Interview with Ziyu Zhuang
Partner and chief architect of RSAA GmBH office. Learning after Bernard Tschumi and Kenneth Frampton, Ziyu Zhuang has been granted the Master of Architecture and Urban design in Columbia University…
Designer of the Day Interview
4 May 2018
We don't think there is such a design trend or matter. You know, it’s about the society, it’s about how you look at the current society or day to day life. Uh, design is a mirror as a reflection of yourself and the whole society. So the trend is always coming from your inner heart. Especially you know, architecture design is dealing with a series of questions of contradictions of the daily life, individuals or the bigger public. So of course, you know, the world is changing and the attitude of the people is changing. So this is called trend. The trend is not a symbolic thing, is not a kind of form, whatever color or whatever material. It’s about day to day thinking, a way of everyone's life. Uh, so we designed for people and we designed for the site. So we don't follow such a trend, we only follow what's going on here.
I think as an architect you playing different types of roles. We're basically a carrier, basically a watcher, observer, because what the production itself is fun. Not making up for yourself. Someone making up foruh, you made the project for your client and society. So basically, observing what's going on around is one of my most important task. And think about how this could be physically be located into your project. It's really hard to call it’s a ¬kind of lifestyle, people always talk about what kind of cloth your dress, which kind of words you're talking about. But for me, it's more casual way of dealing with your life and your work and your production is one package for us. Work culture is the same thing. We live in beijing so that you know the culture itself influence us. But culture is not the so called symbolic culture as whatever these key words kind of type culture chinese or Beijing. You know, forbidden city you where Hutong, is not those symbolic thing. It’s the daily life of reality. What we experience here and that became part of our design scope and that became colorful lifestyle that changed the people's ideas to make new production together with the really fast growing, moving forward society.
That's a really good question. I think quite any kind of designing culture. We can't stand out without talking about your business model. To create a good lifestyle for the team and yourself. It's very important because the design coming from your daily experience as what I said. So creating a nice atmosphere for the staff and yourself is very important to create a nice circulation of making good design.
Design Legend Interview
4 May 2018
There is no certain ultimate goal, because design is the life circle work. You always put in your new experience of what you just discovered from the world to deliver to your receivers or to your users, right? So that the goal is always changing. There's no such ultimate goal, because it is such a dynamic work in such a dynamic procedure in such a dynamic goal as final.
I think a good design is a window or is a kind of container for people to experience different things. So, itself could be one of the thing, this experience, or at least to a certain channel, a certain vision for people to look at the world. So that's why how you know better design to create a better world. Design itself, or the design production itself is basically your attitude of the whole society of the whole world. Right? So as a good designer, ¬you use your attitude or your own experience to lead people to experience what you want people to see. That's the really important point of design.
Forever, you start a design procedure, for example, take No. 4 middle school we are working on in Tianjin as example, or the hotel project we're working in Nanjing. You know, the procedure already takes years, but we still never say we already finalized or finished the design because the procedures always it's from the big scale to smaller scale from one step to the other step. Every step, every scale, you find out you find with the procedure and how you build up the project and to be realized. You are finding new questions and new issues, and you always have to deal with the new questions with your original target, or with your bigger strategy from the really beginning. But every step is a new challenge to dealing with the new questions. So, this procedure is from the very beginning to the very end. There is no such a moment saying we can finalize whatever things.
Designer Interview
4 May 2018
As an architect, I mean, your responsibility to social environment is so consistent, so responsible and so big responsibility. because as architect you are taking the resource of the whole society. And you changing a lot of the situation with the environment so that when you building standing there, you have to consider what's the impact after your building finished. Right? So that I think that's also the design approach we always consider. Take Tongling Recluse project, this time’s winning project. There's really such a poor house over there as existing condition that we consider that very seriously and how the remaining walls can become part of the design element in the future structure in the future organization of the space. So that's part of the exterior wall became interior. How is the apartment or compartment wall? And part of the original interior wall was combined with the new elevation became the new face for the architecture. that is a minimum impact of the environment. However, the existing condition became part of the current design. And we think those remaining images or the remaining atmosphere of the original space, has a strong contribution to the society and especially to the local people. So those remaining parts end up with a very nice remaining memory or combining with the new images became a very, special new places for the local people to go.
Well, my company basically working as a big studio. I usually have went to the site, emerges myself and then also talk with the client. So that I got the general image or the rough images, like, it’s like making sketch. But I don't really offer any solid sketch to my partners or to my colleagues, because it will limit their imagination. So that working method is more like I gave them some general images with some reference inspiring images, like none which is not really necessary being architecture. But any kind of inspiration images, with my expression or with my description are in words so that they can generally feel the atmosphere and the about right target so that they explore themselves and finding out the target or finding out the scope of work. And I basically lead them to decide things that I said to form the final design process. But it's not really just like single way are going straight forward, but it's more like a journey of discovery for architecture.
I usually ask myself a lot of contexts. What context is something we said different from design are different from the other types of design. Architecture is kind of design word focus the site on site. So, what's going on there for many years? And what's going to be about for the future for many, many years, so that the contexts is really the strongest element. Uh, if you say you describe, you know, the design description is one of the thing. But for me, the contexts itself of the site is the most important thing. Or of course, It's the whole design procedure is basically how to put a new hierarchy into the new contacts into the news in to the site is the final question for us. I think.