Hongcun: A Village of Rivers and Lakes

Entrance into Hongcun
A great example of urban planning and with a village scale of about 30 hectares, Hongcun is roughly the size of our site in Tianjin. The Hongcun Village is nestled in the beautiful hills of China with channels of water giving life to the residents. The white walls and black roofs throughout give a cohesive vernacular to the village. Artificial water channels, three feet deep and two feet wide, hug the edges of both buildings and alleys throughout the village, providing water to each household.


Paths inside Hongcun

These channels meet at the middle of the village forming a crescent moon pond in front of the clan ancestral hall. More channels continue from there through the village to South Lake. This water channel system is often referred to as the Water Buffalo framework of the village, due to certain pieces of the system resembling parts of a water buffalo. The role of the water channel ranges from washing, fire protection, drainage, and temperature and humidity adjustment for the inhabitants. Achieving a tranquil harmony between nature and building, the Hongcun Village is an inspiration for urban planning.


Small canal running through Hongcun

Golf Spa Healthy Apartments

Xwinston Yan and Professor Tom Laging

The Golf Spa Healthy Apartments, located in Huangshan, China were designed by Xwinston Yan. This multi-use complex is composed of four buildings creating an S-shape that follows the contour of the land. Program includes elegant condos, restaurants, and entertainment venues. It is located on a thirty-six whole golf course shared with the Huangshan Golf Hotel.

Construction of Golf Spa Healthy Apartments

With China entering a time of economic growth and power, buildings that cater to a rising economic demographic of affluent citizens is emerging. Economic strengthening provides many firms opportunities to create progressive architecture, but what Winston and his firm did not overlook was the buildings site specific context and how this facility relates to local customs and traditions. It was great to see that this new condominium shows respect for the old city and its unique context in the foothills of the Yellow Mountains.

Humble Administrator’s Garden

Humble Administrator's Garden Pavilion looking over a pond full of Lotus Plants

Humble Administrator’s Garden, one of the most famous gardens in China, is located in the City of Suzhou. Dating back to 1509 during the Ming Dynasty, the garden covers nearly 13 acres. Containing an Eastern, Central, and Western section, it is peppered with lakes, forests, hills, rock formations, and buildings. The garden also features a large bonsai garden. The design utilizes intriguing perspectives and suspense in order to inspire visitors to move throughout the garden. The Humble Administrator’s Garden reveals many ancient Chinese theories and design aspects seen in courtyards and parks throughout China.



(Left) View into Central Garden with Pagoda outside the walls
(Right) Pavilion inside the Humble Administrator's Garden


Pond with Lotus Plants waiting to be harvested

I.M. Pei and the NEW MUSEUM

Street view toward entrance of New Suzhou Museum

I.M. Pei spent much of his childhood in the city of Suzhou were his ancestors had been a significant local family of the region. The New Suzhou Museum is the last work of I.M. Pei and was completed in 2006. It signifies the lasting impressions of Chinese heritage and local building styles of the Suzhou area that Pei reinterpreted into his final work. Local vernacular buildings and the New Suzhou Museum have similar whitewashed walls, dark grey roofs and a minimal color pallet. Pei’s work corresponds well with local established architectural languages.


Entry Hall of New Suzhou Museum


Upper level in a Side Hall looking toward the Main Entrance Hall

He was able to successfully reiterate traditional building practices into a new modern interpretation. Programmatically the facility lends itself well to museum collections and creates a loop that moves one from the entry overlooking the water garden to the collection galleries. The New Suzhou Museum is a great example of minimal architecture with a strong Chinese influence, as architecture students we were able to appreciate I.M. Pei modern interpretation into the vernacular architecture of Suzhou.

Main Courtyard of New Suzhou Museum

Suzhou

“Above, there is heaven, on earth there is Suzhou,” a well known Chinese saying describing the city of Suzhou, China. Suzhou is one of the most beautiful cities in China. Marco Polo described Suzhou as the “Venice of the east,” for its intricate canal system connected to the cities bounding moat. The crisscrossing canal system, is not as elaborate as it once was, having been a victim of the automobile. Based on the transportation requirements to accommodate 4 million people, many canals were filled in to accommodate the growing city, but Suzhou still proudly retains its title. Suzhou’s intersecting walkways and expansive streets create an interesting dialogue of layered transportation modes. The existing canals are still used by the locals to transport goods, while the tree lined streets are divided to create a division between vehicular traffic, bike and scooter corridors and foot traffic. Our group spent an afternoon studying Suzhou’s streetscapes and a wide variety of districts.


Lobby of Courtyard Hotel in Suzhou

Lodging in Suzhou may be one of the most memorable parts of the visit to the city. The group had the opportunity to stay in an authentic Chinese courtyard home. Once belonging to a wealthy local family, the house had one and two story jians and 11 courtyards, distinguishing this as a house of the elite. This home was in a well preserved condition and each jian became a sleeping room opening up to a courtyard. Based on a typical southern Chinese prototype the progression through public space to private courtyards was our first experience with this housing type. Progression of space and its relationship with family hierarchy is an important regulating devise in traditional housing. The farther one moved into the compound the more important the position of that family member. The courtyards and their separation from the lively street activity reinforced by this sequence yielded a quiet retreat from the dense urban fabric.


Public Courtyard before entry into lobby space of Courtyard Hotel

Luzhi

Admission Ticket for Temple and Courtyard Houses

On our way from Shanghai to Suzhou, the group had an opportunity to visit Luzhi, a famous water town in the southeast of China. With a history of more than 1400 years, the town of Luzhi is known as ‘the first water town in China’. Its old stone bridges, winding canals, and preserved historical way of life were a peaceful retreat for the group. Traditional homes and temples gave us a chance to explore the unique Chinese traditional lifestyle.


Water canal with one street in Luzhi

Through sketches and photographs the group was able to analyze the typology of the traditional Chinese water town and its applicability to our design problem in Tianjin. We discovered the typology to be a high density traditional development incorporating residential, commercial, and recreational uses into one cohesive development, working successfully through hundreds of years. The group concluded that Luzhi provided an important precedent that could be incorporated into our design solution.


Water canal with two streets linked by a stone bridge

Jade Buddha Temple

Courtyard and main building in the Jade Buddha Temple

While in Shanghai, we visited the Jade Buddha Temple. It is an active Chan Buddhist monastery that features both a sitting Buddha and reclining Buddha carved from solid white jade stone. The statues were brought to Shanghai from Burma in 1882 by a monk named Huigen. The original temple, built in 1882, was destroyed during the revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty and was replaced in 1928 by the current temple building. The temple, with its classical Chinese architectural style, served as a quiet retreat from the hustle and bustle of the ever growing city outside.

Pudong_District and JinMao_Tower, Shanghai

Pudong district at night

The Pudong district has been rapidly developing in Shanghai. Bounded by the Huangpu River, it now houses two of the tallest skyscrapers in China: the Jin Mao tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. Development of the Pudong area started in 1990. Before that time, the area was primarily patty fields used for agricultural production. Today, the Pudong district is home to over 1.5 million people and is the new central financial hub for modern China. The District can now be reached by a number of bridges and tunnels. These tunnels connect the Pudong area with the rest of Shanghai.

Looking down from the Jin Mao Tower

Our group was fortunate enough to visit the Jin Mao tower and experience its observation deck which is located on the 88th and final floor. The deck offers an amazing panoramic view of the Shanghai skyline. The buildings construction was completed in 1998 and was the tallest structure in the Peoples Republic of China until 2007 when the neighboring Shanghai World Financial Center surpassed it in height by 234 feet. The building’s postmodern style was designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill and is architecturally mimics the traditional Chinese tiered pagoda. The Jin Mao tower is a good example of modern style coupled with Chinese tradition.


Jin Mao Tower by SOM in Shanghai's Pudong District

Jiushi Corporation Headquarters

Jiushi Corporation Headquarters

After Chris Abel’s extensive description of the building during our pre-travel studies, the group was excited to visit the Jiushi Corporation Headquarters in Shanghai. The Jiushi Corporation Headquarters building was the first building designed and built by Foster + Partners in Shanghai. The design was developed as a competition entry in 1995 and completed in 2001.

The Jiushi Headquarters building is located in the South Bund area overlooking the Huangpu River and the dominating Pudong skyline. The Foster winning scheme was designed to capture the views of Shanghai. The concrete core of the building sits to the rear of the site, while a triple skinned curved glass curtain wall faces the riverside. In order to break up the uniformity of the building façade and provide oasis for the office personnel, the floor plates step back at three points, forming interior terraces. These terraces, evenly placed over the forty floors, provide common areas for greenery, conference rooms, and meeting places.


Terraced floor plate at the top of Jiushi Tower

(courtesy of foster + parnters website)

While the immediate neighborhood of the Jiushi Tower is in transition, the tower is built in a rather unimposing way. From the walk up perspective, one is pleasantly surprised by the towers simplicity in shape and form. At the lower floors the interior columns are exposed as the curved curtain wall is recessed to welcome the pedestrians. Coupled with the Jiushi tower is a neighboring six-story block containing shops, restaurants, and bars.

Chinese Cuisine

Typical Roundtable Dinner

Eating in China has been an interesting experience in itself. The food has a few fairly consistent themes. Rice or noodles are common foods and appear in most every meal. There is an abundance of fresh local vegetable dishes; a few common items include tofu, cucumbers, mushrooms, peppers, bamboo shoots, and various greens similar to spinach. Steamed buns take the place of breads, but are not usually served with each meal. Meat is not uncommon but is typically pork, fish, or chicken. Beef seems to be less common and shows up more often in areas that cater to foreigners. Dishes are prepared to be eaten with chopsticks, so everything is cut into smaller pieces. Fried foods are very popular, a fact that is supported by the popularity of KFC. It is hard to find salty foods and just as difficult to locate truly sweet food or drink. Surprisingly this trend also holds true in American based fast food chains in China such as KFC and McDonalds.


Assortment of street food from vendors

On most Chinese market streets, individual vendors offer unique varieties of street food. Street foods are often times meat, and frequently on a stick. Again pork is common as well as tofu and fried foods.

Since coming to China, almost every meal we have eaten as a group has been a “round table” meal. This type of meal consists of many different dishes placed in the middle of the table, usually on a “lazy susan” which can be rotated instead of passing dishes back and forth. Each person serves themselves as much of each dish as they want as the food spins in the center. Each meal has at least one type of soup, and dessert is a seasonal fruit, which has by and large been watermelon.

Maglev Train (Shànghǎi Cífú Shìfàn Yùnyíng Xiàn)

The group had a chance to take a round trip ride on Shanghai’s Meg Lev. Running from Shanghai’s Pudong district to the Shanghai International Airport, the mag lev is the first commercial high speed magnetically elevated train in the world. This high speed train reaches 268 mph, taking you from Pudong to the Shanghai International Airport in a matter of minutes, seven to be exact. Plans are to extend this track to the opposite side of the city to help link the maglev with other public transportation lines such as light rail, subway, and bus lines. The maglev train was an exhilarating ride, reminiscent more of an airplane then a train.

Firm Tours

While in Shanghai, the studio had the honor and privilege of attending three firms: SOM, ARUP, and the Architectural office of X Winston Yan a former UNL Faculty (1988-2001).

SOM_

After a brief tour of the modern artist complex known as the Bridge, we were introduced to Silas Chiow, Director of the SOM Shanghai Office. Silas spoke extensively to our group about several China based projects produced by the Shanghai office such as- the Poly International Plaza and the Pearl River tower in Guangzhou, The New Beijing Poly Plaza, the Jinao Tower in Nanjing, and the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai. Mr. Chiow also spoke extensively about the firm’s master plan project on Chongming Island, near Shanghai. This project was a sustainable development competition project judge by Cecil Steward that proposed five eco-communities on the underdeveloped island.

The visit to the firm was also very beneficial in the learning and understanding of how architecture firms work and operate in China. Unlike the United States, Architecture firms in China are only able to work on a project through design development. After this point, the project is sent to a public architectural institute to finish construction documents. Chinese building codes and housing regulations were also presented to the class. One key housing code states that all bedrooms must have direct southern exposure or be 15 degrees to the east or west of direct south. Kitchens and bathrooms must also have direct outdoor ventilation. These principles will become key in the design of our housing complexes on our site in Tianjin.

X Winston Yan_

Winston not only showed off several contest winning submissions produced by himself and his office of 18, but he also bought us some of the best dumplings we have had to date! Winston explained that most of the work done by the office is contest submissions, with the remaining work being commissioned.

One project in particular was of significance to our group. This project was the Golf Hotel in Huangshan, China. This 5 star golf and spa resort hotel would become our home for two nights upon visiting the Yellow Mountains. The hotel was elegantly designed in such a way that more buildings could easily be added to the site. Currently Winston has designed an additional 5 buildings containing condominiums and another hotel that are in the construction phase. Winston gave us a site visit upon our arrival in Huangshan.

ARUP_

After arriving in the ARUP office and gasping at the view from the 39th floor, we realized this tour would be more beneficial for our studio project than we could have imagined initially walking into the conference room. The focus project of our discussion was ARUP’s Eco-city designs- primarily that of Dongtan on the island of Chongming. The masterplan of the community fits within the overall masterplan of the island created by SOM.

Dongtan will not only recycle its waste, but it will produce all its energy from renewable means such as wind, solar, and bio-fuels. The city will also have agricultural plots within the city, while remaining a pedestrian friendly town.

The intricate method and precise equations with which cities such as Dongtan and other Eco-cities are developed by the team members at ARUP was also presented to our group. Through thorough computer calculations and the creation of several graphic matrices, the parameters for such a community are created. This really allowed us to begin formulating more precise measurements that can be used within our project in Tianjin to measure the success of the project not only before and during design, but after the project has been completed.
As a studio we would like to thank all of those professionals who have taken time from their day to speak with us. It has really meant so much to us and has helped immensely in our thinking and the development of our own project in Tianjin, China.

The Bund 外滩 & Nanjing Road 南京路

The Bund

The Bund is a mile long string of 18th and 19th century classical buildings along the bank of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. In total, fifty buildings were designed by primarily European and American Architects. The buildings feature heavy ornamentation in the styles of beaux-arts, gothic, art deco, and neo-classical. All of these styles are in stark contrast with the merely decade old Pudong district across the river.

Nanjing Road

Running perpendicular to the Bund is Nanjing Road, known as the No. 1 shopping street in Shanghai. Nanjing road has served as Shanghai’s center of commerce for more than a century, but unlike the Bund, Nanjing road has undergone major transformations. From its early days as an 18th century market street to its current condition as a largely pedestrian commercial street, it has become a solid corridor of shops extending for some six kilometers. The street attracts nearly a million visitors a day, and at night the street becomes electrified with neon lights reminiscent of Las Vegas.

The Migration to China

View of Similiar Bus outside of the Airport

Two-thirty AM, September 20th marked the beginning of the most culturally significant trip of our lives. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we took a van to the Omaha Airport. There we boarded a rather small and rickety jet which took us to Atlanta. With only forty minutes to spare, it was a rush through the airport to board our next plane which would take us to Shanghai, China. By 9:55 AM we were packed away, buckled in, and ready to begin experiencing a completely different culture. As we began the transition, we were confronted by bilingual stewardess and passengers. By the time the airplane reached 10,000 feet, most of us had reached a deep sleep mode, tired from lack of downtime, and knowing that this would be our home for the next fifteen hours.

Once awake, the onboard personal video system was quite amusing because of the wide variety of movies, television shows and games. The meals onboard were mediocre at best but provided both western and Asian selections. The flight took us over Alaska across to Russia and then down through China to our final destination, the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. It was 4:00 PM local time on September 21st as we nervously awaited our Shanghai guide. As we stepped out of the airport our eyes began to sting and the sky was covered with smog which hid the sun and skyline of Shanghai. On the way to our hotel, our bus driver sped down the highway like a cyclist maneuvering through rush hour traffic. We were thrilled to have finally arrived in China and ready to immerse ourselves into a new culture and a different way of life.



Shanghai International Airport

Crash Course in Mandarin

Chun Yan Ma explaining the tones of Mandarin

Prior to the group’s trip to China, we had the opportunity to attend four weeks of Chinese language courses. The Confucius Institute, based out of Xi’an, provided two teachers, Chun Yan Ma and Li Zhen Shi , who taught us Mandarin four times a week. During these lessons, we learned basic conversational phrases, tones, numbers, and essentials for traveling in China. We found the language to be difficult to learn because it has no root similarities to our native language. Another difficult part of learning Mandarin relates to the four tones used. Each word can be broken down into syllables, just as in English, but each syllable is usually a word by itself and also has its own tone. This means that each syllable can potentially be translated into four different meanings depending on the tone associated with your voice fluctuation. However, associating the correct tone to each syllable of the word in order to get the desired translation is quite challenging. Putting more than one word together in a sentence can also be a tricky task, as speaking with no restrictions for your entire life leaves you with bad habits. Some bad habits include ending a question with a rising tone, or expressing what you mean through how something is said and not as much through what was said.

Guest Speakers

Before our travels and adventures in China, we were privileged to have several guest speakers:

Patrice McMahon offered her own travel experiences from her family’s recent six-month stay in central China. Through an excellent slide show and amazing personal narrative, the studio gained its first insight into Chinese culture.


[Left to Right] Scott Killinger, Prof. Tom Laging, Tom Chastain

With the help of Tom Chastain and the program sponsor Scott Killinger, we were able to fully develop the studio mission statement and goals of development. The round-table discussion with both professionals led to several design objectives, as well as ethical questions regarding the environmental conditions of the existing site and the future status of current residents.

Former Dean, Cecil Steward, presented his thoughts on the evolution of China over the last 30 years. Dean Steward was a particularly valuable source for addressing concerns of a developing nation. His focus pertains to sustainable architecture and the important role it should play on the development of future China.


Lecture about Foster+Partners by Chris Abel (2008 Hyde Chair Professor)

Chris Abel, the College of Architecture’s 2008 visiting Hyde Chair Professor, offered an excellent presentation of Norman Foster’s [Foster+Partners] work in China; namely the Beijing International Airport, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters and the Jiushi Corporate Headquarters in Shanghai. This was our first look at the developing trends of foreign “star architects” in China. Due to Chris Abels extensive knowledge of Foster’s built work he was able to present the Jiushi Corporate Tower which we would later visit.


Charette with Ali Struck

The group was also offered the personal experiences and key travel advice from recent College of Architecture graduate Ali Struck. Ali’s 2008 thesis project was based on the developing housing issues in China and the disappearance of the Hutong in Beijing. Since her thesis relates to our studio project in Tianjin, Ali has been an excellent resource. She was also given the opportunity to work with Scott Killinger in his Tianjin office this past summer allowing the studio advance site photos and advice about the city as a whole.