In traditional culture, Naxi people, who are the minorities live in the region, believe that mountains are the backbone of their culture, while water is the soul. The design honors this belief, the walls are built with stones from surrounding mountains and a reflecting pool is included in the community center courtyard. Li also believes that the design should be sustainable and respecting the nature. Therefore, he maximizes the use of local materials. Most of the local buildings are built with a type of clay-rich stone, known as “monkey-head” shown in Figure 4. Local villagers use it as an exterior walls. In Li’s design, he chose to use a white limestone, which is also abundant in local environment shown in Figure 5. The white limestone gives a different hue to the exterior walls and makes the building unique but also in harmony with the surrounding houses, which were built with “monkey-head”.
Because Yuhu is located in an earthquake zone, the capability to resist earthquake is highly concerned for the local buildings. In tradition houses, the main structure is hold by wood frames and stones are mounted on the exterior. During the 1996 level 7 earthquake, most of the exterior stone walls were collapsed but wood frame structures well remained. In the design of this project, Li adopted this traditional structure system and added new technologies to improve its resistance to earthquake. In traditional house construction, stones are mounted to the exterior walls and are likely to collapse during earthquake. In this project, vertical steel bars are inserted in the stone walls at a set interval. Horizontal meshes are also installed in layers to prevent lateral force during frequent earthquakes. Traditional stone wall con...
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...onic? Or Toward a Reflexive Regionalism” (lecture, School of Architecture and Planning at Unniversity at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, October 31, 2012).
Xiaodong Li, interview by Yishan Lam, Singapore, “Design Acupuncture: Li Xiao Dong.
David Moffat, “Yuhu Elementary School and Community Center” (article, Design Observer), 10.
“UNESCO Asian-Pacific Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation” United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2005, http://www.unescobkk.org/ru/culture/wh/asia-pacific-heritage-awards/previous-heritage-awards-2000-2013/2005/award-winners/2005jc2/.
Zi Jia, “Yuhu Elementary School and Community Center – Chinese Modern Regionalism” (article, China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House), http://www.cnki.net.
“Yuhu Village” (article, China discover). http://www.chinadiscover.net/yunnan-tourism/yunnan-lijiang-yuhu.htm
Some counties in Zhanjiang had illiteracy rates as high as 41% some 20 years after the revolution. During the Cultural Revolution, basic education was emphasized and rapidly expanded. School wasn’t as popular as it used to be and education started to fall. The amount of Chinese children who had completed primary school increased from less than half before the Cultural Revolution to almost all after the Cultural Revolution (Lieberthal 34). The number of kids who complted junior school rose from 15% to over two-thirds (Lieberthal 34). “The educational opportunities for rural children expanded considerably while those of the children of the urban elite became restricted by the anti-elitist policies” (Liu 67). The leaders of China at the time denied that there were any illiteracy problems from the start. This effect was amplified by the elimination of qualified teachers—many districts were forced to rely on selected students to educate the next generation. In the post-Mao period, many of those forcibly moved attacked the policy as a violation of their human
Li, H. (2011). Early Childhood Curriculum Reform in China. Chinese Education & Society, 44(6), 5.
Sharma, B.R.. "Cultural Preservation Reconsidered." Critique of Anthropology 19 (1999): 53 - 61 . College of Anthropology . Web. 2 Apr. 2011.
Each block weighs fifty tons! They would thatch the roofs with tree trunks and straw. After the buildings were constructed, the Incan people would smooth the stones with sand, mud, and clay to make the structures look polished. The people who inhabited this ancient site considered it to be magical because of the Andes Mountains and the Amazon River. The Temple of the Condor was a place of worship where the head of the condor was used as an altar for sacrifices.
In R.T. Legates, & F. Stout (Eds.). (2009).The City Reader. (4th Ed.) New York, NY. Routledge.
Mao’s Cultural Revolution was an attempt to create a new culture for China. Through education reforms and readjustments, Mao hoped to create a new generation of Chinese people - a generation of mindless Communists. By eliminating intellectuals via the Down to the Countryside movement, Mao hoped to eliminate elements of traditional Chinese culture and create a new form Chinese culture. He knew that dumbing down the masses would give him more power so his regime would be more stable. This dramatic reform affected youth especially as they were targeted by Mao’s propaganda and influence. Drawing from his experiences as an Educated Youth who was sent down to the countryside Down to the Countryside movement, Ah Cheng wrote The King of Children to show the effects of the Cultural Revolution on education, and how they affected the meaning people found in education. In The King of Children, it is shown that the Cultural Revolution destroyed the traditional incentives for pursuing an education, and instead people found moral and ethical meaning in pursuing an education.
Regardless of this ‘label’, Tadao Ando has not used the term “critical Regionalism” in relation to his work, nor has he made any objection about the term being labelled to him. In addition, Frampton’s article “Towards a Critical Regionalism” fails to mention Ando and this provokes an array of questions about whether an appropriate term to describe the architecture of Ando is “critical regionalist” (Frampton, 1983). Furthermore an alternative label, “concrete regionalist” was devised and formulated by Catherine Slessor, currently an editor of the Architectural Review (Slessor, 2000). This expression “concrete regionalist” illustrates Ando’s somewhat poetic and insightful adaptation of concrete with reference to the context of the local area, therefore reducing the ‘critical’ characteristics of both Ando’s theoretical and practical approach towards architecture (2000, p....
Traditional culture in architecture is being eroded by modernity of the present architecture in China. Analyze the causes and effects of this problem and possible solutions.
Hoobler, Dorothy, Thomas Hoobler, and Michael Kort, comps. China: Regional Studies Series. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Globe Fearon, 1993. 174-177.
This essay gives an overview of early civilization in China and the different periods within this era. Also, it includes political and cultural pursuits of the people within this time period and the struggles of the Asian peoples and their religious beliefs and community uniqueness and differences.
and Culture of China-US Relations.." CHINA US Focus Urbanization Chinas New Driving Force Comments. N.p., 30 Mar. 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. .
Abstract: Contemporary architects have a wide variety of sources to gain inspiration from, but this has not always been the case. How did modernism effect sources of inspiration? What did post-modernism do to liberate the choice of influences? Now that Contemporary architects have the freedom of choice, how are they using “traditional” styles and materials to inspire them? Even after modernism why are traditional styles still around?
Human beings are susceptible to the force of nature. They had to make shelter for themselves. Material was one of the most basic tools to create shelter. By development of building construction, selection and use of materials also developed. The relationship between the architecture and the materials before invention of modern materials was simple and generally naturally [1]; in the past, architects always use tradition materials according their experimental skills. For choosing structural materials, they had attention to important factors such as availability (local materials) and harmony with climate and culture [2], although this way was forward with feedback. But this relationship was not continuing simply.
An important aspect of Critical Regionalism is that the occupants of the building should experience the local climatic conditions as well as the response to the nature of the landscape sensitively and thoughtfully. In my view, I think that each of these architects has achieved this aspect in whatever environment they worked with. In conclusion, I think that these international and regional architects have reached an interaction that contributes to the symbolic and iconic architecture that suggests new formal possibilities.
Sassen, S. "The Global City: introducing a Concept." Brown Journal of World Affairs. 11.2 (2005): 40. Print.