gallery in the ancient water town of Xitang, an hour’s drive from downtown Shanghai, in Zhejiang province. Qi is the founder of Learning curves Studio Qi, in her hometown of Hangzhou, also in Zhejiang, and Nine House won an Urban Environment Design magazine accolade as China’s Most Charming A new book celebrates 20 pioneering Chinese architects who all have one thing in common. Boutique Villa in 2016. More monumental assignments in the book include the 13,200­square­metre BY GARY JONES Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary Art, in northern China’s Ningxia Hui autono­ mous region, by architect Zhang Di, of WAA Architects in Beijing. Her massive, swoop­ ith just an ing, otherworldly structure sits beside hour to go before the Yellow River, its shape mimicking the China launch surrounding sedimentary rock formations. of New Chinese Meanwhile, the solemn Yanan Revolu­ Architecture: Twenty tionary Memorial Hall – by Zhang Jinqiu, Women Building the who has worked with China Northwest Future, the book’s Architecture, Design and Research British managing Institute for more than 50 years and is editor, Austin Williams, now in her 80s – is a political pilgrimage is explaining why he site in the Shaanxi province region that wanted no mention of females on its cover. Mao Zedong made his Red Capital from Although the full­colour volume is hailed 1935 to 1947. in marketing blurb as “the first of its kind detailing the lives, achievements and he book’s launch and an accom­ ambitions of 20 successful, influential panying exhibition are being held women architects living and working in Tat Shanghai’s sprawling West Bund China today”, he would have preferred no Art Centre, which is housed in what was gender­revealing spoiler in its subtitle. once an aircraft factory, beside the

“I envisaged this book being called Picture: Studio Qi Huangpu river. ‘Twenty Chinese Architects’, full stop, Qi Shanshan's Nine House, a boutique hotel Although Williams’ name appears on because if you saw ‘Twenty Chinese and gallery in Xitang, Zhejiang province. the book’s cover, an all­female team of Architects’ as the title, and you opened XJTLU students carried out much of the it up and they were all men, you wouldn’t research and interviews, and some of the give it a second thought,” besuited Williams architecture practice in the modern era was fresh­faced youngsters make last­minute says. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun if you opened only in the early 1990s. “This is not adjustments to architectural scale models then discovered that they were all women.’ like the West, with 200 years of playing spread throughout the exhibition space, That might give you cause for reflection around with this stuff,” Williams says. “We while wall­mounted profiles describe the on how women are seen to participate in are talking just 25 or so years.” career trajectories and design philosophies this industry.” One consequence of this squeezing of of the included 20. Invited to China in 2011, to help estab­ time is that women are already playing a It seems only fair, then, that New lish the architecture department of Xian pivotal role in Chinese architecture, and Chinese Architecture’s publisher, Thames Jiaotong­Liverpool University (XJTLU), in realised projects spotlighted in the new & Hudson, plumped for “women” on the Suzhou, Williams is an honorary research volume include everything from rural book’s cover, differentiating the slab­like fellow at that college as well as a senior schools to gargantuan commercial tome on bookshelves. All statistics suggest, lecturer in architecture at London’s developments in major cities. after all, that men have historically Kingston School of Art. Among them are architect Qi Shanshan’s He stresses how time frames are com­ Nine House, an inviting boutique hotel and pressed on the fast­changing mainland, pointing out that the country’s first private

14 Post Magazine // June 23, 2019 Zhang Di’s Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary Art, in Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Picture: MOCA FEATURE

dominated architecture not only in China, Talented exceptions break such rules, by Zhang Xin, co­founder of mainland uber­ but worldwide. however, and Williams says Iraqi­British developer SOHO China. In September of last year, The New York architect Zaha Hadid greatly inspired the Williams also points out that Hadid, Times noted that “architecture was long most recent generation of female Chinese in keeping with the spirit of his book, viewed as a ‘gentleman’s profession’”, and practitioners. (The aforementioned Zhang “always argued that she does not want had “systematically excluded women for Di’s Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary to be viewed as a woman architect but just most of its existence”. Art clearly owes a debt to the woman as a good architect. And that is what gave “As late as the 1990s, the percentage of celebrated internationally as the “queen her renown: that she was damned good, architecture firms owned by women in the of the curve”.) even if you didn’t like what she did. She United States was still in the single digits,” In 2004, Hadid became the first female knew what she wanted; she was an the Times continued. “Today, less than a to win the Pritzker Prize. (Two others have Tang Yuen Qi Shanshan authoritative figure”. third of the American Institute of Archi­ since won architecture’s highest accolade, “This is a tough business and she tects membership is female, and a survey but only jointly, with men: Japan’s Kazuyo was a tough businesswoman. She made of the world’s 100 largest architecture firms Sejima, in 2010, and Carme Pigem of Spain, things happen.” by the online design magazine Dezeen in 2017.) While her notable projects include Williams says modern China’s develop­ found that women occupied just 10 per the 2012 London Olympics Aquatics Centre, ment threw up differing societal expecta­ cent of the highest­ranking jobs.” the National Museum of Arts of the 21st tions for men and women, and this can be A month earlier, art­industry website Century, in Rome, and the Al Wakrah seen in their approaches to building design, Artsy pointed out that, in the US, “women Stadium, in Qatar (an under­construction or at least in how they rationalise their make up nearly half of the student body venue for the 2022 football World Cup), work. In New Chinese Architecture, he in architecture schools, and yet those China was very much Hadid’s early­21st­ writes: “Until the first decade of the new numbers drop off dramatically in the century playground: Guangzhou Opera millennium, engineering was deemed to be professional field, where women make up House, Beijing Daxing International Zhang Jinqiu Du Juan a core skill for China’s rapid urbanisation a paltry 18 per cent of licenced architects”. Airport, Galaxy SOHO and Wangjing and development. After all, until only a “The situation is changing more quickly SOHO, also in Beijing, Morpheus hotel at few years ago, the Central Politburo of the in China than in America,” says Williams, Macau’s City of Dreams, and Jockey Club Communist Party were all engineers, as who also accepts that deep­seated cultural Innovation Tower, at the Hong Kong their aim was to rebuild the nation. constraints persist in much of the People’s Polytechnic University, all bear her “Recently, China has entered an era of Republic, particularly in the agricultural unmistakable stamp. creativity and innovation that requires a hinterland. “Respect for elders, getting Despite Hadid’s death – at the age of 65, softer edge to its skills­based educational married, not being a ‘left­behind woman’ – of a heart attack, in March 2016 – Williams provision. Now art, philosophy, history and there is still that social pressure.” occasionally refers to her in conversation in design­led courses are increasingly becom­ And then there are the temporal the present tense. “It’s almost the fact that ing a first option for undergraduates.” demands of what is a punishing industry she’s a rarity that gives her more power,” he From the 1970s to the turn of the cen­ the world over. “Even though [Chinese] says, adding that a busy Hadid had agreed tury, Williams argues, with men flocking employment law is moving in line with to write the foreword to New Chinese Dong Mei Zhang Di into engineering and nation­building the global economy, women have kids Architecture. “I wasn’t going to pester her. and so take time off, so historically it’s I thought I’d give her another month, she unlikely they would have been employed will come back to it, and in that month, you in architecture in the first place. There is guessed it, she died.” definitely this thing in architecture: there Foreword duties were instead covered is no time off. It’s not a nine­to­five job; this is a midnight­to­midnight job.” FEATURE proceeding apace, aesthetic finesse was unique, urban housing type that has been not the priority. “Stick a shelf on a wall. If it relegated to a relic from Hong Kong’s past doesn’t fall down, it’s a good shelf,” he says. by the general public.” Women trickled into the industry in Williams is loath to single out favourites increasing numbers later, largely thanks among the 20 architects included in his to the social changes unleashed by Deng book but, when pushed, he admits, “I like Xiaoping’s economic reforms, when Dong Mei, if only because of her charming traditional constraints began to loosen. design ideas.” The concept of “it’s not the box but the Dong founded Biechu Kongjian Archi­ space inside the box that makes the box”, tects, in Beijing, with her husband, Liu Williams says, has been embraced more Xiaochuan, in 2004. Their projects include by women than by men. “I don’t want to the Badaling Forest Experience Centre (a sound like a parody by saying women are museum promoting preservation of wood­ more emotional, but they do seem able to lands) and the Ding Xiang Eco­Village, explain things in a more nuanced way. They both in the shadow of the Great Wall. want to get more aesthetic clarity out of Energy conservation is central to their design than the guys, who are a bit Dong’s approach, with the architect having more workaday.” embraced environmental protection – as she explains in New Chinese Architecture – sked whether she considers even “before China’s public building herself specifically to be a female energy­efficiency standards came out. We Aarchitect, Qi Shanshan brushes did a lot of theoretical investigation and aside the question. “If any male architect practical research on how to simplify calls himself a ‘male architect’, then I will building volumes, improve natural [refer to my gender],” she replies, plainly. ventilation, and so on”. Her description of her boutique property Williams also singles out the “heroic in Xitang, however, is significantly more story” of Tang Yuen, the septuagenarian florid. Qi speaks of “the movement of space chief architect at the Shanghai Institute and events” and the “shifting and juxta­ of Architectural Design & Research, who posing of volumes, compressing and releas­ today oversees more than 1,500 staff. In ing of moments, intervening or penetrating 1967, Tang’s education was disrupted by negative space”. the Cultural Revolution, just after she had Du Juan, associate dean of the Faculty completed her undergraduate studies at of Architecture at the University of Hong Beijing’s Tsinghua University. It would be 11 Kong, and who heads up IDU Architecture years before she could resume her studies, in that city, is also included in New this time at Shanghai’s Tongji University. Chinese Architecture. Tang went on to design a number of “Due to societal expectations and norms, notable public buildings in Shanghai in I am constantly made aware by others that I the late 1980s, including the 84,000­square am a woman working in a field largely occu­ metre Shanghai Library, in the city’s Xuhui pied by men,” says Shandong­born Du, who district, and contributed to the sympathetic nature of their work is striking,” Williams The couple founded Amateur Architecture has worked extensively in the US, Europe restoration of the Peace Hotel. Constructed says. “You do not get that in the West, where Studio, in Hangzhou, in 1998. The Pritzker and China as an academic, theoretician on the Bund in 1929, the hotel reopened in one will have an oeuvre, as they say: you jury described its work, which frequently and architect; has taught at both the 2010, and remains one of Shanghai’s most become a commercial architect, or a draws on Chinese tradition and uses Massachusetts Institute of Technology important art deco landmarks. hospital architect …” salvaged materials, as “timeless, deeply and Peking University; and has had her For example, Wang Wei, founder of Field rooted in its context, and yet universal”. work exhibited internationally, including hat most impresses Williams Architecture Office, in Beijing, has presided Amateur Architecture’s completed at the Venice Architecture Biennale. “Being about the works in New over a sensitive, modern­meets­regional projects include Wenzheng Library, at a woman of course shapes how I think WChinese Architecture, however, regeneration of rural Baima village, in Suzhou University; Ningbo Historic and work. However, my gender does not is their variety, even – or especially – within Sichuan province, as well as a 200­metre­ Museum; and China Academy of Art’s predominately define my sense of aesthetics individual portfolios. long, multipurpose development in Xiangshan Campus, in Hangzhou. or approach to architecture, which are “The variation, the variability, the varied Chengdu’s Panchenggang district that “There’s been a campaign in the West cultivated from my bicultural background, encompasses a community centre, a gym, asking why Wang Shu won the Pritzker multicultural education, as well as profes­ a farmers’ market and a police station. when his wife was equally involved in the sional training in different countries.” For the Panchenggang project, she work,” Williams says. “When you chat to One of Du’s projects, highlighted in resisted the urge to think vertically, turning her, she doesn’t want it. She says, ‘I like to New Chinese Architecture, is Open House, a Austin Williams. the skyscraper concept on its side and sit down with my feet up and a cup of tea “preservation and adaptive­reuse project of Picture: Kevin Lai building horizontally. The development after a hard day in the office. I don’t want to a 1940s four­storey residential building in has echoes of the vast, low­rise factories be flying around the world going to inter­ Hong Kong’s historic Sai Ying Pun area”. that once defined the local landscape. national conferences, so leave me out of it.’” “The Open House was my first “The site is filled with memories In the pages of the book, she says, “After project involving Hong Kong’s from Chengdu’s industrial past,” Wang Shu won the Pritzker Prize, his unique building type – the tong Wang says. “I wanted to show my private life disappeared, but I wanted lau, or Chinese walk­up,” Du says. respect for that heritage.” mine. I want my life.” Defying critics who “We wanted to create an open and Williams also calls attention to lambasted her for not demanding her share modern architecture that demon­ “intensely private” Lu Wenyu, wife of of the fame, Lu adds, “To assume that I – or strates the possibility of giving a new 2012 Pritzker winner Wang Shu (the anyone – merit acclaim simply by being a life and new value to this culturally first Chinese citizen to win the prize). woman is wrong.”

16 Post Magazine // June 23, 2019 The Ding Xiang Eco-Village, by Biechu Kongjian Architects, which Dong Mei and her husband, Liu Xiaochuan, founded in Beijing in 2004. Left: designed by Ding Wowo, the People’s Hall, in Jiangyin, Jiangsu province is featured in New Chinese Architecture. Picture: BieChu KongJian Architects

Williams maintains that the “starchitect” “IN CHINESE Williams says. “Whether he is saying that the US – Chinese architecture is now at phenomenon, now so entrenched in the ARCHITECTURE, AS to satisfy the paymasters, I don’t know. But a watershed moment. Influences are West, is unlikely to take root in China. people are playing with the fact that they melding, he believes, to create something “Politically, it can’t. It would not be allowed IN CHINESE SOCIETY, have to be part of the system, and that’s a new, eclectic and dynamic in China. to,” he says, adding, however, that Ma THE QUESTION IS, tricky balance. “That Japanese thing about beautifully Yansong – founder of Mad Architects, “Most of these architects – and I don’t crafted buildings in very small, awkward headquartered in Beijing – would be closest ‘HOW DO YOU MARRY think this is a conscious, cynical process – spaces. That taps into the Confucian mind­ to qualifying for such celebrity, alongside THE INDIVIDUAL WITH are genuinely trying to find what is the set in China, so people are shifting Asian­ Wang Shu (both of whom are male). new Chinese architecture, but to do that wards rather than just replicating some Chinese architects, no matter how success­ THE STATE?’” you would have to have a social break with crazy parametric building in San Francisco. ful and respected they become, are unlikely the past. If you don’t, you are only going “Then there’s a search for authenticity ever to be blessed with “the same level of to repeat some of the traditionalist ideas, in terms of Chinese architecture, and that autonomy that they can then do whatever and you’re going to do pastiche stuff.” is looking into the realm of the past. But at they damn well please because” – within the same time – because you can’t have a China, at least – “there will be constraints he international launch of New conversation about China without talking on what they can and cannot say”. Chinese Architecture, on Thursday, about its contradictions – there’s also a “In Chinese architecture, as in Chinese Tcoincides with the London Festival generation that is globalist in its mindset, society, the question is, ‘How do you marry of Architecture, which is being held at who are looking to Australian vernacular, the individual with the state? How do you various venues across the British capital to Japanese high­rise, to West Coast weird marry the idea of creating a globalist future throughout this month. The associated architecture. People are experimenting. with a traditionalist past while safeguarding exhibition will kick off at the University “We’ve moved away from people going the stability and harmony of the system?’” of Liverpool in London’s campus, also overseas to be educated in creativity, to As an example, Williams considers Ma’s on Thursday, and run for three weeks. coming back to be educated in creativity, Chaoyang Park Plaza complex, in Beijing, With last­minute tweaks being made and we are right at the moment, at that which echoes the contours of black­granite to the displays in Shanghai, Williams cusp, when the new direction might mountains and reflects on Chinese declares that – while most of the 20 be found.

shanshui paintings. “He’s trying to make Picture: Margot Errante women architects featured in the new “These are interesting times.” some sort of connection [with tradition],” Du Juan’s Open House, in Sai Ying Pun. book studied abroad, most notably in For men and for women. n

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