Li Xiangning
Li Xiangning
FROM STRUCTURE TO LANGUAGE: THE ARCHITECTURAL REALIZATIONS OF DESHAUS The realization of Chinese architecture today, manifests a kind of recall of the modern development of the West, especially expressed in the re-acquaintance with the language of modernism. On such foundations, it also accompanies a self-awareness of architects and a recognition of the value in Chinese traditional culture. Whether it is the localization of the language of modern or contemporary architecture from Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn to Koolhaas, or the contemporary translation of construction knowledge and resources that originate from systems such as that of traditional Chinese timber constructions, the tradition of Chinese garden spaces, and the attitude toward nature that adapts to the local, they all lead to a kind of architectural realization with both contemporariness and Chineseness. Just as the British newspaper The Guardian commented on the Chinese pavilion's exhibition at the 2018 Venice Biennale, "contemporary architecture in China has transformed from a testing ground for foreign architects to a place where Chinese architects have sensitively responded to their own cultural context." Under such a context, the realizations of Atelier Deshaus cannot be overlooked in any conversation on contemporary Chinese architecture. The tireless pursuit of the cultural and the investigations of the relationships between structure, materiality, and form in their works, have already become flagbearer for contemporary Chinese architecture. They have subtly reconciled the normative language of modernism with that from China, or more precisely, from the cultural DNA of Shanghai and the Jiangnan region, shaping a unique ambiance of elegance and refinement. At the same time, quite different from the works of more conventional architecture offices, Deshaus, through encompassing the research of contemporary art, installation, architectural culture and theoretical discourse, has contributed an exceptional value to Chinese architecture, design and contemporary culture.
FROM "DESHAUS" TO '大舍' In the naming of the design studio, architects often hope both that it could reflect a kind of attitude towards architecture, and also could be fun and memorable. Wang Shu named his studio Amateur, while Yung Ho Chang has named his studio Feichang Jianzhu, both expressing a kind of cultural positioning that consciously maintains a distance from the mainstream architecture profession and its realizations in China. As early as 1993, Liu Yichun already used Deshaus
Atelier Deshaus
Essay
6
as name for the studio he set up with two colleagues at Guangzhou Design Institute. It was afterwards in 2000, when the three founders Liu Yichun, Chen Yifeng, and Zhuang Shen decided to leave the state-owned Tongji Design Institute to establish their independent private design office, they continued to use Deshaus as name. This rarely used name, especially amoungst the Chinese architectural offices, and coming from the German language, no doubt hinted at a certain type of link to German lineage. Liu, Chen, and Zhuang had received their five-year architectural education at Tongji University. Tongji originates from the Deutsche Medizinschule für Chinesen, or German Medical School for the Chinese founded by the German physician Erich Paulunin 1907. As for the architecture school, it could trace its lineage to the St. John's University established by Huang Zuoshen, who had studied under Walter Gropius. These two origins make Tongji especially unique in Chinese architecture educational system that had been dominated by Beaux Arts influences. The three founders of Deshaus have once recalled, even in the 1980s and 1990s when Postmodernism was trendy for architecture, the architecture education at Tongji remained firmly based on the Modernist traditions of the Bauhaus. At the time, Liu and Chen both received their architecture education with German as primary foreign language. The architecture education at Tongji no doubt deeply influenced the ensuing works of Deshaus. Even though many would be reminded of Bauhaus from Deshaus, to them, 'Deshaus' must first be understood as "having to do with the Haus", from the genitive form of Haus in German. This straightforward and humble explanation hints at a kind of attitude towards architecture: architecture is not only an expression that is about grandeur or superficial, but rather must return to its origins. Without doubt, these characteristics appeared in the early works of Deshaus: whether the Tri-house, or the Dongguan Polytech building from the same period, these projects used a concise and clean formal language, clear volumetric relationships between the public and private, as well as rigorous and rational orthogonal grid and architectural spaces, to respond to the logic of the use, consciously showing the outstanding traits of Modernism. However, even when the Chinese pictographic character '舍' that corresponds to 'haus' is used, in the way it approximates the pronunciation and meaning of 'Deshaus' , its use nevertheless more or less anticipates the transformations to their architectural realizations. In the works of Deshaus, they continue to try to integrate some of the traditions associated with China with the formal language of modernist architecture. Perhaps because Deshaus, unlike many of the Chinese architects of the time, who have spent time in Europe or America to study and live, and had to deal with the identity anxieties of being in another cultural context, their strategies were more often roundabout and indirect. Between 2003 and 2010, in the series of projects completed including the
From Structure to Language
7