. Actually, some observers reckon they'll soon have overtaken Western standards. To be sure, it seems safe to predict that Chinese enterprises will soon be commonplace among the echelons of high international financial power. Lenovo, the Chinese co...

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Images

  • Peking University - Graduate Center of Architecture

    A project for each icon. A district of the city for each project. Select an icon and make up your own itinerary for exploring the city.

  • Peking University - Graduate Center of Architecture

    A project for each icon. A district of the city for each project. Select an icon and make up your own itinerary for exploring the city.

  • He Huishan

    STREET RULER. Applying principles of perspective, the system identifies the ideal dimensions of a street in relation to the height of the surrounding buildings.

  • Su Liheng

    BIRD’S EYE. The instrument presented here permits an all-encompassing gaze of the city, widening the viewers' horizon to a point of having a bird's eye-view of the cityscape.

  • Su Liheng

    BIRD’S EYE. The instrument presented here permits an all-encompassing gaze of the city, widening the viewers' horizon to a point of having a bird's eye-view of the cityscape.

  • Wang Xin

    BLINDFOLD CITY. Pictures of the shadows cast by motor vehicles, fences, billboards and bridges familiarise the viewer with the idea of urban growth and change.

  • Wang Xin

    BLINDFOLD CITY. Pictures of the shadows cast by motor vehicles, fences, billboards and bridges familiarise the viewer with the idea of urban growth and change.

  • Qiu Yukui

    ADJUSTABLE SCALE. An instrument in the form of a grid is used to measure various objects in and around the city, taking as a base parameter the average height of a human body (ca 170 cm).

  • Qiu Yukui

    ADJUSTABLE SCALE. An instrument in the form of a grid is used to measure various objects in and around the city, taking as a base parameter the average height of a human body (ca 170 cm).

  • Wu Hongde

    DENSITY XEROXING ARMOR. Donning a special suit of armour made of a layer of carbon-copy paper, the knight keeps a record of the number of persons with whom he comes in contact at the various stations of the subway.

  • Wu Hongde

    DENSITY XEROXING ARMOR. Donning a special suit of armour made of a layer of carbon-copy paper, the knight keeps a record of the number of persons with whom he comes in contact at the various stations of the subway.

  • Zhao Xiaoyu

    SEPARATION OF ROAD AND INTERFACE. Thanks to a special instrument, visual continuity is re-established by an image that shows what stands both in front of the viewer and behind the viewer's back.

  • Zhao Xiaoyu

    SEPARATION OF ROAD AND INTERFACE. Thanks to a special instrument, visual continuity is re-established by an image that shows what stands both in front of the viewer and behind the viewer's back.

  • Peking University - Graduate Center of Architecture

  • Feng Guochuan

    FOLDING STREET. Roads in Beijing are so wide as to inhibit a comprehensive view of the city. Thanks to the instrument presented here, cleverly positioned mirrors permit to narrow the perspectives of either side of the road and to start seeing the city from a different angle.

  • Feng Guochuan

    FOLDING STREET. Roads in Beijing are so wide as to inhibit a comprehensive view of the city. Thanks to the instrument presented here, cleverly positioned mirrors permit to narrow the perspectives of either side of the road and to start seeing the city from a different angle.

  • Li Ning

    FILTRATING CITY. A number of mirror-mounted devices are cleverly positioned to create an illusion that relieves the sense of anguish caused by city streets, far too wide for a pedestrian to feel safe to cross.

  • Li Ning

    FILTRATING CITY. A number of mirror-mounted devices are cleverly positioned to create an illusion that relieves the sense of anguish caused by city streets, far too wide for a pedestrian to feel safe to cross.

  • Guo Fu

    MAG CITY. Images of imaginary buildings and structures are overlaid on existing ones, offering a preview of possible future urban scenarios.

  • Guo Fu

    MAG CITY. Images of imaginary buildings and structures are overlaid on existing ones, offering a preview of possible future urban scenarios.

  • He Huishan

    STREET RULER. Applying principles of perspective, the system identifies the ideal dimensions of a street in relation to the height of the surrounding buildings.

  • Li Jinghui

    NARROWED LENS. Colour filters fitted before the camera lens are used to highlight several aspects of a shot, downplaying others of little interest.

  • Li Jinghui

    NARROWED LENS. Colour filters fitted before the camera lens are used to highlight several aspects of a shot, downplaying others of little interest.

  • Hu Gang

    OBSTRUCT. A number of cards for setting up before a camera lens permit the viewer to make up different views of the city by inserting trees, signs, signals, architectural features, and so on in the picture...

  • Hu Gang

    OBSTRUCT. A number of cards for setting up before a camera lens permit the viewer to make up different views of the city by inserting trees, signs, signals, architectural features, and so on in the picture...

  • Cheng Guiping

    SCALE MEASURE. The measurement system adopted here intends turning two spatial dimensions, namely width and height, into a plane so as to best analyse the spatial characteristics of a given location.

  • Cheng Guiping

    SCALE MEASURE. The measurement system adopted here intends turning two spatial dimensions, namely width and height, into a plane so as to best analyse the spatial characteristics of a given location.

  • Wang Peng

    WALKING CITY. The instrument presented here permits to measure out a city according to the walkers pace, rendering measurements through pictures of the city taken during the stroll.

  • Wang Peng

    WALKING CITY. The instrument presented here permits to measure out a city according to the walkers pace, rendering measurements through pictures of the city taken during the stroll.

  • Peking University - Graduate Center of Architecture