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There and Back Again by

Architect | Jonathan ChaussetDesign firm | Architectural Deisgn and Research InstituteLocation | Huangshan City, China (Shanghai)

Report

I had high expectation prior to arriving at the Yellow Mountains. I’d been told that “one day stay

is not enough to experience Huangshan” and “to visit Huangshan multiple times is not enough”.

I am glad to say that Huangshan was well above my expectations, so robust and strong, yet so

calm and beautiful.

Th e Yellow Mountains, Anhui China | 中国安徽的黄山

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rtIntroductionTh e report will include my experiences when interning at the Ar-chitectural design and Research Institute of Huangshan City, China. I’ve stripped it down to these subjects;

• Introduction

• Huizhou Architecture

• Chinese Culture

• Relationships

• Design studies at the institute - Club House Design study - Large Residential Gate Design

• Shanghai

• Hainan Islands

• Epilogue

In spring 2011, just before the completion of my bachelors degree, an oppotunity arose as from nowhere. I’ve always been inspired by the fast growing country which is Th e peoples Republic of China (PRC), and when i received an invitation to work as an architect there, it was a no-brainer.

My undergraduate portfolio and previous contacts helped me make the internship there possible. Contacts in China might be as usefull as the portfolio, and to have a good degree from a respected school sometimes outperform the portfolio itself.

Th e suspense was high and aft er just a short summer in Sweden I ar-rived in the fastest growing architectural society in the world.

In the eastern part of China, just west of Shang-hai, lies the well known Huangshan county. It has for many years been one of the largest tourist places in China to experience architecture and nature.

My internship took place at the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Huangshan City (http://www.hsadi.com/), which focuses on pre-serving the Huizhou architecture and culture.

My attention soon went to their expertice in 2D modelling, and how well and eff ectively they im-plemented this to make easy-to-read drawings.

In China architecture and engineering is inter-twined in a lot higher degree then what we are used to in Europe. Th e collaboration here be-tween architects and engineers were perfect for me, since I’d previously taken a bachelor’s degree in Architecture and Engineering.

I was excited, ready to start working, and had no clue what to expect next of this wonderful culture and society.

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e and engineering Chinese Culture and Nature Business Relationships

Deisgn Propos

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arches has preserved over half of those chronicled in its county an-nals.

Th ese arches memorialize three diff erent categories of honor - schol-arly, imperial and ethical. Scholarly honor arches celebrate family members passing the provincial or national level imperial exams. Imperial honor refers to an Emperor’s decree ordering the erection of a memorial arch in recognition of the contribution of a local gov-ernment offi cial. Ethical honor describes arches put up to recognize the uncommon personal integrity of a particular individual or set of individuals. Traditional themes were righteousness, charity, chastity and fi lial piety. Th e Long-Lived Arch, for example, celebrates a lov-ing couple, who lived to be 100 years old during the Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644).

Usually, memorial arches were made of stone. Single-fronted, they bear calligraphy, describing the reason for the memorial arch. Oft en two posted, some have four posts and others, especially if they are square, have eight supporting posts. Although most of the arches are double-tiered some can be as many as fi ve-storied.

Th e Tang Yue Arches are seven arches acknowledging the successful political career, fi lial piety, chastity and charity of continuing genera-

Huizhou Architecture

Owing to the wealth accumulated by Huizhou tradesmen from the mid-Southern Song (1127 - 1279) to Emperor Qianlong’s reign (r. 1736-1796) in the Qing dynasty, an infl uential, regional architec-tural style was able to develop in Huizhou. Many features of this local style were incorporated in the architectural development of the south, in particular the canal towns of the Yangzi River delta.

As you walk around Huizhou architecture, there are several qualities that stand out.

• Individual House Features

Most people, by the time they visit Huizhou villages, will be familiar with the typical design of a courtyard home; we will here dwell on Huizhou’s deviations from this familiar pattern.

On passing through a doorframe, constructed of stone rather than wood, the visitor will enter a small courtyard fl anked on three sides. Th e reason this courtyard is so-sized is to allow for adequate illumi-nation and ventilation, while restricting possible rain and draft s. Th e sloped roofs above the courtyard are so designed as to collect the maximum amount of rainwater. Th is is done because geomantically-minded Huizhou merchants were reluctant to let any form of energy escape their control; they were interested in amassing and accumu-lating property rather than letting it disperse and escape. Th e collec-tion of rain is symbolic of their accumulation of wealth.

Either side of the small courtyard, which sometimes features a garden, are two bedrooms. Straight ahead is the central meeting hall behind which is the dining and kitchen area. Unlike other courtyard homes, oft en Huizhou homes are two-storied, sometimes three sto-ried. Th e upper fl oors, shaded from view, sport verandas, fi tted with benches. Since Huizhou women were discouraged from meeting men from outside the family, these benches were placed for them to survey goings-on in the main courtyard beneath.

• Village Planning Features

A noticeable feature of Huizhou villages are the high, crenellated walls that separate neighboring buildings. Called fi re-proof walls, and sometimes fi re-wind walls or horse head walls, their impor-tant purpose was to prevent the spread of fi re through the town from one building to the next. Th eir two subsidiary functions were to block draft s from entering the homes’ inner courtyards and to discourage burglary.

Most streets in a Huizhou village line either a brook or a canal. Flagstones, paving the street, are on a gentle incline to drain water into the neigh-boring channel. Further, the fl agstones are oft en pitted so that in spite of their drainage function they are not slippery. Alongside the street, there are oft en steps leading down to the water’s edge providing easy access to water for washing, cook-ing or bathing purposes.

• Memorial Arches

Even if you do not reach Tangyue Arches Com-plex, you are likely to spot Memorial Arches as you drive around Shexian county, which with 94

02tions of the Bao family. Th ree of the arches were erected during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and four during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).

Typical Huizhou Architecture, Anhui China | 中国，安徽徽派建筑

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rtCultureChinese culture is one of the world’s oldest and most complex and covers geographical region as large as europe. Th e culture and architecture varies greatly between towns, cities and provinces. Im-portant components of Chinese culture includes literature, music, visual arts, martial arts, cuisine, etc. All of this forms what chinese culture is all about today, and how it has shaped modern chinese architecture.

To work as an architect in China can be both demanding and surpris-ingly hard. Th e expression “clash of cultures” can be taken into the equation while trying to explain how it is to work there. Th e hardest thing, as in most cases with moving to a new culture, regardless of purpose, is to get used to the language.

Th e older population never learned any english while young, so there-fore they are having a hard time expressing themselves to foreigners. In most cases a translator will have to accompany them.

In comparison, the younger population are already a lot more expe-rienced in expressing themselves in english. I wouldn’t stretch as far as to say they can speak english well, but it’s a big improvement from ten to twenty years ago.

Shanghai is a lot diff erent thought, with it’s more international soci-ety. If I didn’t know better, I would say that Shanghai reminds of New York City. Not that I’ve ever been there, but the high rise buildings, people which are always in a hurry and the multicultural inhabitants certainly make it feel that way. I would say this is a good thing, be-cause they are beautiful for what they are, a modern city with a mul-ticultural population.

For a foreigner to work in Shanghai or Hong Kong is not harder then moving to say Paris, Barcelona or London. You will be more surprised about how many things that feel the same before you think of what is diff erent.

When moving away from the largest cities you will experience a couple of things. Th e fi rst thing is how much less expensive it is to live there. Th e second thing is the lack of knowledge when it comes to anything regarding what lies further from the exterior borders of China.

With this being said, it’s here you will experience what China is all about, the local cuisine, nature and architecture.

It’s important to remember that while travelling in China between diff erent provinces, the eu-ropean comparison would be to travel between countries, in regard to the geograpical scale.

Th is is interesting because the diff erence between countries close to eachother in Europe is fairly large, and the same could be said about provinces in China. Everything changes, the food, nature and behavior of people. Even the language chang-es, and every province in China has a certain local dialect that no one else understands. Almost everyone can speak and understand mandarin though, which is the common tongue.

Th e spring festival, which takes place in late january, was especially interesting. Everyone, gets off work to spend time with their families, much like the european or american way of spending christmas.

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RelationshipsIt seems as most chinese value the relationship with foreigners highly. Th is is because of what we can learn from eachother. Europe, which is a further developed region then China, can contribute it’s knowl-edge to what now is a fast growing China. Better living, nicer cars and a higher demand in international travel.

In the same way, we can benefi t highly from having a good relation-ship with China.

For the 5 months I stayed in China, I was always well taken care off . In exchange I held my head high and tried to be as helpful as I could be.

At the Institute where I worked, the level of knowledge in english increased exponentially while I stayed there. We both could benefi t from me teaching them english and they teaching me mandarin. In the end this is what it’s about, helping and learning from eachother to get a common understanding of a good relationship.

I was oft en asked to give speeches to a crowd of people. Not because I necessarily had the most in-teresting thing to say, but in most cases to express the gratitude I had for creating a relationship between us. Since most of them never had met a swedish person before, I as a single person in a way represented how their view would become of swedish people, which is a big task to be respon-sible of.

In China, business relationships are very diff erent from Europe. Many will say that they are valued higher then elsewhere, which in my experience is very true. Both to foreigners and non-foreigners, they make sure to create a good friendship between the two parties.

Th is usually involves multiple dinners, gift s and over friendly greet-ings, to express and show that they value the collaboration and friendship.

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I left Huangshan City and went to Shanghai where we could prepare the material for the presentation, which took place the day aft er. It involved everything from ppt-fi les to AutoCad drawings where we could illustrate conceptual drawings. As this was in the conceptual phase of planning, our main goal were to demonstrate what our offi ce had done before, the key architects that worked in the european offi ce and aswell to show something that they could relate to, which would be the chinese architecture fi rm UDG China.

We rehearsed slightly, and were as well prepared as you could be for a multi million dollar presentation, but sometimes it’s a good idea to improvise, it comes out more natural that way, especially if you have the confi dence to do so.

Well at the Hainan Islands, the work changed from preparation to execution, with pre meetings with the clients, involving a smaller din-ner et.c. Th e “less then a 24 hour duration stay” at the Hainan Islands made the visit very eff ective with little, if any, sleep.

Th e presentation took place in a large room, in the very hotel where we stayed, with up to 50 people, involving mostly investors, but also other people related to the project. Th e presentation went well, and nothing unexpected happened. It took roughly 1 hour, which I would say is the maximum amount of time to have a presentation in, eve-rything above that rejects negativly back on us. A 45 minute presen-tation might be ideal. Aft er the presentation we exchanged business cards, and our part there were done.

Th e experience was like no other, with a high tempo from start to fi nish.

For a very short period of time I helped an european fi rm to design and propose a complex urban design development presentation for clients at Th e Hainan Islands, southern China.

Together with a colleague, we designen the concept proposal in Shanghai with UDG China (http://www.udg.com.cn). Th e presen-tation took place at Hainan Islands, presenting in english, with a translator to chinese.

The Hainan Islands

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rtShanghaiShanghai is a place like no other. Th e pulse itself of the city makes you want to stay there forever. Everything’s alive.

I had the opportunity to go there several times, both for business and pleasure, and I enjoyed it every time.

Th e city, larger then any city in Europe, and the biggest in China, reminds me alot of Th e Big Apple. I would say this is due to three main factors.

Th e fi rst being the shear amount of high rises, especially if you are in the central part of Shanghai. 20 years ago you could see none, now there are new ones being constructed every year, each one more beautiful than the other. You have the nice opportunity to enter most of them and go to the top for a small amount of money. In the top you can experience a mesmerizing view of the central landscape of Shanghai, especielly during night time view billions of lights lit. To sit in a bar when the sun goes down is a view everyone should should experience.

Th e second factor is the fast haste the city moves in, even the way people walk in Shanghai is faster then other places. Th is is due to people working harder here, and in the same time having to move by foot, subway or bus between the many businesses of Shanghai. Taxi can be expensive and having a car in Shanghai is not an option for most people with the taxes and everything.

Even thought the city if more than alive during daytime, it’s during nighttime when the city really comes alive. Th e impressive amount of bars and nightclubs in Shanghai gives people the opportunity to work hard during the day, but to experience a good time during night. Many business meetings takes place during the evening at bars, due to the timelimit a normal day off ers, making it possible to create a hybrid between work and joy.

Th e third, and maybe most important thing, is the big multicultural population of Shanghai. Going everywhere else in China, with the exception of Hong Kong and Beijing, the only thing you’ll see is chi-nese people. Even at tourist places, the vast majority of people will be chinese tourists.

Th is makes Shanghai excellent to foreigners, making it easier to communicate throught the vocal barriers that so oft en excists else-where.

Shanghai World Financial CenterJin Mao Tower

The Pudong (east bank) skyline

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Puxi (west bank)

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rtEpilogueFive months has passed since I fi rst came to Huangshan City. I’ve experienced a lot on the way, both when it comes to be a better architect, but also to help me grow as a person.

I’ve met wonderful persons, and I want to thank everyone that made this internship possible. I hope to someday return to Huang-shan and meet with friends and colleagues.

It’s nice to be able to say that you have no regrets. All I regret about China is that i didn’t stay longer...

Contact information

Jonathan Chausset

remichausset@gmail.com

+86 13675555560

www.facebook.com/JonathanChausset

www.jonac.info

To have a look at my work from the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Huangshan City, please have a look at www.jonac.info.

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