All about design

There's a treat in store for architecture buffs in Beijing in the form of an upcoming exhibition. The event jointly organized by Architectural Society of China; Messe Munich GMBH and MMU BAU Fenestration CO. Ltd, is held through Nov 3 at the Beijing International Exhibition Center.

The China Architectural Design Expo (Beijing) 2018 has three core themes: Inheritance, Fusion and New Life; and each consists of three parts - themed exhibitions, conferences and installations. The expo features outstanding architectural designs and high-end architectural solutions from major architectural institutes.

The inheritance section focuses on Chinese architectural history. And it opens the curtain of Chinese modern architectural design with historical objects like the manuscripts, portfolios, and life stories of China's first generation architects, including Yang Tingbao and Fan Wenzhao.

Fusion is rooted in the communication and collision of architectural design concepts. And it reviews the leap-forward development and inheritance of new Chinese architecture in the past 65 years. The design concepts and representative works of well-known architects including Guan Zhaoye, He Jingtang and Cheng Taining, are being presented.

These works tell of the development of Chinese architecture like nodes on the timeline, as they show how structures carried the change of culture and society from the 20th century to the 21st century.

Architectural design pieces, which have won the gold prize of China Architectural Design Award of ASC, are displayed and analyzed in detail, in order to showcase how the buildings and structures express the thoughts of architects. And through the introduction of high-end materials, and the study of advanced cases, the last session aims to focus on the latest trends in contemporary architecture.

Speaking about the event, Reinhard Pfeiffer, the vice-president of MMG, said that "the collaboration (for the expo) will create a one-stop platform, providing information on design concepts and facilitating communication among architects. And it will be a global platform for domestic and foreign architects to exchange ideas and move forward the integration of art and architectural skills."

Matthias Strauss, the exhibition director of MMG, Wang Renchun and Peng Qingzhi, the CEO and the chairman of MMU BAU Fenestration CO., Ltd, were at the briefing and shared ideas about the change that the industry has experienced, and the future challenges for architects.

Strauss said that architects were getting more influential in the society, as they were getting more involved in the whole process of building structures - from planning up to the realization. Peng and Wang agreed with this view but added that the Chinese architects needed to participate more in the project after drawing architectural plans. Peng said that she had heard that many architects in China joked that they were just "draftspersons".

Speaking about how interest in architecture and related fields was growing, Wang said that the exhibition of building system and materials, held in Munich attracted 250,000 professional visitors, and 70,000 of them were professional architects.

"It used to be hard for an exhibition like BAU to attract architects from China. However, as people are paying more attention to quality of life, which includes the quality of the building they live or work in, the hotel they stay at, this has been promoting an upgrade of the architectural industry.

"Also, designers are consciously building up personal brands to structure their own way of expression. And they need to know more about building materials and systems to support their expression."

As for the future, Peng said that architects were now also getting involved controlling the cost, and the supervision of the construction.

"So, it pushes them to assimilate more knowledge and think of innovative solutions as they are required to broaden their area of expertise.

"I think it's a good start."