To a Chinese publisher:
a book for Chinese architects Writing VS. Illustration The current economic success in China is accompanied with a contradiction between a high demand of construction work and an unadvanced theory and methodology of architectural design, and in a very short period, this contradiction has made a tremendous amount of low-quality buildings. This book is an investigation of such China, through analysis on the architect's instruments: writing and illustration, unveils fundamental reasons behind the apparent problems, and foretells towards the end of construction era, how Chinese architects handle their own future. In this age of digital, the world of architectural design is dominated with illustrations (perspective renderings, photographs, videos /films) thanks to the development of virtual reality. Very often, the role of writing is minimized to annotation, caption of illustrations throughout the design phrases. Illustrations are believed to have the advantages of directness and efficiency, in other words, instrumentality. The Chinese clients tend to make decisions with graphics only, and in extreme cases, even not listen to the architects’ verbal presentation. In this context, architects are also shaped by market economy to adapt and produce more and more illustrations that are larger, fancier and faker. Writing is getting forgotten, just like hand drawing. This book starts its investigation on the historical role of writing in Chinese scholars’ works, with key turning points in the New Culture Movement at the beginning of 20th century, and the Economy Reform period in 1990s. From the time in which architecture plannings are proposed and instructed with texts to the time that is dominated with illustration, analysis on key built works uncovers the reasons behind in different historical period, either culturally, or technically. Moreover, the current phenomenon of illustration’s dominance is not only evidenced everywhere in the professional field but also in the very education system. The book discovers the common reasons are fundamental: the stress of instrumental value. The book further examines the limit of writing: its indirectness as a tool of representation, and seeks an interactive correlation with illustration as improved means of communication. The book concludes with the statement that although the position and the tool of writing are irrevocably changed, the function of writing stays the same and even more critical. Writing in this book performs as the enter point of the investigation on China’s architectural practice, but more importantly, towards the end of construction era and a more complicated future, writing, and the critical thinking that it stands for, provide Chinese architects a way to handle their own future. This book is intended to address the attention of Chinese architects, and urges their acts for a revolutionary and critical mind through writings.
Bibliography Rem Koolhaas tells scriptwriter inspires his career as an architect in Video: Rem Koolhaas Answers Questions From Fans as Part of ‘REM’ Kickstarter on Archdaily (posted on 16th Oct 2014, http://www.archdaily.com/557970/video-rem-koolhaas-answers-questions-from-fans-as-part-of-rem-kickstarter/) Jun Wang, Beijing Record: A Physical and Political History of Planning Modern Beijing. “Liang-Chen Proposal on city planning” and the “10 grand buildings” In his book Paris, Capital of Modernity, David Harvey discusses market force in Capitalism which determines modernity. In Architects Draw, Sue Ferguson Gussow explains creativity comes from the ability of observation, judgement and selection. Dalibor Vesely, in Architecture in the age of divided representation, points out the marketability of the work, which is its instrumental value, has a wide gap to a communicative understanding of architecture in contemporary culture. Shu Wang, in his Pritzker Acceptance Speech, criticizes the modern architectural professional system. (posted in 2012, http://www.pritzkerprize. com/2012/ceremony-acceptance-speech)