This is some chinese architects’s words on chinese architecture:

Consturction is the foundation on which design can become an independent discipline. Meanwhile, the choice and organization of materials relate directly to the personal judgment of the architect. A building is built on a particular site according to specific requisites, and an honest, logical and critical construction process tends to shock us in today’s fickle building environment.
Zhang Lei

Wu Liangyong once proposed the idea of localizing modern architecture and modernizing local architecture which I think is much more objective. I don’t believe that modern architecture is merely the protection of local architecture, but also integrates local economical, cultural and climatic conditions. Similar to the Tsinghus University Pavilion I have been working on recently, there is no relationship to the national styles, but has a form of its own. So my designs are simply based on existing by their voluntarily designing a school, the quality of their designs should also be considered to reflect a sense of responsibility for their work, to their clients and the beneficiaries of the structure.
Li Xiaodong

The localization is not out of an “ethical dignity”, but to tailor “modern architecture” to the Chinese people. To achieve this goal, one method is to inherit the traditon of local architectural and its vitality (of course we should be expected to make great adjustments to our traditions), but what is more important is to observe directly the true way of the modern Chinese people.
Originality is essential to both methods mentioned above, and is at the very core of real art. Localization is also not merely a one-way street, it is possible to discover a new spatial experience shared by all human beings in our local Chinese places that might usually to totally neglected by Westerners because they don’t have a deep enough knowledge of Chinese culture. Only then can we can make our own contributions to the development of “modern architecture”.
Miao Pu

One of the most important reasons for landscape architecture’s weakness in addressing major environmental issues is that landscape architecture, as a profession, is still associated with the ancient tradition of gardening. It is time to declare that landscape architecture is not a direct descendent of garden art, but a descendent of the survival skill of our ancestors who had to endure a changeable environment, ensuring a safe place away from floods and enemies, while surviving by leveling the land, planting and irrigating crops, and saving water and other resources for sustaining the family and the people. Landscape architecture works on a large and more significant scale than the field of garden arts.
Yu Kongjian

Classical architects in our time have become redundant. Furthermore, it’s impossible for us to become architects in the classical sense; while some more energetic approaches of architectural practice, or a new architect-subject, are emerging as classical architects are declining. These new approaches and subjects have broken through the limits and spheres of conventional professions and are now functioning in broader world of political, economic and cultural relations. So trying to become public intellectuals, what they really need to do is to find a novel practice and approach of their own.
Li Juchuan

Certain brands like Prada or LV are cooperating with prestigious architects, but I think those works are more like an installation artwork of an exhibition. The line between architecture and installation is blurred now. It’s hard to tell a building is more like an installation or an exhibition. But to me the difference between the two is quite distinct. Buildings and installations are two separate entities. A work of architecture is still the building.
Wang Hui

I believe my thoughts and behaviors coexist in an existing framework with others and architecture could be the medium through which people can share ideas and experiences. For me architecture, reading or writing are just different expressions of the same thing.

Today people are much more anxious due to their sense of mission, while they know little about the wisdeom do architecture and even less about Chinese culture. Our traditional education can’t help us resolve the harmony between theory and practice, so the first essential thing for us to do should be to learn how to gain pleasure from learning.
Tong Ming

I find architecture so narcissistic, like a black box is wrapped around itself. The fact is , no matter how perfect the angles of iron and glass can be made, they make no sense to the essentials fo living. I think such details and manual work are not as important for us. Comfort is the first thing we care about when we choose a place to live. When you enter a garden, you can’t immediately see the architecture, what you get is a comfortable feeling. The basic quality of a building must be guaranteed, I think that nowadays some architects are too exaggerated. They pay too much attention on how they connect materials and the structural logic, but the result is we can;t utilize the structures conveniently. What they are doing is narcissistic; we should take notice of comfort and rationality instead of merely aesthetic things.
Wang Xin

I think sensibility has always being a character of our projects. Of course, in school we learned rational analysis, which extended into practical works in architecture offices. During these two years of practice, we’re continually trying to find our own expression. We are looking for original and independent ideas rather than following any trends. I think this is rather individual expression.
Xu Tiantian

Part of my work has demonstrated my views and attitudes about life and the world, but I can’t say I have yet fully expressed my self, or that I have the necessity to do so. I don’t intentionally seek an independent design language, though my preferences will ultimately form their own features. I think having continuous breakthroughs are the most important. To live is to learn. I hope I continue learning and creating.
Tom Chuan Shi

Acoording to Chinese culture, nothing-architecture included-is eternal, so buildings are built to perish, to collapse, to be rebuilt. Dismantlement should not be a problem for China at all. And anyway, we can always build new ones.
Qi Xin

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