Popular Culture Review Vol. 14, No. 1, February 2003 | Page 23

The Chinese Architect in Shenzhen:
“More is More”
China is both an extremely practical and an extremely optimistic place; “How
else does one get through the course of a typical difficult day?” These strong and
defining twin characteristics, developed over the longest sustained monolithic civi
lization in human history, are imprinted in the Chinese mind. These twin charac
teristics also guide the contemporary architect in China.
The “Old China” of Walls is fast becoming contemporary and “global.” Serv
ing as the site of the 2(X)8 Olympics will spur that modernization further and faster.
Traditional Beijing, to begin with the capital, was a city of walls. In fact, the ethos
of Beijing is, or at least was, married to the walls of the city.
Before the late 195()\s and the beginning of China’s version of “urban re
newal”, the city walls enclosed Beijing in two majestic rectangles, with a perim
eter of almost 30 miles; the space within was organized by the greatest built axis in
the world. Everywhere within the city were walls forming courtyards, the resi
dences, or hutongs, provided a dense fabric around the figural Forbidden City. Old
Beijing was a huge walled-in courtyard, containing a succession of smaller walledin courtyards, reflecting that strong Chinese sense of hierarchy. This hierarchy of
walls largely created that city’s aura of mystery and grandeur, specified the locals’
sense of direction, space, and class, and defined their notions of intimacy and even
claustrophobic and xenophobic biases.
Traditional Architecture in China
Historically, only engineers, masons, and carpenters were responsible for the
production of architecture in China. According to Wilma Fairbank, “the Chinese
had never considered architecture as art”, and regarded architecture as the work of
artisans and craftsmen. Traditional architectural characteristics, or “style”, were
developed by artisans over centuries, and common practices in architectural prin
ciples, methods, design, and construction were initially conveyed orally from master
to apprentice, and, in later centuries, collected in manuals and guidebooks.
Analogous to Vitruvius’ “Ten Books on Architecture”, these manuals became
the primary sources for the production of architecture. Two key manuals from
earlier dynasties are the K///^ Zao Fa Shi (Yin^zao fashi), with rules for structural
carpentry, first published in 1103, and later the Ying Zao Ze Li (Gongcheng ziiofa
zeli). a builder’s manual, published in 1734 by the state’s Department of Works,
and consisting of 70 chapters dealing with calculations of building materials and