LITMIR.BIZ

      An antique daybed, sourced in Gao Bei Dian in Beijing, and a silk standing lamp designed by Robarts Interiors and Architecture stand in front of embossed leather wall panels at McKinsey & Company, Beijing (see pages 58—63).

      One of the distinguishing characteristics of contemporary Chinese design is its thoroughly global outlook. Globalism is fast permeating all aspects of modern Chinese life, and designers such as Beijing-based Wang Hui feel that good design comes out of this cosmopolitan approach. “It’s a kind of exchange,” he explains. “If you only think about things in one way it is kind of limited; fresh information gives you new points of view from which to think about design.”

      With Chinese architects now having access to the world’s top architecture schools and big-name foreign architects opening practices in the country, incredible new synergies are playing themselves out. It is the new generation of Chinese architects who are able to see their own culture from both within and without and are thus able to reconnect with their roots in an international context. No longer is “Chinese design” traditional; on the contrary, the parameters of the genre have been intentionally blurred in a bid to meet the needs of modern clients. Traditional influences are lowkey, rather than overt. Says Wang Hui: “The culture is already in my heart. Through design, I prefer to use it in subtle ways.”

      Experimentation is now at the forefront—with traditional materials and techniques being radically adapted to modern purposes. Structures such as the villas by Yung Ho Chang and Chien Hsueh-Yi at the Commune by the Great Wall and the award-winning Villa Shizilin by Yung Ho Chang and Wang Hui near Beijing, take a natural approach—using timber, compressed earth and local stone—and in so doing respect the history of the land to blend in seamlessly with the environment.

      Such villas weave in many outside influences (designer and antique furnishings, space-making technologies and modern global comforts) yet remain rooted in their Chinese locality and sensitive to their surroundings. Today’s Chinese architecture is modernist and minimalist, yet the materials used lend rawness and texture, reflecting a sometimes contradictory dialogue between austerity and luxury which has come to define many new designs, especially in and around Beijing.

      Such a dialogue says as much about the Chinese psyche—especially within the thriving artistic community—as it does about new design influences. What can be seen today is not just people’s desire to push traditional boundaries and enjoy an enhanced standard of living but also a pent-up need to express creative aspirations through design. In Beijing, many of the architects, artists and creative types who are making news are self-taught practitioners who take quirky, non-conformist approaches to their work. A new, self-styled struggle is evident with few rules or restrictions holding them back. To be too comfortable would perhaps blunt the edge of innovation and hinder the quest for the new.

      It is not just in Beijing—with its modernist, creative tension and aura of austerity—that boundaries are being pushed. In Shanghai, where the pace has been hard and fast and energy levels extraordinarily high, a tentative balance between heritage architecture and modern skyscrapers is still being struck. Design in this cosmopolitan, forward-thinking city is both heady and glamorous, emphasizing style and opulence, in contrast to the northern capital. Design directions in Shanghai are rooted in the city’s multi-cultural history and delivered through its global commercial outlook.

      Shanghai, like many of China’s other major cities, is experiencing a building boom which has created new suburban centers, with villa developments ringing the city. Whilst styles vary, the most successful developments take inspiration from traditional architecture, with designs that renew the age-old Chinese dialogue between interior and exterior space. The classic Chinese courtyard house, the siheyuan, is a prime example of a traditional residential model that is being reinterpreted in novel ways.