After all, Li made his name under Steven Holl, one of the most prolific foreign architects operating in the country, while Huang once worked for the late I.M. This is not to suggest that Open’s founders are somehow opposed to Western design in China. That is the true purpose of a cultural building: bringing people together, not just listening to music while you can’t even get a water.” A small gripe, admittedly, but one he felt spoke to a lack of user-centric design.īy way of comparison, Li then recounted a recent visit to Germany’s “fantastic” Berliner Philharmonie concert hall: “The break was half an hour, and it was like a party. Visiting once for a concert, Li found himself on a long quest for water during the intermission, eventually finding just one spot “in the whole gigantic place” to get a drink. It is also a venue that directly shaped Open Architecture’s approach. The trend traces back to the early 2000s and Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), a huge, shining oval known locally as “The Giant Egg.” Just a few blocks from the historic Forbidden City, French architect Paul Andreu’s controversially futuristic building sparked a wave of Western-designed landmarks and, in Li’s words, “began the whole exercise” of constructing “iconic buildings” in China. From Zaha Hadid’s sculptural Guangzhou Opera House to a Norman Foster’s long-awaited museum in far-flung Datong, Western names are frequently asked to oversee China’s biggest contemporary landmarks – not only for their technical prowess and avant-garde designs but, often, for the prestige. But the cultural landscape has long been shaped by foreign forces. That homegrown designers like Li and Huang are being entrusted with a new generation of Chinese venues should come as little surprise. We want to bring it closer to the ground – to the people – and blur the boundaries.” “The purpose of a cultural buildings is to try and enlighten people, but nowadays they’re becoming more and more like isolated objects,” Li said. 'Post-weird': How Chinese architecture evolved in the Xi Jinping era Landscaped parks meanwhile dissolve the distinction between public and private space, high culture and recreation. Built into five renovated fuel tanks, the venue offers not only gallery spaces but also a pub, a restaurant and performance facilities. Such accusations could not be leveled against Open Architecture’s Tank Shanghai, a gallery that breathed new life into the site of a decommissioned airport by the Huangpu River.

So that’s why you see a lot of cultural buildings pop up with no contents and nobody to operate them.”

But it’s hard to cultivate culture and… much faster to build. “(In China, we) feel as if we have developed really fast, but left ourselves behind and need to catch up to show the world we have culture. “There is a huge push for cultural buildings,” she said. When it comes to culture, the “build and they will come” model that has accommodated China’s breakneck rural-urban migration, may not apply, Huang said. With the country’s government now pumping billions of dollars a year into the cultural sector, supply can outstrip demand, leading to unused vanity projects and “ghost” museums. The idea that architects should only create buildings that are needed seems simple enough. And while Li and Huang seem unshowy by nature, they are acutely aware of the power of iconic architecture.Ī digital rendering of the Sun Tower in Yantai, Shandong province. The photogenic design has helped make Qinhuangdao an unlikely destination for design-lovers and day-trippers from the Chinese capital. The primordial, cave-like gallery spaces are not only integrated with their surroundings – they are partially submerged by them. UCCA Dune, a new outpost for one of Beijing’s most respected contemporary art institutions, takes the appearance of pebbles strewn across a sandy beach. Over 150 miles to Beijing’s east, in the seaside city of Qinhuangdao, an equally mysterious art museum offers a different take on Open Architecture’s manifesto pledge of “striking a new balance between the man-made and nature.” “There’s a mysterious quality of space, and mysteriousness is something we’re very interested in: bringing people to discover a different kind of experience.”

“We’re really trying to make a deeper connection to the ancient natural history of the site,” Li said.

Wen jing li