Il 23 maggio 2019 il professore Chen Zhen, CEO di RECS Cina, ha tenuto un seminario presso il Politecnico di Milano dal titolo “The Architecture of China in Ten Words”: Garden, Nature, Courtyard, Urbanization, Officiality, Vernacular, Radicalization, Copycat, Colonialism, Chineseness. Il professore Chen ha proposto un’ampia ed approfondita analisi del fenomeno della architettura e della città in Cina. La lecture è stata seguita con molto interesse da numerosi studenti del Politecnico. Eccovi un abstract del suo intervento:
Quoting from the title of Yu Hua’s short story collection “China in Ten Words”, the lecture tries to offer a panoramic review on the phenomenon of architecture and city in China.
Starting from the Identity issue, “Garden” reflects the particular landscape esthetics and living dream. “Nature” shows the primary philosophy in Chinese architecture and its pursuit of harmonizing with environment.
On the discussion of form, “Courtyard” demonstrates the vital way of organizing space in Chinese architecture. The “Urbanization” dramatically changes the territory of Chinese cities and countryside as the result of “reform and open up” policy, thus displays the general image of Chinese cities.
To express the structure “Officiality” has been entitled to describe the architectural manifestation and the planning model of authoritarianism. “Vernacular” shows the opposite conditions and approaches, which together form the phenomenon of Chinese Urban-Rural Continuum.
The inflammation in China’s social tissue has been represented by the emotional reactions. The “Radicalization” displays the drastic collision of the images of magic realism of the recent rapid development on the background of the massive demolition and reconstruction, with caricatural buildings. In addition, the meaning of “Copycat” in China’s architecture might be different from its usage in western society.
Bring from the famous debate of “essence and form”, “Colonialism” narrates the strong input by the western culture after the opium war encountering Chinese architecture. “Chineseness” is the long term puzzle for Chinese architects to achieve the Chinese way of modernity. Some special approaches of contemporary architectural practice demonstrate the character of Chinese identity.