This Monday brings with it not just a new week, but a new year. 2019 is the year of the Pig, and as the New Year starts ArchDaily is committed to furthering its mission of fostering knowledge and inspiration for architects, helping them build better cities, and becoming a professional tool. Since Archdaily China was founded in 2015, the team has been dedicated to serving Chinese architects and promoting their works worldwide.
To celebrate the New Year, we have collected greetings from a number Chinese architects. Through this call, we hope to extend their blessing to all architecture lovers.
Keep Being MAD
To Create Architecture that is
1. Define the future,
2. Surreal, Anti Mainstream
3. Create a Conversation with the nature, and the sky and earth,
4. Dream Architecture
—— Ma Yansong, Founder, MAD Architects
Atelier Archmixing wish you all a great new year!
2019 is the 10th anniversary of Atelier Archmixing. Since established, we keep integrating architectural practice with design research and have gradually fixed our own direction, focusing on the usage and change of architecture and urban spaces. Change is more. For the coming new year, wish Archdaily and all readers more change, more fortune!
——Zhuang Shen, Ren Hao, Tang Yu, Zhu Jie, Partners and Principal Architects, Atelier Archmixing
Lunar New Year – Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them
Mother Nature allows the existence of the Fantastic Beast. The Beast can disappear for years and hide in places where it cannot be found in order to build a house. Once the project is completed, the Beast will resurface to see old friends and stretch out, like a whale surfacing for air. Then, the Beast disappears again for another five years. This cycle only breaks for the Lunar New Year. Why? Because predators – clients in this case – are no longer on the Beast’s back during this special holiday! Free from non-stop phone calls and emails, Beasts surface in groups and share joy as if they are whales, enjoying fresh air above the surface of the ocean.
I sincerely wish all Fantastic Beasts a successful New Year! I hope that all your projects go according to the plan and that you all stay healthy, determined, and happy during Lunar New Year 2019!
——Yichen Lu, Principal, Studio Link-Arc
At this time of the year, Crossboundaries wants to send you fish and fish:
First of all, we wish our friends, relatives, customers and colleagues – all our relations - a prosperous career, fruitful projects and "fish" (surplus) in 2019! As our name implies, Crossboundaries always strives to "cross the boundaries" in work and life. Whether the project is an office or a school, business-related or cultural, an indoor private space or an outdoor public park, we strive to build beneficial architecture through holistic design, to reduce the physical and psychological barriers, and to promote the communication of people's actions and emotions.
However, handing people a "fish" is not as good as teaching them to "fish"! So in 2019, we are taking a bigger step! To develop and design - not only as professional architects but as educators - a curriculum for children’s design thinking. We aim at sharing our insights in the design process and eliminating boundaries of education restrictions by providing creative workshops and hands-on work experience so that the next generation is able to face the challenges of the future with confidence and calm
——Hao DONG, Creative Thinker/ Partner and Co-founder, Crossboundaries
Welcoming the new and saying goodbye to the old seemed to be a tradition in our culture, but this tradition is not applicable for the scene of architecture. Architects ought to learn from the heritage, extract the meaningful aspects and turn them into something new. We call this inheritance.
In general, the so-called modernism often goes back to the rebirth of traditional elements, this is what I have been thinking about in the turn of the new year. I think the trend of massive infrastructure in China is going away, it is exactly the best moment for architecture right now. The architects will not think calmly and rationally until the excessive fervour and exaggerated imagination in their heads had ceased. In that case, the history of Chinese modern architecture has just started.
——Zhenning Fang
Approach Architecture Studio has been studying on the traditional craftsmanship of the vernacular Chinese architecture in the past several years. Hope we have chances to apply this old wisdoms into our new practices in the coming year.
Wish all Archdaily readers, friends and colleagues have a wonderful and happy new year! And keep being the best - Archdaily!
—Liang Jingyu, Principal, Approach Architecture Studio
Farewell to the year of the Dog, and welcome to the year of the Pig! We wish you a happy Chinese New Year!
Archi-Union & Fab-Union is our practical platform for integrating design & construction, technology & culture, labor & intelligence. We are committed to applying digital architecture design theory and intelligent fabrication technology to research-based practices, actively exploring the future of the development of architectural ontology and industrial innovation.
The modified plastic “Cloud Village” 3D printed by robotics at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the “Daoming Bamboo Craft Village” merging vernacular practice with building intelligence industry, the systematic green fabrication of “World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) Hall B”, as well as the "Sinan Bookstore" reinventing the intimate relationship between books and people... have all documented our experimental fabrication in 2018.
The New Year is coming, and the future is coming. In 2019, let’s step into a new humanist digital future.
——Philip F. Yuan, Founder and Chief Architect, Archi-Union & Fab-Union
Following the moon, we enter the new year. I'm a rooster and it says this is my lucky year!
Indeed, I feel the planet is heading a turning point. As an architect, we need to face the existential condition of human beings and making our own choices. There is no prior case for reference, nor philosophies, religions or sciences could really help. Only thing more real than reality is your survival and the moment of the tactics you deployed in the battle, in which you'll find your way about how to treat a corner, etc.. So let it be your Tao!
Wish you peace!
——Chi Ti-Nan, Principal, chi's workshop
Architects today are facing many new challenges, such as the transformation of technology and society, the dramatic changes in people's lifestyle, and the digitalization and mobility of our work patterns. Over the past year, we’ve had many opportunities to engage in some non-traditional areas of space practice, including: urban conservation and renewal, urban infrastructure, public space and landscape design, rural construction and so on. In our work, we’ve always been committed to revealing and presenting the hidden potential of different projects, which allows us to gain an insight into various contradictions in the world, including: current and history, human and technology, local and global, environment and development. In the coming year, facing the transformation of architecture, our work will pay more attention to the change of social environment and the reconstruction of urban space.
——Zhang Bin, Principal, Atelier Z+
Nowadays the fervour of pragmatic design and digital fabrication is quickly cooling down, many people are thinking about what is next for artificial intelligence. The most unbearable as well as mesmerizing part of architecture is every architect has to start from scratch each time they have a new project. We will have to always go back to the stage as beginners and learn new knowledge. Maybe that’s the destiny of every architect. At last, wish everyone a happy new year!
——Che Fei, Principal, CU Office
The Spring Festival refers to the Chinese New Year. The cycle of the four seasons, namely, spring, summer, autumn and winter, gave the sense of time in traditional Chinese culture. Time flies around us every single day, seemingly faster and faster. Spring comes and goes in a flash, and I become one year older. It seems that a year in the past, at present or in the future may not hold an equivalent concept. Then what gives people an impression that time goes in a circle faster and faster? From my point of view, it’s the release of space. This is not only the extension of physical space cognition, but also the development of inner world.
Therefore, after time has gone through a cycle, we must reorganize the extended space, and in due time, include it in the range of our competence and capabilities, thus making us become more mature. With a view to the future of Chinese cities, architects who unceasingly broaden their horizons and improve their minds are expected. Only they can face challenges from all sides. What we lack is not knowledge and technology, but rather traditional cultural identity and contemporary art thinking. Perhaps, long stretches of time have slipped away in haste. So for me, the luxury of progress is not being in the lead, but never lagging behind.
——ZHU Xiaodi, Principal, ZXD Architects · BIAD
In 2019, we will continue to be as determined as ever in exploring sustainable design.
In sustainable design, it faces and needs to solve a variety of problems, related to both development and survival. For instance, the environmental problems which arouse widespread concern very much affect the survival of all mankind. We believe that it is a mission entrusted to us by this generation, to keep exploring design in this direction. Our atelier will persevere in sustainable design exploration, and we hope that after years, whether it succeeds or fails, it will be a remarkable sustainable design for the future as a precedent study. If we discover any new concerns in this direction, we will raise our attention on social and human mankind issues, putting further solicitude to China’s rich and colorful regional culture, thorough study on corresponding construction methods, and find out appropriate design strategies for different regions in China that can progressively improve local people’s everyday livings.
——Prof. Dr. Yehao Song, Principal, SUP Atelier
As the new year is coming, our three-year project in Guizhou is also completing, however, the hotel project in Sanya is still unbuilt. We cannot control the fate of our design, sometimes those drawings will never come true. Knowing how difficult it is to realize a design, we are exceptionally grateful that the Hilltop Gallery was built. When we designed the Hilltop Gallery, we tried to blur the boundary between nature, the interior, and the exterior. “From nature, become the nature” is part of our mission statement. We will keep up with the great work in the new year!
——Daode Li, Principal, dEEP Architects
Happy New Year to ArchDaily. Hope ArchDaily can still bring us more good projects and inspiring news in 2019.
Great thanks to Archdaily’s supports in past 2018. We got to know so many great and young architects and their architectures from all over the world because of your website, which brought us inspirations and enlightenment.
Please bring more amazing architectures to us, and we will continue to work hard to get our projects published.
——Liu Jiakun, Founder / Principal Architect, Jiakun Architects
LYCS Architecture was honored to be one of 10 Young Chinese Architecture Firms selected by ArchDaily last year. Thank you all for your support. In 2019, we will continue to commit to providing representable solutions to the critical issues of high-density urban developments and the ever-evolving demands of user behaviors, through innovative research and design. We wish everyone a happy new year. Wish ArchDaily a splendid 2019.
——RUAN Hao, Founding Principal, LYCS Architecture
2018 marks ALYA's 11th year in Shanghai. Our work felt like being on a roller coaster, from urban to rural, from architecture to landscape, from children's spaces to senior community, from cultural-tourism to creative arts, from a yoga pavilion of under one hundred square meters, to headquarters urban blocks of over one million square meters, from a temporary exhibition space made of light-weight fiber-bamboo breathable membrane structure, to an installation made with over 2000 pieces of pre-fabricated metal panels, shifting among sites, scales, types, and materials, while traversing through hope, disappointment, and outlook and painfully experiencing reincarnation, growth, and metamorphosis. In the past 12 months, we have covered the ground from Shanghai to Sri Lanka, Basel to Venezia. What evolves is a challenge and typology, what anchors our faith and belief. On behalf of ALYA, I would like to wish everyone who has looked after us, a joyful, vital, and wise year of Pig.
——Liu Yuyang, Founder & Principal, Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects
Year 2018 seems to me the second turning point for Scenic Architecture since the office was founded in Shanghai 2004. In retrospect of our practice in the past 15 years, we consistently use ontological architectural language to respond to the needs of human, nature, and society. In the works of earlier years, space and form were the main characters in dealing with traditional and contemporary urban context in China. We concluded this period by Zhujiajiao Museum of Humanities and Arts (completed 2010) and entered the next through Shanghai Google Developers Launchpad (completed 2013, former Huaxin Exhibition Center), which I called it our first turning point. Structure, tectonics, and MEP were always systematically conceived and integrated from the beginning, to generate a spatial settlement that motivated users’ interactions with people and the environment. In 2018 I wrote an article entitled “Architecture as Extension of Human” to clarify my own haze regarding the recent impact of new technologies in the beginning of 21st century. I see the evolution of architecture as the synthetic impetus of the following three fundamental factors: Body & Mind as initial motives and experiences including individuals and collectives, Ontology as autonomous principles of architecture e.g. matter & space, typology and tectonics, and Interaction as cross-influences between architecture and other domains including art, technology, economy, politics and so on. No matter how far does technology go, it would not possess a real significance in architecture without being applied to the human body, mind and architectural ontology. Bringing this theoretical preparation to practice in 2019, we are ready to launch our next explorations on how to stimulate the contemporary representatives of these three factors to react with each other for a new architecture that can convey our root and memory to the future: Settlement, Typology, and Technology.
We wish all friends in the world a prosperous and thoughtful new year 2019!
——Zhu Xiaofeng, Founder and Chief Architect, Scenic Architecture Office
All the good things will come as scheduled,
As all darkness follows.
We live for our ideals struggling on the way.
Sometimes crawling sometimes crying.
Except forever hardwork there is no shortcut.
Who can stop you from longing?
let's sow some seeds in every sunny spring day
let's dance freely on the yellow falling leaves when autumn comes.
The great souls of architecture shines away bitter moments and gloomy days.
We've missed the " Flowering Period "of architecture as if the spring flower blossoms at street corner.
We've missed the period of real estate skyscraper booming.
Yet we never missed the promise of loving you
Poetry of the Time.
There are so many Architecture Marks the city of Old Semi-Old and brand new.
Watching over our busy days and ambitions.
Watching over our fullfulfillness and more sighs.
Our tears than shed in Mr. Corbu's grassy LaTourette courtyard.
Our souls than listened to Mr. Mies's eternal melody engraved in Barcelona's pavilion.
Those engravings and shadows represent human nature,
whether light or heavy expressed by stone bring us the same feeling and meaning.
left no need for words.
Only but the longings for ideal dreamings of forever art.
We know life is a long journey,
Why not enjoy wildflowers blossoms under the feet and sing all the way?
——HE Qing, IDS Studio, Principal Architects, IDS STUDIO
Back in 2018, Being substantial, fruitful and grateful, a new journey of line+ begins, From the continuous fermentation of Dongziguan, to the prefabricated construction practice of Stray Birds Art Hotel · Songyang, to the full concrete exploration of Teahouse in Jiuxing Village, With countless efforts day and night, we cherish the joy after a hard time.
In pursuit of dreams in 2019, We owe a debt of gratitude to the past and live up expectations to the future. Whether it is the deep cultivation of urban space, the in-depth exploration of rural construction territory, or the painstaking construction in the field of culture, We will continue to forge ahead with stronger faith and greater enthusiasm. Because we are convinced that in this era of change where balance and order are constantly being broken, architectural design is bound to break through its boundaries and promote progress and create value in a broader field.
Starting with one, as the New Year begins, everything is new;
In retrospect, the ideal remains the same;
Starting again, the future can be expected.
——Meng Fanhao, Chief Architect, gad · line+ studio
Ground in the vision of exploring the art of architecture and space and making people's lives better and happier, we worked on shaping spaces in an idyllic rural environment, compact old hutongs and bustling consuming places in the past year, with different scales and restricted factors. Taking architecture and space as media, we endeavored to create more positive and interesting interaction between people and between people and the environment. For the next year, ARCHSTUDIO will continue advancing thinking and practices as well as exploring the relations among space, human and nature, with a view to presenting more excellent works.
——Han Wenqiang, Founder and chief architect, ARCHSTUDIO
In the coming of the new year, the school of architecture in Tsinghua University wish all professionals and students in architecture a happy new year! Let’s work harder and create better future for Chinese architecture!
——THAD
TAO (Trace Architecture Office) was founded in 2009, and this year would be our ten year anniversary. A decade is not short considering the difficulties and struggles we have encountered and gone through in each project. Neither is a decade long, as we are aware that architecture is a lifelong pursuit that requires persistent passion and efforts. Last year we have three newly completed projects: Xinzhai Coffee Manor, Swan Lake Bridge House and Viewing Tower, and Haikou Huandao Junior High School. This year we are looking forward to the completion of Yinuo Winery and Cliff Café, as well as the construction of a series of projects: Qingyijiang Road Primary School, Aranya Meng Jinghui Theatre, Rural Library in Chongli, and Rammed Earth Museum. Additionally, we are pleased to anticipate the launch of more projects: a bookstore in an old village, a resort hotel in the desert, etc. In all projects by TAO, despite their different scales, programs, and locations, we strive to search the spirit of genius loci and the idea of contemporaneity, topics that TAO will continue to explore in our future projects. At our ten year anniversary, we will reflect on the past and embrace the next ten years.
Happy Chinese New year to everyone!
——HUA Li, Founder and principal architect, TAO (Trace Architecture Office)
The process of architectural creation is a long and sometimes uphill journey. With the turn of the year—a time for rest and reflection—we embrace the chance to slow our pace for a moment and look back on a view made possible by many months of climbing. We are grateful for the many deeply rewarding moments the past year has brought us: the opening of the UCCA Dune Art Museum, a significant new destination for contemporary art in China more than three years in the making; the realization and well-received exhibition of Mars Case, a sustainable minimal housing prototype merging architecture, product design, and technology; the publication of OPEN Questions, our latest monograph, which sold out shortly after its launch; many fascinating lectures by OPEN’s founding partners LI Hu and HUANG Wenjing; and their conversations with critics and friends at universities and institutions around the world.
Yet as 2019—the Year of the Pig—begins, our prevailing sense is one of anticipation. The year ahead has much in store for OPEN, including the completion of a number of spaces currently under construction—TANK Shanghai, the Pingshan Performing Arts Center, the Shanghai Qingpu Pinghe School, and the Chapel of Sound. Perhaps most of all, however, we look forward to what we cannot yet predict—the challenges, and opportunities, that await us in upcoming projects.
In this sense, we are moved too by a sense of responsibility. In the year ahead, there is work to be done. Across the world, and particularly in China, the realities of contemporary urban life warn of lasting consequences for humanity and the environment. The rethinking of architectural precedent has become an urgent necessity, and now more than ever, we must consider architecture’s capacity to act and react—to ask new questions, explore new possibilities, and lay new foundations for the future. As in many places, nationalism and narrow-mindedness are finding new strongholds, architecture can, and must, be a vehicle for openness and change. And so, in 2019, let us remain hopeful. Let us stay open. And above all, let us get to work!
——Li Hu, Huang wenjing, Principal Architects, OPEN Architects
NATURALBUILD is six years old by the year 2018; simultaneously the first phase of our architectural practice has been gradually completed. The slowdown of macroeconomics leads us to perceive an alternative ecology: while in the Western countries, architectural practices are guaranteed by its fine and comprehensive system, in contemporary China, bottom-up reality stimulates and reinstates a vast space where architects could operate as the subject of practice.
Many of peers, who have been professionally trained in architecture, are applying themselves to work in more diverse and refined fields with their utilization of architectural thinking and design strategy, in order to revise the issues and fill the gaps of extensive development in the past. The multi-dimensional horizon of architectural practice is redefined in terms of our interdisciplinary collaboration. To explore and research the differences and relations between eastern and western cultures are at the core of our work, as well as the eastern traditional process thinking seemingly casts a new light on the profession of architecture within the current dilemma.
We are looking forward to developing our second phase in 2019 with all of you!
——Yanfei Shui, Principal Architects, NATURALBUILD
