(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

Around 1978 China started to open its borders. After years of isolation, this brought a positive economic reform, but also meant a hasty step-up into the globalization era. Regarding architecture design, this rushed pressure led to the direct assimilation and maladjustment of the deeply rooted worldwide international style in the early twentieth century. In countries where tradition and culture are closely intertwined, this assimilation was not always successful. This is the case of China, where a conflict arised between heritage and identity. As a climax of the critical voices highlighting the problem generated by this malpractice, in 2014 President Xi Jinping said at a seminar in Beijing that he deeply opposed to what he called as: “strange buildings” spreading in most important Chinese cities, especially Beijing. During the two-hour Seminar regarding the topic “how art can serve people”, the president indirectly encouraged Chinese architects to create an art and architecture that: “spread contemporary Chinese values, embodies Chinese culture, and conveys Chinese aesthetics in line with Chinese tradition”. In this situation of not knowing what kind of architecture could represent Chinese tradition and culture without falling into historical parody or pastiche, new generations of architects struggle to find a reference model as inspiration. Along with some more suitable foreign models, the number of Chinese architects who find their way of understanding an own identity for contemporary art or architecture seems to be growing; This is the case of voices like 2012 Pritzker awarded Wang Shu, an architect who developed critical regionalism in China, or with a more international background Ma Yansong, who’s work is inspired by the concept of landscape painting. Reflecting on this two architects’ different approaches to the design process will help to arise a critical discourse around the implicit basic theories and identify possible similarities within European traditions when finding solutions in different cultural contexts. The purpose of this paper is to identify some design strategies that may be useful in the specific context of an emerging country like China, and debate about traditional landscapes and the pursuit of one’s own contemporary architectural identity. In order to achieve this, we will consider the work of these two Chinese contemporary awarded architects: Wang Shu and Ma Yansong.