Centennial Architecture - Centennial Architecture. China Creativity - 2006.5(NO.44)

Author: None
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: In the 21st century, China is moving towards new architecture, innovation, creative thinking, creative industries, and innovative societies—words like these are synonyms, and I’m not yet very familiar with them, but they are currently very trendy. If you are completely clueless about the national conditions, you might find it strange. Has anyone ever said that creation—whether in architecture, literature, art, or any form of creation—does not require innovation? Has there ever been an era where creation did not require creativity? Or has anyone been crazy enough to say: "Look, in our time, we advocate conservatism, so we don’t need any creative thinking." However, the people who grew up here can quickly keep up with the pace. As a result, those synonyms are also trendy keywords that are widely used in reports, articles, and papers. They have very high exposure rates. To someone like me, who has only a superficial understanding of the national conditions, advocating innovation is not without reason. This is equivalent to saying that at this stage of development, it has become clear that what was done in the past lacked novelty, and if this continues, it won’t be sustainable. This awareness is definitely progress. But what exactly is "new"? It’s difficult to explain. Every field is now rushing to talk about this, and there must be some farce involved. Here, we will only discuss architecture and cities. Pure foreigners’ work can be used by Chinese people—it just needs to meet the functional requirements. However, pure foreigners do not concern themselves with the construction of contemporary Chinese culture. Any contributions they make are like hitting the hay with a stick—they are not their responsibility. The people who grew up here have this responsibility, but most of them are mesmerized by the rapid economic takeoff and the quick accumulation of wealth, always chasing trends and styles like consumers, constantly desiring new products they haven’t seen before, which are hyped by advertisements and make their hearts itch. Foreigners have not experienced such brutal cultural destruction and have continuously studied the psychological and physiological needs of people for new products. As a result, they keep flooding China with such things, even setting up production bases here. This is no big deal for them—it’s just normal business. If there is any cultural aggression involved, it is entirely possible that it is unconscious on an individual level but could form a collective, conscious situation. Contemporary Chinese architecture and cities have learned some superficial knowledge, and everyone knows where the materials come from. Slowly, everyone also understands that actions like building massive squares in small towns are disgusting—they are recognized as ugly practices, and there is no need to waste words on criticism. At this stage, it’s time to think about creating something that belongs to China. On a broader scale, perhaps only China should propose new things or even new concepts, because the problems it faces are ones that others have not encountered—unique to China. To innovate in architecture and urban planning—serious innovation, not just jokes or gimmicks—requires first identifying China’s unique problems and then seeking possible solutions. The problems we aim to solve are unique, so the solutions will also be unique—this is the ultimate "new." Everything that arises in this process will have the color of creative thinking, and the visionary aspects of it will be creative thinking. The research, design, production, and management industries formed to solve these problems are the creative industries. This effort is the creation.