FRINGE: New Centers for Architecture and Urbanism - 2023 Preston H. Thomas Memorial Symposium

Beijing Panel — Thursday, March 2 (Ithaca) | Friday, March 3 (Beijing)

In-Person & Livestream Webinar

Cornell China Center | 1208 Beijing IFC Tower B

8 p.m. (Ithaca) | 9 a.m. (Beijing)
Welcome and Introduction

8:15 p.m. (Ithaca) | 9:15 a.m. (Beijing)
Keynote Address: Lu Wenyu & Wang Shu, Amateur Architecture Studio

9:15 p.m. (Ithaca) | 10:15 a.m. (Beijing) | Panel

Speakers:
Xu Tiantian, DnA Design and Architecture
Song Yehao, SUP Atelier
Song Gang, Atelier cnS

Moderator:
Ying Hua, Director of Cornell China Center

RURAL ITERATIONS

Where the Oxford English Dictionary defines “reiteration” as an act of repetition, in architecture, to iterate and reiterate is to work in a cyclical methodology, prototyping, testing, and analyzing, to refine a product or process.

This panel looks in detail at recent works that “iterate” upon China’s rural territories. In these projects, the rural is reclaimed as a repository of architectural materials and methods, which had been gradually lost during urbanization, and re-iterated to produce new architecture that is nonetheless highly contextualized and connected to local cultural and material practices. Sometimes this reclamation is literal – repurposing material and site; and sometimes methodological; and sometimes programmatic.

Through the work of the speakers, we gain an understanding of the speed, scale, and context of China’s rural transformation, as well as how practitioners can work with local communities and craftsmen, manufacturers, government agencies, and outside experts on technology to reiterate materials and cultures practices for new architectural methods.

The symposium also has additional events in Ithaca. View the 2-day symposium overview, schedule, exhibition, and organizers.

The Preston H. Thomas series is funded through a gift to Cornell's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning from Ruth and Leonard B. Thomas of Auburn, New York, in memory of their son, Preston. The symposium events are free and open to the public. The Beijing panel of the symposium is co-hosted and co-sponsored by the Cornell China Center. Organized by Architecture Assistant Professor Leslie Lok; coordinated by Design Teaching Fellow Hanxi Wang. Exhibition assistant Jialiang (Hunter) Huang; Augmented Reality interface support by Yichen Jia.