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CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA | 0300TV

CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA

Completely filmed by Diego Grass Puga | 0300TV before 2008’s Beijing Olympics and edited right after its ending, “CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA” presents a set of thoughts by five local architects on China’s current situation and history.

This special isn’t an effort to portrait a certain scene [the profiles of each character are quite diverse] but to establish four issues that every Chinese architect has to deal with in today’s practice [opening-up, speed, agriculture & education] all of which may set the parameters of future development for Chinese architecture –and this is no prophecy: power has always proven to be Architecture’s most diligent ally.

Instead of branding/promoting individual genius, this is a story of how an [almost] obsolete discipline struggles to follow the pace of China –just like everyone else, everywhere.

Diego Grass Puga | 0300TV

movingcities.org & 0300TV

MovingCities took Diego Grass Puga | 0300TV on Line13 – movingcities.org’ open air office – and stopped in BeiYuan subway station. At the time, May 2008, we were in full preparation for the Line 13 SUPERLINEARITY-workshop and thought it would be good to conduct the interview in a setting without context. On an abandoned and seriously dilapidated children-playground, located next to a freshly demolished dog training center, we found the left-overs of a culture of leisure and appropriated it instantaneously.

Line13 BeiYuan Subway Station

CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA | a documentary in 5 chapters

“CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA” presents a set of thoughts by five local architects on China’s current situation and history. Foreword by MovingCities.
Ai Wei Wei [FAKE design], Jiang Jun [Urban China], Yu Kongjian [Turenscape], Wang Shu [Amateur Architecture Studio] and Ma Qingyun [MADA s.p.a.m.] are in charge of defining the issues that every Chinese architect has to deal with in today’s practice, all of which may set the parameters of future development for Chinese architecture.

Operating from Chile, 0300TV is the web’s premier architectural television channel dealing with architecture broadcasting, buildings, interviews, news, articles, videocast and more. All for the same price. For Free.

The “CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA” documentary features following chapters:

CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA | videos by 0300.TV

TRAILER / CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA

09.11.08 / 0300TV · 2008 · AI WEIWEI · AMATEUR ARCHITECTURE STUDIO · BEIJING · CHATCH · CHINA · FAKE DESIGN · HANGZHOU · JIANG JUN · MA QING YUN · MADA s.p.a.m. · MOVINGCITIES.ORG · ORDOS · SHENYANG · TURENSCAPE · URBAN CHINA · WANG SHU · XI’AN · YU KONGJIAN

PART I / CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA

featuring MovingCities | interview by 0300TV editor-in-chief Diego Grass Puga.

“What is exactly happening here?” [Bert de Muynck, movingcities.org]
We might never know. We neither speak nor read mandarin; and above all: it seems that we’ve forgotten the existence of any kind of Chinese Architecture before the [overexposed] Bird’s Nest. So, we choose five local architects who were willing to share their experience from the inside. [see PART I at 0300TV]

[movingcities.org 0:0-1:13]

PART II / CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA

Speed [in design and construction]: It isn’t only matter of opportunities and good reflexes: it’s also an issue of control and power. How does Chinese Architecture deals with this form of speed? [see PART II at 0300TV]

PART III / CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA

Agriculture: 30 years of fast-placed industrialization and urbanization cannot erase more than 9000 years of agri-culture. Is this destruction/construction cycle about erasing everything? Or is it just another manifestation of China’s agricultural intelligence? [see PART III at 0300TV]

PART IV / CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA

Education: This five architects we’ve chosen are all part of an extremely wide international network of influences, deeply rooted to the most relevant academic centres [Harvard, MIT] and close to the most renowned architects [Koolhaas, Herzog & De Meuron].
But what’s in it for the average Chinese architect? What about the thousands of students who’re not part of the 12 top Chinese architecture schools [Tsinghua, Tongji and South East to name a few] linked to the West? Are they pursuing individual genius or a mass of skilled workers? [see PART IV at 0300TV]

PART V / CHINA ACCORDING TO CHINA

Architecture: 2008, China -discipline has started to shift from a quest for a certain local identity [mid 1990’s – early 2000’s] into acknowledging the social power of Architecture.
In the context of an over-accelerated market, 10.000.000 years of History and an outdated educational system, is there any formula of how to do things right? What can we expect from Chinese Architecture? Ai Weiwei [FAKE Design] has something to say about it. Featuring images of Three Shadows Photography Art Centre and Red Brick Art Galleries [Chaochangdi Village, Beijing].
The End. [see PART V at 0300TV]