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November 9, 2004
Many a visitor to China’s cities
has bemoaned the lackluster high-rise buildings that have
gone up in recent years as the country’s economy has
boomed. Some suggest that a Chinese architect’s education
might be to blame for this: traditionally trained at engineering
schools, architects develop a technical aptitude for building
that places little emphasis on aesthetics. But some architects
believe that is set to change now since art institutes across
the country, aimed with the mission of beautifying the skylines
of China’s cities, have started architecture departments.
Three top art schools in the country
– Central Academy of Fine Arts, the China Art Academy
in Hangzhou, and the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute – have
begun bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture
in the past two years. About a dozen other art schools in
the country have expressed interest in following suit, says
Lu Pingjing, the dean of the architecture school at Central
Academy of Fine Arts.
These new architecture programs signify
a shift in how architecture is viewed in China, says Wong
Shu, the chair of the architecture department at the China
Art Academy in Hangzhou. “Architects have traditionally
emphasized the practical side of architecture. They haven’t
used an aesthetic standard to judge what’s built.”
A 2001 decision by China’s ministry
of education to give universities more autonomy has allowed
art schools to open architecture departments. After the Communist
takeover in 1949, universities were reorganized and the responsibility
to teach architecture was placed in the hands of engineering
schools.
Architecture programs in China have traditionally
taught that “thinking differently is not as valuable
as being efficient,” says Juan Du, a visiting Fulbright
scholar in China based at Tongji University in Shanghai. “The
outcome is that architects reproduce buildings that they have
seen.”
The new architecture programs at art
schools train budding architects in five-year programs. Art
school administrators say that more attention is placed on
sketching and drawing than at engineering schools. Unlike
in engineering schools, “we see architecture as an art,”
says Lu.
Jen Lin-Liu
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