Interview with Yung Ho Chang

domus: What innovations did you do in the Architecture programs at MIT? And how is it going?
Yung Ho Chang: After a year at MIT, I have come to the following working definition or direction for architectural design in our department. The statement is intended for “official announcements”:
Architectural Design at MIT: A Design of Connectivity
Architectural Design at MIT is situated within the multi-disciplinary context of the Department: of Architecture and closely connected thus should be explored along with the fields of building technology, computation, history theory criticism, urbanism, and visual arts (We have expertise in all of these areas within the department).
The core mission of architectural design is the endeavor of improving the living environment. We believe it is also of paramount importance for the learning of design to be embedded in the understanding of the world of physicality and to be connected to practice, which may be defined by students’ first-hand exposure to material and building process, their direct participation in construction and fabrication as well as rigorous investigation of social-economical and environmental-technological forces in their design projects.
Buildings are components of community and city. The learning of architectural design has to be connected to the study of urbanization. Today architecture and urbanism are in fact inseparable. With the spread of globalization, design education can no longer address local conditions alone. Students have to be made aware of the developments around the world and to be prepared to engage design activities internationally. The need for outreach has to become an integral part of the curriculum. The MIT design faculty intends to create such an environment for learning that all the connectivities will contribute to the production of new knowledge in architecture.
The design of the curriculum for the Master of Architecture is now under the way. However, before a new curriculum will be systematically implemented, a series of specifically conceived events have been carried out to address the key issues respectively:
For social concerns: lecture series on social practice(Spring 2006) and revolution (Fall 2006) For materiality and practice: Lecture series on the design and construction of one building (Fall 2005) and design as research (Spring 2007); student design-build competitions with themes of mini-skyscraper for 2005-2006, which resulted in th realization of a kinetic Muscle Tower, and floating concrete building for 2006-2007.
For urbanism: Various advanced studio taking on contemporary cities from San Paolo to Shenzhen; and this past week, two faculty members, Alexander D’Hooghe and myself,debated publicly over two urban visions, fabric and monument.
An open discusion of curriculum between me, as the department head, and first-year Master of Architecture program students will occur in two weeks. All these activities will help the department to transit towards the new direction.

domus: What is the method of design at FCJZ?
Yung Ho Chang: Design at FCJZ is always about research since we are rather skeptical about the ability of our brains to come up or create ideas. In other words, we believe design comes from outside, not inside. Design is the discovery of something we didn’t know before. Depending on the premises of a particular project, the focus of our research can vary from concrete block to urban block. At FCJZ, in the early stage of a design and in order to generate directions, a massive amount of analysis is usually conducted although we have just begun to wonder if now analysis might have become a fixed formula for us. Research and analysis are matters of methodology and there is no universal method that works in every circumstance. This means that we won’t have a FCJZ way of design but will keep experimenting.

domus: Have you been exploring “China Design”? How do you define the “China Design”? And how do you realize it in practical projects?
Yung Ho Chang: China has a set of unique conditions – economical, cultural, social, and so on; therefore, Chinese architecture is confronted by them and is and will be different from design from elsewhere. However, to have recognizable formal gestures or style is another matter. I am not even sure if that is important. That is to say that we have to go beyond the formal appearances to discuss the identities of different regions. The question I often ask myself is : Do I really know what is going on in China? A positive answer is not so easy to achieve, I’m afraid.

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