have become increasingly aware of and interested in the work of Chinese architect Ma Yansong and his firm MAD architects and recently discovered a little article about them from almost three years back. It discusses Ma's proposal to turn Beijing's Tiananmen square from the stagnant historical-political feature that it currently is into a greener, more lively space that even Beijingers will find reason to check out.What strikes me most is how poignant the proposal is, not because it represents a major urban makeover, but because it is a serious reassessment of one of the oldest political centres in the world. Furthermore, it is a radical proposal from a Chinese national. As the article mentions, China has recently become the canvas for some of the world's most famous architects to realise their wildest ideas, yet they are mostly westerners who have been given a plot of land to build up and redefine a skyline, but their projects don't really affect common Chinese people. This proposal not only affects all the inhabitants of Beijing, but nearly every citizen of the most populated country in the world. The Chinese government has been able to cover up all infamous images of tanks and protesters and the overwhelming majority of Chinese in China remain oblivious to the events that took place at Tiananmen back in 1989.
Ma establishes that "Our aim is to propose not to criticise, to raise the issue of public space. The way we do our architecture is to show that we can come up with our own solutions. We don't just take orders. That is why we want to show this project to the public first." Unfortunately the government has not allowed Ma to get his wish as they have prohibited images of the proposal from being published, yet I still applaud Ma's efforts to initiate such a radical architectural discourse in China. Hopefully more of his country men follow suit and China's glass skyscrapers will start to give way to more progressive and life bettering projects.
No comments:
Post a Comment