Fang Zhenning graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1982. Renowned critic and blogger, founder of the Chinese edition of Domus magazine. He has curated numerous exhibitions, including the PRC pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010 and 2012, the MAXXI Museum in Rome and the Vitra Design Museum in Vejle am Rhein. He teaches at the Faculty of Architecture of the Central Academy of Arts and at the Institute of Design.
In Moscow, Fang Zhenning, together with young Chinese architects Ma Yansong (MAD) and Meng Yan (Urbanus), gave a lecture "New Wave of Chinese Architecture" as part of the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design Summer Program.
Archi.ru: China has served as a key platform for the architectural experiments of Western architects for over 10 years. What is the attitude of the PRC to this?
Fang Zhenning: Architects are “nomads”: for them there are no state borders and no specific place of work. Where they are in demand, there they go. For example, the Manhattan area of New York is heavily built up by Europeans, not Americans.
And if we talk about buildings built by foreigners in China, there are two points of view. So, the common people do not understand foreign architecture and art, these buildings seem strange to them. Chinese architects also do not treat this phenomenon in the best way, but for other reasons: sometimes they waited for decades for the opportunity to design a large object, nurtured ideas, for example, they waited 25 years for the Great People's Theater in the center of Beijing, and the authorities eventually entrusted the project to foreigners [French architect Paul André - approx. Archi.ru].
Archi.ru: But recently, more and more interesting buildings of Chinese architects have appeared - both in China itself and around the world. Isn't that a reason for pride?
F. Ch.: If we talk about the projects that the Chinese do abroad, there are much fewer of them than even the overseas projects of Japanese architects, and these buildings are not very visible and prestigious. After all, there are projects of different types, such as, for example, the new building of the Louvre: an international competition is announced, and if you win it, you should be proud of it. And when it comes to
an ordinary residential building with ordinary apartments, the project of which you just ordered, this is a completely different level.
Archi.ru: Are all these phenomena discussed in society? Are there architectural critics in the newspapers who denounce flaws or support certain trends?
F. Ch.: Yes, there are many such publications about architecture. For example, the editors of the very popular Beijing newspaper Xinjing Bao, as soon as a new building appears, contact me to write an article about it, or they interview me on this topic. It is interesting to the readers, it is in demand, so it is often printed.
Archi.ru: How much dialogue about architecture is needed by the Chinese society - not only about unusual new buildings, but also about heritage preservation, the convenience of the urban environment, eco-construction? Are architectural exhibitions and biennials in demand?
F. Ch.: The Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, which is held in Shenzhen, although it is called international, cannot boast of a large number of foreign participants, and for the world community it does not have much impact. And it does not have much influence on Chinese society. And even newspaper publications are not very influential, frankly.
Now, in my opinion, the most influential medium of communication in society is Weibo, a microblogging like Twitter. I recently published my opinion on the architectural issue there, and in the first day this post was republished 3000 times, and it was read by more than a million people. This is real social dialogue! Spreading information, discussing new structures, debating what should and shouldn't be demolished - it all happens on Weibo.
Archi.ru: You have been teaching for a long time. To what extent do you think Chinese architecture education is now influenced by Western influences? Are traditional elements preserved in it?
F. Ch.: A strange phenomenon is that, if in architectural and urban planning practice much was adopted from the USSR, through Soviet specialists working in China, the educational system took a lot from the American and European, since the current university teachers were educated in the West, and this influence is strong still.
It should also be borne in mind that when in China there was a division of specialties into areas, architecture was among the engineering specialties, and not among the arts. Because of this, now we very often come across the fact that buildings in China are built without any "sense of art", because the architects were not taught this.
To solve this problem, an architecture department was created at the Central Academy of Arts in Beijing (CAFA), and I teach architecture there exactly as an art. In fact, I received not an architecture, but an art education, and then I studied architecture myself - by experience, through reading books, etc. And the subject that I teach at CAFA is called "Comparative Analysis of Architecture and Art."
In one semester I have 12 lessons, two of them are devoted to the USSR and Russia. On one of them I talk about Malevich, Suprematism and so on, on the other - about Rodchenko, Tatlin, Melnikov: I'm just going to go and see his club named after Rusakov. By the way, it is not easy for a foreigner to learn about modern Russian architecture: from my own experience I know that there are very few sources of information.
I also teach at the Institute of Design - a course on the basics of Chinese design, its step-by-step development starting from a period of 6 thousand years ago.
Archi.ru: Is the profession of an architect prestigious in China? Is there a big competition for this specialty at CAFA?
F. Ch.: It is very popular, and our university is the central academy of all China, so this is the place where everyone is trying to get. Now things are still relatively good: after the expansion, several thousand students study at CAFA, and in my time there were 40 people, and therefore it was extremely difficult to get there. Now the course at the Faculty of Architecture is a little over 100 people, and the competition is 200 people per place.
Archi.ru: The profession of an architect in China is prestigious and, obviously, in demand, given the scale of new construction. How much does this contribute to the development of Chinese architecture, the emergence of new ideas?
F. Ch.: Several points should be understood. First, students, having received a good "Europeanized" education from us, try to leave the country and continue their education in some Western university. Second: out of a hundred people on the course at the time of graduation, I can count no more than two or three truly gifted, promising architects.
And the third problem: in China, personal connections between people play a very important role, which are extremely complex and full of nuances, so it is extremely difficult for an architect, especially a young one, to break through.
Ma Yansong, founder of the MAD bureau, who is also giving a lecture today, is one of the rarest examples of success.
Archi.ru: What is the fate of all other graduates of architecture universities?
F. Ch.: It is difficult to gain fame as a person, but getting a job in a development company where skyscrapers design entire workshops, being there as an ordinary employee without your own name and without a creative individuality is easy.
Archi.ru: If you take the successful talented architects, how important is the social theme for them, the work for the vulnerable segments of the population?
F. Ch.: There are such projects - for example, houses for low-income youth, where the apartments are very small - 20-30 m2 of area, they are designed for people who have not yet started a family. Also, given the frequent earthquakes, architects are building reliable schools in earthquake-prone areas, helping to restore these areas after natural disasters. If a museum needs to be built in poor areas - for example, there are unique craft traditions or monuments of ancient art - but there is no money for this, then architects can design it for free.
Archi.ru: What do you think is the main challenge for Chinese architects right now? What should they devote all their energies to?
F. Ch.: The Chinese revolution was a peasant revolution, and the problem is that the peasants have a special understanding of space and its organization, the principles of construction, and peasant consciousness cannot change at the same rapid pace as urbanization and industrialization are going. Many leaders who are now at the helm of China have emerged from the peasant environment and received an appropriate upbringing. And therefore it is very difficult for them to perceive and understand the principles of organizing space, which are necessary for a modern city. Because of this, very often good urban projects are either rejected immediately, or they are sent for revision for revision until they change beyond recognition. And so, because of these "peasant roots", the level of new architecture and urban space in China is artificially lowered. Therefore, the responsibility of all professional, well-educated architects is to explain to the authorities and society what a city should be in the 21st century.
