Building a legacy

Born in Bordeaux, France, Parisian architect Paul Andreu has a great desire to do things with his hands and with his head, and to always keep discovering something new. Photo by Trudy He

You're going to be working on a project to redevelop a rural village, too?

China has given me a lot - and I've always wanted to give something back. Some Chinese friends from Yunnan spoke to me about the province's magnificent landscapes and asked me if I could help out by coming up with a way to preserve them. I publicly accepted this challenge, but they never followed up. Then, the industrialist Dong Fangjun, who is a big patron of cultural projects and very involved in efforts to save his native village in Yiyuan, in Shandong province, asked me if I'd be willing to work with him on that.

The village is located on a peninsula that he calls "Peach Blossom Island" - it's full of orchards and little market gardens. I went to visit the village and as soon as I saw it, I wanted to bring it back to life. Not by introducing an abstract kind of life for flashpackers to come and look at, but by making sound, established agricultural operations even more viable by giving them an artistic aspect - by offering other alternatives to the people who live there. I'm going to be totally committed to this project.

What will you do specifically?

I don't know yet. For now, they've put red flags with our names on them along the roads to welcome us. It's going to be organized in a very sensible way, with the China Global Philanthropy Institute drawing up a plan and setting the budgets.

The project will kick off soon. While I know it's not going to be some huge, never-to-be-forgotten project, I find these kinds of small, very humble things very tempting.

What do Paul Andreu the architect, Paul Andreu the writer and Paul Andreu the painter have in common?

They're all the Paul Andreu who was born in Bordeaux almost 80 years ago and who, little by little, grew within different branches, each of which he considers to be of equal importance. With a great desire to do things with his hands and with his head, and to always keep discovering something new.

Your most beautiful memory?

Delivering the National Grand Theater in Beijing. This project represented an enormous amount of work. I put my whole self into it; I thought constantly about every detail. Some things in the theater I even made with my own hands - there are some bronze plaques in the floor that I engraved myself. I was very happy at the opening.