A ‘Pacific’ century, an Asian century or a Chinese century? On the threshold between the 20th and the 21st century, the transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific is forecasted by all; the move from America to Asia is noticed by many; and the replaceme
Modernization in China, since the onset of the Opium War in 1840, has been a long and arduous process, full of ups and downs. Today, China is a moderately well-developed country by most measures, although still very poor in many places and saddled wi
The chinese city and architecture are deeply influenced by the intercultural context in history, and today are undergoing a significant and rapid transformation in which some advances have caused profound influences. What the modernization, digitaliz
To reflect in just so many words on our experience of working in China is to give a personal, biased view, not a generic report on the situation of the country. From what we have seen we can say that every commission is a unique, unrepeatable experie
The music seems to be moving away although the musicians remain where they are. One imagines it has turned the corner because it is not fading out linearly. Instead, random notes or chords suddenly burst forth louder than the rest, as if pushed by al
In the center of Beijing, only five hundred meters from the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the new National Grand Theater building emerges as an island of culture in the middle of a large artificial lake. A titanium shell in the shape of an ell
At the end of Shanghai’s Century Avenue, right in front of the Town Hall, rises this pearl gray glazed building that consists of five volumes of different sizes which also serve a variety of functions. At night, and as if by magic, the envelope of th
Aiming to preserve the views onto the protected landscape of the Baiyun hills, the three buildings that make up the new sports complex of Guangzhou blend with the terrain and stand out shyly, as if they wished to establish a peaceful transition betwe
Designed to maintain an open and horizontal perception of the new olympic park of Wukesong, an artificial topography of craters of different sizes shall serve as the formal structure from which to develop the new cultural and sports center. Over the
A small valley, bordered by a dense bamboo forest, forms the site for this luxury housing development, situated near the Qiang Tang River in Hangzhou, south-eastern China. The particular charm and beauty of the place are the determining factors. Twel
The museum in charge of treasuring the archaeological collection of the Liangzhu culture is inserted in a large park of gently sloping hills, and it refers to the surrounding water as organizing element. The building, of 9,500 square meters, rises on
The largest and most advanced airport building in the world shall be designed and built in just four years, ready to take in the air traffic increase due to China’s entry into the World Trade Organization and the Olympic Games of 2008 in Beijing. Fro
Surrounded by three new significant buildings (the town hall, the municipal assembly and the national opera house), this oriental Guggenheim is designed as a linear and elongated piece that is crossed from side to side and that performs as a link bet
The new National Stadium is located on a gentle rise in the center of the Olympic complex. It is conceived as a large collective vessel. The stadium’s appearance is pure structure. Facade and structure are identical. The structural elements mutually
Like in other metropolises, the strips that stretch along the ring roads of Beijing are high-visibility transit areas and thereby much coveted sites for corporate buildings. This new complex of offices will be directly located at the prominent north-
Xuejiadao Peninsula, and a large plot that belongs to the technological and economical development area of the city of Qingdao, will be the site for a new film school that is a satellite institution of the Beijing Film Academy. The estimated volume o
Aiming to recover the presence of the river Haihe as it flows through the center of the city of Tianjin, a series of bridges shall be built to allow the circulation of traffic and pedestrians from one shore to the other. For this reason, instead of h
Close to the southern city of Liuzhou, bordering on an impressive karstic landscape classified as a world heritage site, lies a limestone quarry that, after years of exploitation, has revealed the remarkable beauty of the interior of five mountains,
The most recent urbanization processes carried out in China can be described as extremely energetic, and they display technical and spatial advances which often break up with the virtues of conventional configurations. To preserve the garden-city cha
As if it were a concise guardian of scaled skin, the artists residence of the new arts center of Tongxian rises before the visitor with a large and proud overhang. This is how it asserts its condition of gatehouse-building and as the prelude to what
An unsuspecting village located approximately 40 kilometers from Beijing is home to a population of over 200 Chinese artists being represented by major galleries in the United States, France and Germany, among other places. While having achieved a cr
Like any self-respecting media event, the olympic transformation of Beijing for the Games of 2008 requires, aside from new infrastructures and extra sports facilities, a powerful television network to broadcast the event to the whole world. With this
A side from separating old imperial premises from the rest of the city, the prestigious Chang An boulevard is also a shop window for the main entities of the economic, political and cultural life of China. Within this context of iconic exhibition and
Aside from the essential objects of Chinese culture, the palace museum treasures a large number of exquisite Asian pieces, among which the Islam’s jade pieces, objects from the Tibetan buddhists, lacquered pieces from Japan, paintings, manuscripts, c
Conceived as the partner of the new National Stadium and inspired by similar ideas, the new swimming center is shaped as an aquatic Yin, serene and feminine in contrast with the stimulating, masculine, and fiery Yang of the stadium designed by Herzog
From the shore of the canal that structures the thousand-year-old city of Qingpu one can see a church that acts as a luminous landmark in the distance. Its light and translucent origami-like appearance is underscored by the presence of a layer of wat
Gateway to the new quarter of Duolum, this modern forum of 480 meters in length is not just a building, but rather an urban project in itself. Designed as a unitary volume, the complex is 9 meters above ground level and, after several shifts on the h
Drawing inspiration from Brancusi’s Endless Column, Jinao Tower comes to a halt at a height of 232 meters, serving a readily identifiable iconic form. The tower shall accommodate a variety of uses including offices, hotel, apartments and commercial a
Drawing inspiration from Brancusi’s Endless Column, Jinao Tower comes to a halt at a height of 232 meters, serving a readily identifiable iconic form. The tower shall accommodate a variety of uses including offices, hotel, apartments and commercial a
Two large-scale buildings that front one another go up in the sadly famous Tiananmen Square. In the eastern end is the Great Hall of the People, while in the east two old museums are being refurbished (the Chinese History Museum and the Revolutionary
Huangpu river divides Shanghai into two totally different cities. On the western bank lies the old historic city – called Puxi –, whereas in the eastern end rises a new Manhattan of skyscrapers and hotels, known as Pudong. The new museum shall treasu
Chaoyang district, four kilometers to the east of the center of Beijing and close to China’s World Trade Center, is the site chosen to build a 700,000 square meter complex of highrise buildings which promotes a new urban model mixing residential use
The Yangtze river, known as the Blue River in comparison with the Yellow River, is the longest of Asia. As it flows by the city of Chongqing, like with many other river banks, the codes forbid building on a flank located on either side of the same. S
Shenzhen, located in the southern province of Guangdong and only thirty five kilometers from Hong Kong, is one of the hottest cities in China. The confluence of a large number of rivers which proceed from the continent and flow towards the Pacific Oc
When, after a period of meditation and reflection, prince Siddhartha decided to extend his doctrine to the rest of humankind, he preached his first sermon in Deer Park near Benares. In Chinese, the word ‘luye’ literally means ‘a field with deer’ and,
Yuhu is a small village approximately three thousand meters above sea level, on the foothills of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, belonging to the Naxi ethnic minority and located close to Lijiang, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The snow-capped mountain pea
The ancient city of Ningbo is among the many ports which claim to be the birthplace of the silk trade route, a city which lacks both the arrogance and harshness of continental China and the conformist mentality of the major trading ports. Its commerc
Over the centuries, the coexistence of three religions – Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism – have enriched the landscapes surrounding Tiantai Mountain, located in the coastal province of Zhejiang. Like a miniature summarizing the mountain’s history a
In a plot with an appreciably triangulated shape and close to the road links, five Japanese architects spearheaded by Riken Yamamoto (Motumu Uno, Ryue Nishizawa, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Kazuhiro Kojima) have undertaken the construction of a residenti
This longitudinal threestory piece, hollowed out with multiple open air terraces, corresponds to one housing unit – the longer, the greater the surface – which is located along one of the main streets of the complex... [+]
The garage on ground floor, the perimetral disposition of kitchen, bath and circulation areas and the importance given to the elevator as a means of transportation are the three main guidelines of this housing model... [+]
With the intention of maximizing the perception of space, this large dwelling develops on a single floor, in which up to forty interior spaces interspersed with others that look onto the exterior are combined... [+]
A sunken courtyard, a longitudinal glazed gallery extending on its longer side and a cubic volume hovering above it organize an introspective environment which rotates around an interior garden... [+]
Having four vertical communication cores in one same dwelling – with associated kitchen and bathroom –, guarantees total autonomy for its occupants and allows to reduce the circulation spaces needed... [+]
The Great Wall Commune (the name given to this private development of upscale dwellings) is in Shui Guan, a location at approximately one hour by car from the north of Beijing. The landscape, characterized by steep hillsides, intricate valleys and a
In spite of the domestic appearance of the buildings that make up the Great Wall complex, their touristic purpose and the temporary succession of users allows experiments that the habitual domestic nature rarely admits. Within this context of manifes
The first sketches of this house took shape after visiting the site, located in the lower area of the complex and close to the point of arrival to the Great Wall Commune. The design consists of a one-story building with a squared floor plan around an
The construction of a house in a natural environment is always determined by two factors: it must pursue the best views, and at the same time avoid obscuring the landscape from other areas of the site. This dwelling on a sloping terrain has been desi
Two mechanisms of distortion turn this house into a ‘deformed’ version of the conventional courtyard house: one, in the literal sense, affects the building’s square footprint, whose angles and side length are altered in order to adapt to the topograp
Built on a plot with a steep slope, the house rests a large wall of stone – collected in the surrounding areas – against the hillside. This allows on the one hand to evoke the nearby presence of the Great Wall, and on the other to recall with its lin
Mountain sides always entail an architectural ‘problem’ and a demand which requires a more or less radical design decision. Faced with this generic topographical avatar – present in any hillside of the valley – the house opts, as it name shows, for a
The imposing presence of the Great Wall prompts to search for architectural forms that may seamlessly blend with the landscape instead of being roughly inserted as autonomous and isolated objects. The thousand-year-old stone structure moves through t
The more and more evident exterior influence and the stunning speed of the interior development have given rise in the Chinese society to a new work-oriented lifestyle. In an attempt to improve the quality of life, the number of working hours increas
The original scheme, drawing inspiration from the thick vegetation that characterizes the site of the project, attempts to extend the feeling brought by a walk in the woods and around the house – and therefore a series of pedestrian paths have been b
Though the houses on the Great Wall Commune are scattered over different areas of the valley, the plot where this house goes up was in the middle of the woods. Being this the main differential fact, the project suggests creating a ‘covered’ space tha
The furthermost point from the entrance to the Commune is the site chosen for this house that is ‘split’ into two equal parts to generate varied angles and spaces, aside from attracting the attention to its existence ‘between rivers and mountains’. H
In a central area of the road that leads to the dwellings of the Commune rises this ‘club house’ or social club, the purpose of which is to complement the houses of the residents or guests with communal facilities, as well as providing permanent acco
Used to visiting architecture exhibitions in which buildings are interpreted through plans, drawings and models, the organizers of this event – CIPEA, China International Practical Exhibition of Architecture – tried to make a change and show building
From the thirteenth century on, Chinese painters adopted a perspective representation that, instead of using a single vanishing point, used several to produce a series of ‘parallel perspectives’ that made the observer feel part of the representation.
The site chosen to build this community center is a plot with a gentle slope towards the lake, to which it is adjoined at the point where it forks. The building makes up for its large size (10,000 square meters) with a strategy of fragmentation into
To merge smoothly into the lanscape, this introverted and quiet villa is almost entirely integrated with the slope of the terrain, avoiding unnecessary excavations and making the most of the ground’s tilt. A simple folding corridor that stands out of
The existence of a pass between two hills inspired the design of this house as a pipe, which can be seen at the specific point where it emerges from one slope to then disappear into the next. The house is actually conceived as a fragment of that pipi
A circular path, the trajectory of which finds support against a wall, together with nine independent pieces located at different points of the landscape, outline a ‘circle of interaction’, the concept which has served to name this house within the e
Three levels link this house with the exterior, characterized in this particular site by a stream and a forest to the south side, by a road to the north and west sides, and by another plot to the east. To span the gentle slope of the terrain, vertica
Six housing units form part of this small touristic center whose design is based on the attention to local architectural types, especially those that have the maximum extension on plan, the courtyard-houses. To optimize the floor plan layout and favo
Two volumes, one imaginary and one real, constitute the villa. The imaginary one is a bamboo forest, planted on a square plot, through which the path leading to the house runs. The second is the house itself, a sixty meter long parallelepiped raised
The house is imagined as a clearing in the forest, a void amidst artificial foliage that unfolds between the two perimeters of the building: the interior perimeter, continuous and transparent, holds the structure, and the exterior perimeter, beyond t
An extension on the themes and ideas explored in the Carter-Tucker House and Peninsula House (see AV 102), two earlier works, the project for the International Exhibition also adopts a simple rectangular plan – in this case, and given the extens
Determined by its position on a slope that reaches the lakeshore, the house is made up of five pieces – like five stones rolling down the hillside – linked by a zigzagging road. The path springs from the street of access, in the highest level, and th
Like a boat stranded by the seashore, the house goes up – with its five heights – by the edge of the lake, aiming to attract attention towards its natural environment, full of hills, streams and a rich vegetation. The program takes up the building fr
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