Designing within a Different Culture – The case for incorporating overseas design projects and field studies in the curriculum of a school of architecture

Skills and knowledge required for designing within different cultures should play an important part of the architecture curriculum, due to the increasing number of architectural offices engaging in overseas projects and more and more international students studying in the UK. In order to investigate how architectural students perceive and value their learning experience in an unfamiliar context, this project was designed to explore field studies at Southwest China by a group of architectural students from a university at the north of England. It also exams their design decisions made for the project set in the region visited. The field study and design project provide students with the opportunities to exercise the particular way of thinking that they formed in the university studio-based education. Students from various background may use and integrate their skills and knowledge differently when confronted with an unfamiliar culture. The study takes the forms of an inquiry that use in-depth unstructured interviews of 3rd year Bachelor Architectural students. It explores the experience of the students who not only work as navigators interpreting the unfamiliar or new situations, but also construct new understandings in unfolding situations which may engender ways of thinking that inform and reflect on action. The study argues that students’ experience of learning and developing is not unified. There is the need for an inclusive culture in architectural education that can take into account of the personal, disciplinary and community values in order to facilitate the adjustments required to make the curriculum more relevant and engaging in a global context

Design of Family Space in the Reform-era Chinese Cities

This study investigates how architectural and interior design practice for residential properties in China changed significantly as the result of the policy of increasing private ownership in the 1980s. Before the reform policies (which commenced in 1978), residential houses had been owned and managed by work units. They were designed and constructed with the principal aims of being economical and functional. In 1984, new regulations allowed housing to be exchanged as a commodity on the market. This new policy provided householders with greater freedom and opportunities to make decisions about their own family space. This in turn encouraged the rapid development of design and construction companies working on private houses. This paper explores people’s decisions concerning the design of their family space that connects to both the traditional beliefs and contemporary values. The study is in the form of in-depth unstructured interviews of eight householders from different generations who designed their family space in the Southwest of China. In history, the architectural design and practice for commissioning and construction of private houses in China has been significantly different from those in the West. In pre-modern China society, the designers and constructors of the houses were craftsmen, and it was their expertise to make sure that not only the building was safely constructed and fit for use, but also the forms and the spatial layout were set up to represent the owners’ social status. But the craftsmen were not recognized as “designers” or “architects” as these professions are understood in the present day because they did not give ‘meanings’ to the houses. For the wealthy family in the past, their house was not complete until it had been properly decorated according to social norms, and most importantly, named by literati to embed meanings into the buildings. Throughout Chinese history, famous buildings and houses were remembered by their names and literary forms rather than the physical architectural features or their designers. The literary forms very often recorded the reflection of everyday life in these houses that were part of the social society but also the attempt to be separated from social reality. During the state socialist era from the 1950s and the 1970s, the predominant form of residential dwellings was that of six to seven storey multi-apartment houses. These housing units were designed and built by professional engineers and construction teams to act as homes for the work units. The forms and layouts of the apartment houses were often uniform. The unit buildings were named according to the titles of the work units or the name of the area where the buildings were situated. Within the residential compound, each flat was named by the number of the rows and lines of the building block and the floor it situated. The simplified number system intended to represent the equalized relationships between workers within a work unit rather than to acknowledge the richness of an individual’s everyday life. The main aims for the design of housing blocks were economy, function and safety for those living in them. After the 1980s, China shifted to the reform era with a greater focus on commercial activities and private family life. In 1984 a set of new regulations specified that housing could be exchanged as a commodity in the property market. The shift immediately led to new forms of design and construction methods, and new form of property management companies. When the majority of houses or apartments were constructed for the property market, they did not have finishes or facilities when sold new. The owners of those properties needed not only to install facilities and furnishes, but also to define the internal space by adding or deleting partition walls. As there were few professional design and construction teams working for private clients in the 1990s, very often the property owners made their own decisions based on the design books sold in their local market. With increasing demand from the private sector however, decoration companies developed rapidly. By 2010, the interior design and construction companies for private properties formed a well-developed marketing force with the involvement of professional designers and constructors. The concept of the term “design” as known in other parts of the world, was eventually recognized. The requirements for the family space today are aesthetics, comfort, health and functionality. Many of the design decisions undertaken by the householders demonstrated the influence of the new policies, market forces, and occupants’ ideas, sensations, emotions and physical needs. This study therefore investigates how architectural practice became part of everyday life and how the roles of architects and designers inherited attributes from those in the pre-modern period in China, and how they have developed in a different direction from those in the West. Existing research into the cultural, political and economic aspects of Chinese architectural tends to develop in two directions. For public buildings, the research on the political and economic influence focuses on social changes from the traditional to modern societies. From this perspective, architectural history has been divided into a linear trajectory linking a traditional era, a socialist era, and a modern era with significant influence of market forces after the 1980s. The role of building designers, from this perspective, was transferred from the craftsmen in pre-modern history, through the civil engineers in the socialist era and to modern architectural designers who have been significantly influenced by western design concepts. Private houses in China, on the other hand, are primarily studied from the cultural perspective that focuses on regional or vernacular identities. However, the aim to explore locally appropriate terms in different regions tends to simplify the study of the regional identities as the exploration of traditional forms and spatial layout in traditional buildings. This method may inadvertently weaken the socio-political dimensions of the debate of modernization

The Role of Ecotourism in the Sustainable Development of Qinkou village, Yunnan, China, 2001 to 2013

This study captures evidence of the changes to Qinkou village during the period it was developed as an example of ecotourism in Yunnan province, Southwest China; a process which began in 2001. By examining the aims of the development projects and changes which happened in the village in 2001, 2006 and 2013 respectively, the paper aims to explore how traditions have been understood and deployed with regard to the built environment in Qinkou. It also investigates the shift in focus of academic research into traditional and sustainable development of rural villages over different periods. In 2001, a development project was implemented in Qinkou to demonstrate how tourism could be used as a way to modernise the village. The local government of the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, where the village is located, worked with academics in the fields of architecture, planning and anthropology to develop the plan and to obtain funding to transform Qinkou into an ecotourism village. By 2006, the infrastructure of the village had been significantly improved. However, many originally planned activities could not be carried out due to the lack of ongoing funding support and effective management. Tourism alone was unable to bring fundamental changes in Qinkou. Instead, many villagers who worked in the cities returned with savings from the higher incomes enjoyed in the cities and also brought back changed lifestyles that contributed further major transformation. At the same time, the village remained a coherent settlement. The head of the village and management group organised many village co-operative activities. Academic research at the time, on the other hand, focused more on the examination of the cultural symbols of the local families and built environment than providing advice to help the village improve living conditions. In 2013, an application for the spectacular stepped paddy fields in the Prefecture to be listed as a World Heritage Site attracted significant funding from the local government. Qinkou was included in the development master plan; however, the development project for the village focused primarily on the preservation of the traditional forms as cultural symbols. Academic research and local policies discussed needs for sustainable development in order to comply with the requirements of the UNSCO process for World Heritage Site listing. Yet, details of how to achieve social and cultural cohesion remained missing. This paper argues that tourism development in the market-oriented economy now operating in China has worked as the catalyst for the transformation of the village and improvement of living conditions. However, social-cultural sustainable regeneration of rural settlements must create places for the needs of different groups in the local community. The academic research also needs to reinterpret the traditions that were formed and changed by the local communities in a way that is perhaps more diverse and flexible than the previous academic research defined

Design of Dwellings and Interior Family Space in China: Understanding the History of Change and Opportunities for Improved Sustainability Practices

This paper reviews briefly the recent history of dwelling design in China. It notes the rapid changes that have taken place since the 1980s and identifies the way contemporary procurement processes leave out the final fit-out and decoration/refurbishment. A range of stakeholders were interviewed, and access was gained to drawings and other technical data that indicated how the secondary processes were carried out. These are largely ungoverned by regulation in the same way necessary for initial design. The key group is the occupants who drive the fit-out and decoration according to personal and cultural requirements, but often with less than perfect understanding of sustainability. The interior design industry has developed rapidly over the same period and was initially lacking in professional knowledge and understanding (something which can still be found). Advice provided to dwelling occupants was based more on appearance than function and efficiency. Over the same period, beneficial modifications to construction processes have been introduced in relation to structural design, and it should be possible to do the same for sustainability-related design issues. The paper advocates: more regulation; better assessment techniques; more information and guidance for home-owners; and a greater focus on energy issue

Architectural students’ year-out training experience in architectural ofces in the UK

This paper investigates architectural students’ ‘year-out’ learning experiences in architectural offices after completing RIBA Part I study within a UK university. By interviewing and analysing their reflections on the experience, the study examines how individual architecture students perceive and value their learning experience in architectural offices and how students understand and integrate what they have learned through two distinct elements of their training: in university and in offices. The architectural offices that students worked with vary in terms of workforce size and projects undertaken. The students’ training experience is not unified. The processes of engaging with concrete situations in real projects may permit students to follow opportunities that most inspire them and to develop their differing expertise, but their development in offices can also be restricted by the vicissitudes of market economics. This study has demonstrated that architectural students’ learning and development in architectural offices continued through ‘learning by doing’ and used drawings as primary design and communicative media. Working in offices gave weight to both explicit and tacit knowledge and used subjective judgments. A further understanding was also achieved about what architects are and what they do in practice. The realities of their architectural practice experience discouraged some Part I students from progressing into the next stage of architectural education, Part II, but for others it demonstrated that a career in architecture was ‘achievable’. This study argues that creative design, practical and technical abilities are not separate skill-sets that are developed in the university and in architectural offices respectively. They are linked and united in the learning process required to become a professional architect. The study also suggests that education in the university should do more to prepare students for their training in practice. Yun Gao is an architect and Senior Lecturer in the School of Art, Design, and Architecture at the University of Huddersfield. After earning a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1998, she practiced architecture in Bristol. Her research has explored teaching and learning in architectural education. Kevin Orr has been Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and Professional Development at the University of Huddersfield since 2006 where his research has mainly focused on work-based learning and professional development of teachers in the lifelong learning and skills sector

On the Griffiths numbers for higher dimensional singularities

We show that Yau's conjecture on the inequalities for (n-1)-th Griffiths number and (n-1)-th Hironaka number does not hold for isolated rigid Gorenstein singularities of dimension greater than 2. But his conjecture on the inequality for (n-1)-th Griffiths number is true for irregular singularities.Comment: to appear in Annales de l'Institut Fourie

Architectural students' year-out training experience in architectal offices in the UK

This paper investigates architectural students’ ‘year-out’ learning experiences in architectural offices after completing RIBA Part I study within a UK university. By interviewing and analysing their reflections on the experience, the study examines how individual architecture students perceive and value their learning experience in architectural offices and how students understand and integrate what they have learned through two distinct elements of their training: in university and in offices. The architectural offices that students worked with vary in terms of workforce size and projects undertaken. The students’ training experience is not unified. The processes of engaging with concrete situations in real projects may permit students to follow opportunities that most inspire them and to develop their differing expertise, but their development in offices can also be restricted by the vicissitudes of market economics. This study has demonstrated that architectural students’ learning and development in architectural offices continued through ‘learning by doing’ and used drawings as primary design and communicative media. Working in offices gave weight to both explicit and tacit knowledge and used subjective judgments. A further understanding was also achieved about what architects are and what they do in practice. The realities of their architectural practice experience discouraged some Part I students from progressing into the next stage of architectural education, Part II, but for others it demonstrated that a career in architecture was ‘achievable’. This study argues that creative design, practical and technical abilities are not separate skill-sets that are developed in the university and in architectural offices respectively. They are linked and united in the learning process required to become a professional architect. The study also suggests that education in the university should do more to prepare students for their training in practice