The preface written by Wang Shu for the book Picturesque may help you to approach the road of China's unique philosophy that few people pay attention to and discuss.
During the summer vacation, Xin Wang asked me to meet him. What is my relationship with Xin Wang? It must be the most meaningless statement to say that I am the dean of the school of architecture and he is a teacher of the school. Is our relationship special? On the contrary, we seldom meet, but we always meet in the college and hardly meet outside. But it is definitely wrong to say that our relationship is generally, because I always know what Xin Wang is doing, and he has always been in my field of vision, and Xin Wang has always been concerned about what I am doing, saying, and even paying special attention. I always say, you can't spread the word around. Preaching a person who has no foundation is tantamount to hurting him. When I talk to Xin Wang, I am always relaxed and even a little excited, because I know that a gentle word may lead to some interesting things, which will extend some witty ideas and some new experiments in teaching. It can be said that I said something to him on purpose, but even so, I was surprised when I saw Xin Wang holding a thick sample book in his hand, saying that he wanted me to hand in my homework. He said that the source of a lot of content is related to me, which seems to be true. The title of the book Picturesque must have come from one of my words. However, I must admit his diligence, just as I pointed out a way to a distant place. A group of people saw that Xin Wang was the only one who left without hesitation and walked so far. China, a distant architectural world, actually few people really care about it, and the values it represents have been belittled by China people in the past century. Going that way may even be considered eccentric and entertaining by mainstream architecture.
Ten years ago, I first invited him to teach in Hangzhou in the garden of Suzhou. For various reasons, his family has been moving south to 20 10, so I solemnly passed on the instructor of the second-grade architectural design basic teaching to him. Before this course, the speaker was me, and the name of the course was at the beginning of creation. I used the word "creation" instead of "design" to compile Mr. Tong Mao's "Landscape of Jiangnan Mountain". The word "Xing Zao" also means that the architectural activities it refers to always start from the pure interest of a certain time or place. It has methods but certainly no so-called system. Just like Bauhaus's most important contribution to modern architecture is special basic teaching, which is marked by a series of controversial teaching experiments. Xin Wang also fully agrees with me. If there is a kind of local architecture in contemporary China, there must be a kind of architectural basic teaching which belongs to China's special philosophy. This philosophy has been belittled for a century in modern China, and even basically forgotten.
But the most important reason why I value Xin Wang is not how much his thoughts are influenced by me, but that he is always unwilling to dig deep and can always be different from me. To some extent, I may be more idealistic or more laissez-faire than him. I always try to make students understand what natural hair growth is, and Wang Xin is more like doing the homework of the whole class as a job. Although the intention of diversity is obvious, the teacher's intervention in students' homework is more obvious. This way is a bit like teaching with Biography of Mustard Seed Orchard, except that the manuscript of the class was compiled by Xin Wang himself.
If the academic exchange relationship between Xin Wang and me is made clear and said in an exciting way, it may be more appropriate to record it. The following are records of some related thoughts and events, which are not logically related. Only at this time, the sequence that appeared in my mind was numbered with Arabic numerals:
1. Picturesque scenery, Xin Wang thinks this meaning was originally inspired by me, but I think I was inspired by my own works. In 2008, I wrote Narration and Geometry of Natural Form, which mentioned the relationship between the south facade of Ningbo Museum and Li Tang's Map of Wanhe and Song Feng. The emphasis is on the understanding of the grand view painting method in the Northern Song Dynasty. Of course, the design was completed at the end of 2005. I still remember the physical tremor when consciousness came into being. The south facade is absolutely two-dimensional, just like a section on a natural continuous object. If you look closely, you will find that the connection between the concrete side wall and the south tile is segmented. This approach is a bit stupefied, but it directly establishes the relationship with the two-dimensional picture, a phenomenological relationship. After that, there was no transition, and it went directly to a tortuous depth space. The so-called space means that you realize that something important is included, but it is precisely that thing that has been consciously pulled away, leaving only some hints and some possibilities of existence. There is a long time lag between the design and the article. When I wrote those words, I realized that this was a clear design method for me. Simply put, if you look at the space in the way of landscape painting itself and record a series of relative spatial positions, the building will be formed in this way. So observation is also a design method. This tradition of "picturesque architecture" exists not only in China, but also in Britain, perhaps influenced by China. This concept has also been popular since the17th century, and even seems a bit old-fashioned today: architecture must be done like landscape painting. Of course, in today's view, this requirement is too elegant and unrealistic, although it is only a version about facade and surrounding environment control. In the view of China landscape painters, it must be considered as a shallow primary version, because "picturesque view" is not a simple facade and environment, but a situational model of the living world. When I say the word "model", I mean its internal relations, but it is not an abstract concept, but has all dimensions, textures and materiality that the body can perceive. I'm not sure that Xin Wang modestly said that he was inspired by me, but what does the word "model" mean to him, or whether he has the path and ability to return to the life world from the model.
2. "It lets you in." I wrote this sentence in an article around 2000. How to treat gardens, how to treat landscape paintings, especially Song paintings, and how to discuss my architectural experience are all key words. In other words, when I say that the garden method means that architecture is an experience that only you can really experience when you go in, there is no climax, no beginning and no end in the experience layer after layer, that's what I mean. So appearance is secondary, and even modeling is secondary. As far as the inherent complexity of Wang Xin's homework is concerned, my words must have influenced him, but I think he may still pay too much attention to modeling. This understanding takes time.
3. If "picturesque" is a design method, one of its core elements is "sight". The first time I paid attention to the sight in architecture was in 1985. When I was traveling in the rural areas of southern Anhui, I always felt that I could not find a painting method to describe my experience of that kind of spatial density, or that kind of consciousness shrouded in space. After I couldn't draw a sketch for a week, it was at 1986 that I was awakened by Allen Rob-Geyer's novel Jealousy. In that novel, no one appeared from beginning to end, only the reader could hear the sound of a car passing by, stopping and then driving away. The reader realizes that the sun is moving in the room, and finally you suddenly realize that a jealous eye is peeping in through the shutters. The novel succeeded in establishing a spiritual atmosphere in the scene where no one appeared. I suddenly realized that this is a different architectural consciousness. There is no so-called deep narrative behind this line of sight, just an event narrative. I didn't realize at that time that this feeling was so similar to the experience of watching landscape paintings and visiting gardens. The formation of that kind of consciousness will have to wait until I 1997 start reading Mr. Tong Mao's Southeast Garden Villa.
In Xin Wang's words and spatial images, we can also see the function of this line of sight, such as the relationship between the line of sight and space among Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Dong Zhuo, the four-poster bed and the moon gate, but the particularity of Xin Wang's angle always lies in his fascination with the narrative techniques of deep carving on the wood carving components of residential buildings. It is a deliberately flattened space, which means that there are almost no stories, because all stories are presented at the same time. The focus of attention is to know that there is no suspense, but it is very special. I have discussed the possibility of an anti-memorial and anti-unification sketch building. If Xin Wang continues this attempt, it seems that it is possible to have an architectural sketch with special Ming and Qing styles.
4. This kind of wood carving or pen container is very interesting as a spatial paradigm, but Xin Wang's language extraction is totally abstract. This is totally different from my practice. For me, materials are always the first consideration. Judging from the students' homework led by Wang Xin, it can be said that Mr. Tong Mao's insight that as long as the building has enough zigzag density, it can still be called a garden without flowers and trees. As a direct reference, the woodcarving pen container makes the density of space slices and components more dense, but the white model allows us to guess that its material may be concrete or painted bricks. As a stage practice of second-grade teaching, this practice can be an expedient measure, and as a practical architectural practice, it is obviously too formal. However, in the case of a serious lack of endogenous forms in China's construction industry, it is necessary to explore any such forms, especially Xin Wang's persistent exploration.
5. Over-modeling of architectural form seems to have bones but no flesh, which is related to both material consciousness and spatial distance consciousness. I once analyzed the Ming Dynasty's "Imitating the Yellow River Landscape" as the thinking prototype of the new work "Washan" in Xiangshan Campus, with special emphasis on the density of different things depicted in the middle as the power of a world view. Xin Wang also analyzed this painting in the article, especially this part. Interestingly, he thinks this part can be directly regarded as the interior of the garden. His keenness made him see a side truth. Indeed, that part is the result of "manpower" (see Luoyang Famous Garden), but I have never been satisfied with this restored perspective. In my opinion, there are at least a few interesting points: (1) The room is extremely simple, and men are surrounded by dense natural objects; (2) If it is Mr. Shen Zhou, the moment is midnight, which is extremely quiet; (3) The whole painting looks like a mountain. From a distance, the middle part is the scenery of the mountain, which is a close-up head-up view, with a close distance and a bird's eye view at the lower end. In other words, the viewing and experience of different distances can be compressed in a small range, or the viewing of landscape painting is by no means limited to the three-distance method. There are three high-level changes and the opening and closing relationship of internal and external channels. This method is too useful for architecture. If it's just a form from a distance, it must have a flesh-and-blood texture from a close look. Of course, this experience of architecture is gradually formed and needs time to nourish.
In the first article of this book, Xin Wang wrote the poem, "Sitting on the side of raspberry moss reflects himself". I still remember that moment, he walked into my studio, and the note with the poem written by my son was waiting for him on the table with childish handwriting. I waited for his arrival for a long time, and I was very happy, because someone finally came to give a lecture in the second day of junior high school, so I could shift my energy to other grades. A Chinese-style architectural basic language teaching can only be done for one grade at a time, and it is useless to worry.