The influence of Chinese revolutionary arts on Chinese contemporary architecture

As for architecture, contemporary building projects are mainly non Chinese. It is mainly europeans - such as the french Paul Andreu who made the Grand National Theatre of Beijing or the Dutch Rem Koolhaas, building the headquaters of the national TV – or americans who are the architects of the new China. Chinese architects are excluded from the reshape of Chinese magalopolis. Indeed, China lacked a complete generation of architects. During the cultural revolution Mao closed the universities of architectures. Any Chinese could have been train to do this job. Whatever can be the explanation of this situation, the result is the same. Contemporary architecture in China is mainly westernized. There are any references to the cultural background of China in general & no remains of the revolutionary period in particular.

(Rem Koolhaas, future headquaters of National TV, Beijing)

(paul Andreu, National Grand Theatre, Beijing)

However, a fringe of contemporary Chinese architects are currently more & more recognised for their work.

But in the following exemple of contemporary buildings there are no references to the revolutionary architecture once promoted by the Parti. Those creations are a mix between modernism & traditional China. It is as if the revolutionary period have been forgotten.

Suzhou : the Venise of China, known for its beautiful traditional Chinese gardens.

Highly modern building. However the architect paid attention to the environmental surrondings : the water, the trees. It is a reference to the gardening tradition of Suzhou.

Near Shanghai, a library.

Here the shape of the building remins the shape of a dragon, a famous animal in the ancient Chinese mythology.

Museum of History, Suzhou

Here the white walls circled with black remind us of the ancient Chinese gardens’ wall, traditionally painted with white in order to contrast with the rocks and the bamboo trees.

Today, architecture in China is whether westernized, whether refering to traditional China.Thus there is no remains of revolutionary architecure in the today’s Chinese architecture.