BUILD Q4 2019

54 BUILD Q4 2019 Oct19235 UILD: Please give us a brief, overall description of what you do as an architect. Chen Keshi: As an architect, my experience in the past has mainly focused on three aspects. The first aspect is the design of the towns, including the revival of ancient towns and the design of tourist towns. An example of some of my work is Lulang International Tourism Town in Tibet, post disaster reconstruction of Shuimo Town in Sichuan and more than 20 other famous ancient towns and tourism towns in China. The second aspect is the design of large-scale cultural buildings, including the Opera House in Zhuhai, a convention center of 2019 Tourism Expo in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu, as well as some museum and art museum buildings that we are currently working on. The third aspect is to take ecological aesthetics as the theoretical basis while working on future cities and future exploratory buildings with brand new future concepts. An examples of works include Chinese Dreamland Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarter, Caiwuwei Spring Plaza in Shenzhen and The Future City of Qingdao. B: Can you go into detail about the areas of architecture you specialise in? CK: My main research fields in Tsinghua University and Edinburgh University were Chinese Classical Architecture and Western Classical Architecture and Art, which became the main direction of my future work. My six years of experience living in the UK - especially my experience in travelling around Europe - as well as my years developing a greater understanding around the protection and utilization of traditional buildings, inspired me to focus on the protection and utilization of ancient towns, and put forward my theory of “Urban Humanism”. “Cities and buildings, as places of human activities, should first obtain ecological and human characteristics, and people should live in a continuous architectural space-time from ancient times to the present.” - Chen Keshi on Urban Humanism as an architectural movement. Urban Humanism and Ecological Aesthetic: A Conversation with Chen Keshi B The second aspect is that I have had a lot of opportunities to do architectural design in Tibet during the past 10 years. Due to the particularity of Tibetan culture, my focus area of research is on the modern expression of traditional Tibetan architectural art and exploring modern architecture in Tibet. I was the first architect in China to conduct in-depth research and practice in this field. This is mainly reflected in my theory of “Modern Interpretation of Tibetan Traditional Architecture” and my practice of “Urban Humanism Values” in Tibetan architectural design and town design. The most important issues I had to solve in the design of Lulang International Tourism Town are how to express the great traditional architectural art of Tibet in a modern way, how to modernize the traditional architectural art of Tibet, and how to make the sustainable development of the traditional architectural culture of Tibet. I have made great efforts in exploring the art of modern architecture in Tibet, which is reflected in the design of hundreds of single buildings in Lulang International Tourism Town, and also in the Linzhi Academy of painting and calligraphy and the Gannan (Dunhuang) International Travel Expo Hall, which was just completed in July 2019. My third practice area is in developing a “green garden city” and “ecological aesthetics” in urban design and architectural design. Ecological aesthetics is not only from the perspective of future architectural design and urban development, but also from the perspective of traditional Chinese philosophy and ecological civilization. In the architectural design, law of nature, respect for nature, ecological aesthetics and architectural design are combined. These practices are reflected in the design of Zhuhai Opera House, Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarter and Caiwuwei Spring Plaza in Shenzhen. B:What attributes and qualities makes for a successful architect? CK: I strongly believe that an architect should keep a close relationship with the development of the greater social economy Chen Keshi is a talented architect indeed. As a noted Professor at Peking University, Doctoral Supervisor, and Chief Designer of the China Reconstruct Urban Design Research Institute he has helped hone and shape the minds of future leaders in the greater architectural sphere. Without a doubt, he is one of the great harbingers of architectural innovation across the Chinese design landscape and, certainly, beyond. Here, we took a moment of his time to find out more about his work, inspirations and expertise.