Cui Kai, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and renowned architectural designer

Cui Kai, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and renowned architectural designer, delivered a lecture titled "Taking the Land as the Foundation and Following a Path of Urbanization with Regional Characteristics" to students at his alma mater Tianjin University's "Beiyang Lecture Hall."

Letting Architecture Return to Nature

"Architecture cannot be separated from the land; the land contains natural and cultural information, and the characteristics of architecture should reflect the characteristics of the land"—this is the basic principle of "local design." "It expresses an awareness of local culture and embodies harmony, a core Chinese cultural concept," Cui Kai explained. He believes that in architectural design, one must engage in rational thinking and bear a lasting responsibility for the human living environment. Cui Kai used projects he has designed to illustrate his ideas. In projects such as the Hangzhou Cuisine Museum and Suzhou Railway Station, one can feel "integration" and "concealment," with the architecture "concealed" among forests, rocks, and landscapes. "Letting the architecture itself become a distinctive feature by returning to nature," Cui Kai said.

Building Houses Is Not for GDP

Cui Kai participated in the design of the Cultural Center of Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County. "As a post-disaster reconstruction project, there is no doubt that the relevant design and architects devoted enormous effort and provided the local people with a beautiful home. But in this process, the financial resources mobilized by the state were also enormous, yet difficulties were encountered in actual use. The project was designed for a scale of 60,000 people, while the actual resident population is less than 50,000," Cui Kai said. After completion, the town looked more like a nice tourist town than a real town. "When we see many houses vacant, shops unable to open, and little activity, should we think about what all this money was spent for?"

Cui Kai also pointed out that various places are competing to build ultra-large-scale cities, and sprawl-style urban development has left cities and towns with a low degree of specialization and serious homogenization. Towns increasingly lack distinctive character, confidence, and culture. "Building houses is not for GDP, but for people to live in and to live better."