Standardarchitecture, Beijing, China
01 December 2006
 

Standardarchitecture, founded in 1999 in New York, is a professional partnership formed by a group of international young designers engaged in practices of architecture, landscape architecture, interior, and industrial design.

domus:Why name the studio"Standardarchitecture"?
Zhang Ke:We like this name. On one hand, it is a neutral word, and doesn't imply anything physical; on the other hand, we chose "standardard" and "architecture" as a single word to indicate that we focus more on the nature of architecture. In the past, we called the construction team "Standard Factoty". Thus, at this juncture, we would like to pay more attention to construction and new discoveries in the process of it and try to figure out how to build contemporary architecture in the most essential way. Therefore, although most of our projects are not important to the market, they are all very interesting.

domus:What is your individual working method?
Zhang Ke:We try to immerse ourselves in an open environment of inspiration. Before designing, we survey the project in a liberal designig, we survey the project in a liberal way, discussing the social context behind it. There may also occur some construction innovations. Evety time a project starts, we always feel at a loss; we don't want to repeat ourselves. This is the biggest difficulty at the beginning of a project. However, we have confidence that if we view things from the most basic perspectives, we can have professional results, and a little differently. Take the restoration of a hotel for example: we would ask why the guests stay in a hotel. Do they need a room for a sleep, or a space for communication? Sometimes we may ignore things that are obvious, but when we focus on what is most necessary and most superfluous, all the basic questions, we can get the most essential conclusion.
Every generation of architects would have encountered nearly the same challenges. The essential issues of constructing a dwelling today is close to 3,000 years ago, but if you resort to diverse solutions, the conclusions will be different... which does not mean one is essentially distinguished from another.
We pursue precision, reliability, and attention to detail.

domus:How does the studio stick to the original concepts, the integration and the reaction to the site?
Zhang Ke:In our opinion, it is vital to maintain original concepts. laeally, supposing all the details are nearly the same as the original concepts, the desired final results inspire vision and emotions in people when using this space. It might be the first step, or the first doorknob they grasp. In each of our projects, which brings us big problems, and we have to admit that it is a kind of an idealistic tendency. Therefore, the "struggle for freedom" may vividly repersent our process.
Another characteristic is integration. It covers wider areas: from urban planning to interior design, and landscape design. The project we won in Yangshuo was a planning competition. The client offered us a small site to construct a building and what we did was to divide the building into several streets, and designed the interiors as well as the landscapes.
The third is construction supervision. The ideal situation would be to go to the site twice a week, so we choose our projects catefully, no matter how big or how small.

domus:Do you have preferred materials?
Zhang Ke:We prefer original materials. We are testiong a new material on an already built building; the material is made by pressing wood boards and plexiglas together to detemine how to use them as both structure and layer.

domus:Why do you use urban fabric as the starting point of design?
Zhang Ke:We discuss the urban fabric more in a perspective of landscape, not in sociological terms, because we cannot imagine changing society through architecture, which makes our usage of material different from the Utopian ideage. Achitects can only develop a more harmonious environment for human and nature. 
Considering the landscape, we would consider the city and its surroundings or the inner or public contractions of space as a landscape in the broadest sense. But our regard for landscape does not mean we ultimately engage in the urban fabric, since what we desire is a clear relationship: perhaps engagement, detachment, or even confrontation. At this moment we engage in urban practices, but we also aim to make contributions to the modern culture of a future China.


Wuhan CRIand French-Chinese Art Centre
The site of the art center is located across the street from the Wuchang Tanhualin historic area, less than 2 kilometers away from the historic Huanghelou tower on the Yangtzi River. The expectation of the building was an important public space for the city and a monument for both the past and the ongoing transtormation of the city. The fact that many famous Chinese intellectuals lived in the Tanhualin area actoss the street inspired us. We were interested in testing the possibilities of building something out of the ancient Chinses intellectual practice of ink and water. The art centre was conceived as an urban container, within which art objects, events, acts, concepts and activities flourish. In this case the container is made out of intuitive images of ink-and-water.

While the site conditions also take part in the formation of spaces: since the site is cut into halves by an unexpected urban infrastructure (a flood pipeline), the 30-meter-wide outdoor space became the central courtyard for spatial organization, around it seat the east and west exhibition halls and the floating bridge linking the two parts. In the 80-meter-long concrete bridge, the ink-water stroke texture coincides with the necessary structural elements for the 5.5-meter-high concrete hollow beam. This becomes an interesting moment when an image merges seamlessly with a structure.
标准营造 1999年是由张轲、张弘、Claudia Taborda等多位年轻设计师,创建于纽约,是一家专业从事建筑设计、景观与城市设计、室内设计及产品设计的合伙人事务所。

张轲访谈

domus:为何以“标准营造”为名?
张轲:我们喜欢这个名字,一方面因为它是一个更加中性的词,不暗示任何形式上的东西。另一方面,我们将“标准”与“营造”合成一个词,表明我们更加关注建筑的本质。老一代的施工队,叫营造厂。从这个角度来讲,我们更加关注建造和建造过程中的新的发现,有什么更本质的方式去建造当代的中国建筑。我们所投入的大多数是从市场来讲不太重要,但是都很有意思的项目。

domus:“标准营造”独到的工作方式是什么?
张轲:我们力图使自己在一个有激发性的开放环境中。设计开始之前,我们有一个外向性的视角,开始讨论它背后的更大社会能动力。同时在建造方法上可能会有所创新。
每次项目开始的时候,我们最大的共性是都很茫然,因为我们不想把做过的事情重复一遍,这也是我们开始着手一个项目的最大困难。但我们有信心,从最原始的角度思考,得出很专业的结论,但会有所不同。如一个酒店的改造,我们会讨论为什么客人要去酒店,是否需要睡的地方,或交流的空间。我们会把习惯的、规定的东西视作不存在。关注他们最大的需要是什么,最不想得到的是什么,当问到这些材质的问题,可能会得到不一样、根本性的结果。
每一代建筑师其实面临的问题都很接近,当你做住宅的时候,你和三千年前人们想盖住宅所面临的最本质的问题非常相似,但由于你对这个本质问题的不同的求解,结论会不同,但这并不代表它们本质上有很大的区别。
我们追求精确度、实现度和细节。

domus:“标准营造”如何在设计中坚持原始概念、整合资源,在营造现场进行应对?
张轲:最重要的是对原始概念的贯彻,理想地假设所有的细节与原始的concept一致,最终的结果是希望人们在使用这个空间时,给人的视觉、精神和情感带来最强烈的触动。可能是你第一脚的踏步,第一手抓到的门把手。这也给我们带来很大难题,我们从来没有重复使用我们自己的节点,不得不承认这是一种理想主义的倾向。如果用一个词来形容我们的过程的状态,就是struggle for the freedom。
我们另外一个特点是整合。整合范围更广阔,从开始的城市规划到室内,到区域的景观设计。我们阳朔的项目赢得的是规划竞赛,给了我们其中一小块,做一个建筑,我们把建筑分成几个街道,做到建筑的室内、做到这个区域的景观设计。

domus:你是否有偏爱的材料?
张轲:我们更喜欢原质的材料。在一个建成的会所中,我们试验了一种材料,将木板与有机玻璃压和在一起,研究怎样使它既是结构,又作为面层。

domus:城市肌理作为设计的出发点?
张轲:我会更多的从landscape的角度而不是从社会学的角度出发,我们并不想通过建筑来改变社会,这与乌托邦的想法出发点不同。建筑师最多能做的是如何使人类与环境更加融洽。
从景观的视角出发,我们会更多地考虑将城市与周边环境和建筑的或室内或公共空间看成是一个更广义landscape。我们对景观的关心,并不代表最终我们engage in 城市engage,有可能是detached,有可能是confrontation。
我们做的事情是建筑实践,但我们的双重目标是中国当代文化的长远贡献。


武汉华润中法艺术中心

艺术馆基址隔街紧邻武昌最重要的历史文化街区--昙花林,距离著名的黄鹤楼不到两公里。设计之初,人们期望艺术馆既能够为城市提供一个重要的公共活动场所,又能够成为正在进行的城市变迁和城市历史的纪念碑。

中国近代历史上许多文化名人(包括郭沫若等)都曾经在基地紧邻的昙花居住过,这给予我们最初的一些冲动,我们好奇地想试验一下利用中国传统文人的水墨游戏进行建造的可能性。

空间布局同时也受到基地条件的影响:由于一条市政排洪沟从中央穿越了基地,从而产生了30米宽的中心院落,围绕院落的空间组织形成了东部和西部分立的展厅以及漂在水面之上联系两个展厅的廊桥。80多米长的廊桥将水墨笔触的肌理与5.5米高、2.5米宽混凝土空心梁的内外孔洞符合起来,建筑在此归结为毫无修饰的结构之美。
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