Architecture for China

Amid the rampant expansion of Chinese cities we are witnessing a marginal but mounting rejection of prevalent models of urban expansion by the cream of the local architectural culture which is proposing the launch of potential new form of collective living.

Most of China’s contemporary urban settlements grow and expand mainly in two distinct parts: districts of intensive high-rise apartment buildings that serve the growing need for housing, featuring vague references to Modernism falling midway between the Socialist dictate and American-style skyscrapers; and places designed for the community and urban mobility where the only quality public space consists in parks and gardens often squeezed into urban land predominantly given over to cars or mortified by global-style shopping centres.

A remarkable potential alternative to this model has been produced by the Jiakun architectural office in Chengdu, which presents “People Mountain People Sea, a celebration of daily life” at the central pavilion of the Venice Biennale. Designed by Liu Jakiun, an architect active in China since the mid-1990s, it is an extraordinary attempt to devise a form suited to collective living and urban communities’ need to share recreation spaces.

The West Village development in Chengdu fills a large street-block, measuring 237 x 178 metres and up to a maximum height of 24 metres. It features an enclosure-promenade with a variable depth that can be used on different levels. The variable depth of this constructed surround contains functions linked to collective living and leisure-time, with a system of walkways and pedestrian routes that ascend to the roof via bridges, pavilions and platforms. This construction surrounds an inner area with sports pitches, a large green basin, tea houses, bamboo courtyards and more private spaces. This building-city accommodates a wide range of commercial and recreational functions, and delivers a vibrant urban space - a true “urban fact”, to adopt Aldo Rossi’s perfect definition of city architecture.

The construction of this urban development pursued a strategy of inexpensive and low-tech materials and systems, including recycled traditional materials such as reclaimed bricks for claddings and paving, and highly resistant bamboo for banisters. The site is situated within a densely populated residential community but the percentage of constructed covered area, 40% of that available, has guaranteed the possibility of combining different types of public spaces with a layout, described by the architect as centrifugal, that goes against the centripetal design typical of shopping centres.

The presentation of the project at the Biennale conveys the wealth and generosity of the design and consists in a wooden model erected behind metal railings, showcasing not only the monumental size of the development but also its functioning in a playful manner as metal marbles can be rolled from the roof to illustrate the large number of routes in this development-promenade, from the roof down to ground level and its amenities.

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