email a friend	|	printer friendly version

Several Art Schools in China Starting New Architecture Programs

(archrecord.construction.com - 11/09/04)

By Jen Lin-Liu

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.

advertisement

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.