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MODERNIZING BEIJING A thesis by Rutger Kuipers Content I Thesis ‘Modernizing Beijing’ Abstract and Acknowledgement 3 Introduction 4 1 History 7 1. China’s ancient architectural history 1.. General features 1..2 Imperial architecture 8 1..3 Residential architecture 9 1..4 Hutongs 0 1.2 Periods of Modernisation until 978 1.3 Rising China (after 978) 6 1.4 China’s future development and goals 9 2 Reconstructing Beijing 20 2. City planning and architecture of Beijing 2.2 Architectural debates on Beijing 23 2.2. Discussing Koolhaas’ CCTV 26 3 Theoretical framework 28 3. Regionalism 3.2 Supermodernism 3.3 Critical Regionalism 3.4 Defamiliarization 29 4 Case Studies in Beijing 32 4. Wu Liangyong: Ju’er Hutong 4.2 Steven Holl: Linked Hybrid 33 4.3 Andreu: National Theatre 34 5 Conclusions 36 Additions 37 References 39 Pictorial references 40 Modernizing Beijing Rutger H. Kuipers TU Delft MSc3 II Impressions of Beijing III Analyses and precedents IV Location Modernizing Beijing Rutger H. Kuipers TU Delft MSc3 2 Abstract Acknowledgement By modernizing the city, Beijing is upgrading to a Special thanks goes out to Karina Moraes Zarzar, higher level of prosperity. At the same time though Marc Koehler and to the mentors of the ExploreLab we see the reverse side of a global development, Studio for supporting me on this project. the interventions in the city ruin parts of the city by destroying its traditional architecture, in particular the Thanks to the founders of the ExploreLab Studio at traditional hutong-areas, which are one of the main TU Delft for providing the possibility of a graduation characteristics of this city, and which carry a long project based on personal interest. And of course history of Beijing’s ancient life and architecture. thanks to my current team of students at ExploreLab2 My interest is mainly concerned within a dilemma of for the valuable reflections on each others projects upgrading Beijing to a modern wealthy city on the and having a good time during the process. one hand and on the other hand destroying part of its tradition. How could an architect operate within a dilemma like this? Does the architect need to choose the one or the other position or is there a possible solution to a new architecture which embeds the local traditions? My goal is to find the last solution: a new architecture that embeds local tradition. I will discuss the interventions in Beijing according to a few theoretical themes; globalisation, critical regionalism and defamiliarization. Modernizing Beijing Rutger H. Kuipers TU Delft MSc3 3 Introduction We live in an era of globalisation, it takes less time society (in fact they originate from America, the then before to get from one point in the world to world’s hegemony). One of the problems or critique another –in travel of speech, written words, images on globalisation is that it happens mainly between the or physically-, the world becomes one, or doesn’t rich countries in the world, who try to dictate capitalist it? A definition given by Wikipedia (which in itself principles to the rest of the world. A lot of poor is a product and process of globalisation): “an countries do not get the benefits from globalisation umbrella term for a complex series of economic, -meaning here: becoming a wealthier society-, unless social technological, cultural and political changes there is any profit to make for Western investors and seen as increasing interdependence, integration the country is willing to cooperate with the capitalist and interaction between people and companies in market system. On the other hand globalisation helps disparate locations” (Wikipedia, 2006). The effects developing countries (that are of interest and willing to of globalisation reflect in the vision cooperate) to become more prosperous. China has been confronted with globalisation, since Deng Xiaoping introduced the ‘open door’ policy to China in 978 and changed the planned system to a market system, which resulted in a tremendous economic boom. Beijing has since then started developing towards a modern city in a rapid pace. At the moment ‘starchitects’ from all over the world imprint this city with amazing designs, Beijing has become the platform of the next architectures, of architectural and urban debates. The world is following closely what is happening to China and how .`McDonaldization` it is dealing with this rapid change, since there has been such a remarkable big economic transformation for this country and its cities. The government of that everybody drinks Coca-Cola, eats McDonalds, China seems to be eager to profile itself in the world, wears Nikes and listens to the same pop-music. the reserved position the communist China had The one thing that seems peculiar in the effects of towards capitalism has made place for an embracing globalisation, is that all these trademarked items of it. One of the results is the 2008 Olympic Games come from the rich part of the world, the Western in Beijing, which means an acceleration of the 1. Given the example: on october 17th, 2006 TU Delft organizes a forum in Beijing on its urbanism in cooperation with the Tsinghua University, NTU Taipei and the Berlage Institute. (www.ifou.org). The Netherlands Architecture Institute organised an exposition in the summer of 2006 on Contemporary China, in which Beijing and Shanghai are the main cities of subject (www.nai.nl). In Beijing, the dutch architect Neville Mars (a former associate of Koolhaas) founded the Dynamic City Foundation which 2. An old foodstand in inner Beijing wears the Coca Cola advertisement. arranges several debates around the transformation of Beijing. Modernizing Beijing Rutger H. Kuipers TU Delft MSc3 4 deal with the phenomenon of globalisation and the local identity of the place. An important theory comes from Tzonis and Lefaivre, who introduced the Critical Regionalism, where they propose a new vision of architectural approach, with a critical view towards the products of globalisation as well as local potentials. I presume that with the research on this theory I 3. The planned olympic field for 2008 can formulate a design task that will help to find the solution to a new architecture with local identity building program. It means a new deadline for embedded. Beijing that shows to when the cities facilities should be upgraded to a higher level of prosperity. At the I will discuss the interventions in Beijing according same time though we see the reverse side of global to a few theoretical themes; supermodernism, development, the interventions in the city ruin parts regionalism, critical regionalism and defamiliarization. of the city by destroying its traditional architecture, in Supermodernism is discussed by Hans Ibelings, particular the traditional hutong-areas, which are one who found a new ‘ism’ to grasp the architecture of of the main characteristics of this city, and which carry globalisation from the last decade of the twentieth a long history of Beijing’s ancient life and architecture. century in words: Supermodernism, according to My interest is mainly concerned with a dilemma of Ibelings, covers architecture with decreasing value for upgrading Beijing to a modern wealthy city on the “symbolic or metaphorical references” (Ibelings, 998, one hand and on the other hand destroying part of p.33). Regionalism on the other hand is a rather its tradition. How could an architect operate within a conservative way of reviving past architectures. Its dilemma like this? Does the architect need to choose main critic towards sorts of Supermodern architecture like Ibelings describes is the loss of local identity. Critical Regionalism is introduced by Tzonis and Lefaivre and presents a discourse on Regional and Global architecture. It attempts to critically combine these into a new approach on architecture. Despite its progressive ideas many still wrongly reflect to it as a conservative theory. Defamiliarization (originally used in linguistics by Victor Shklovsky) is a theory 4. Destruction close to the Zhengyangmen Gate at Tiananmensquare discussed by Tzonis and Lefaivre. The theory presents a way of how to deal with the re-use of the one or the other position or is there a possible (fragments of) precedents. solution to a new architecture which embeds the local traditions? The purpose of this graduation thesis in MSc3 is to My goal is to find the last solution: a new architecture form a basic knowledge to support me in a design that embeds local tradition. task in the last semester, MSc4. I have written most part of the thesis from my home in the Netherlands To research this I consulted architectural theories that (globalisation provided me this possibility) in addition Modernizing Beijing Rutger H. Kuipers TU Delft MSc3 I spend three weeks in Beijing the summer of 2006, examining and photographing parts of the city as well as collecting verbal and written information. The first chapter starts with a brief overview of historical moments where I will try to briefly describe, from history till present, China’s traditional architecture and the influences from the Western society. The chapter provides a general insight in the nation’s development, its architecture and its politics. As Beijing is the primary goal I will attempt to focus on Beijing. In this historical part of the thesis is introduced how certain architectures have derived and how the Chinese reasoned on urban planning and architecture. There is a differentiation between ancient architecture, the period before 978, (turning point in late history) with the influences from modern societies and the period after 978 until now. Sometimes history is discussed according to dynasties, the dynasty chronology can be found as a supplement at the end of the thesis. In the second chapter I will discuss the city planning and architecture of Beijing itself.
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