THEATRICAL(IZED) REALITY: A SEA-CLIFF HOUSE AND ITS SETTINGS

2021.5.11(화)

<건축디자인이론1> 백진 교수님, OPEN CLASS

강의 주제 :

Architecture is a human intervention into the pre-existing condition(s), be it natural or artificial. This intervention could be extremely gentle and goes by unnoticed, or rather forceful and appears prominent. In either case, the reality is transformed, reconstructed, and to some extent, theatricalized. This talk will examine the recently-completed Captain’s House, a remodeling project on a sea-cliff in Southeast China, to discuss and reconsider such an intervention (sometimes invention) and its resulting theatricality in various gradations. As architecture faces fierce contest from image and technology, the investigation into this topic should not be considered insignificant, but in fact an imperative. With the building project as the focal point, this study is not limited to the alteration of the house itself and its immediate surroundings, but also extends to the “operation” of the whole event-like project: its initiation, spread and presentation, not to say its construction and occupation. Furthermore, the study considers the backdrop of such a project — the dramatic development of China in the past few decades, which has been characterized with mutation and hybrid co-existence. This in itself demonstrates a theatrical reality, which effectively serves as a general setting for all the aforementioned to unfold. Lastly, this talk will take a look at the same architect’s projects prior to and after this one, together with other relevant architects and projects in contemporary China, in order to highlight the house’s particularity in the architect’s professional trajectory as well as the topic’s pertinence in this particular time.

강의 Keywords: Theatricality, Reality, Captain’s House, Settings

강연자 : 

Dr. Shi Yonggao is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture, Southeast University. He received his bachelor degree in 1993 and PhD Arch in 2007, both from Southeast University, where he has taught since 2005. At SEU he teaches courses in architectural theory and design studios of both undergraduate and graduate levels, also the international program at undergraduate level and Sino-America joint program at graduate level. He is a registered architect in the PRC. He was the recipient of the Visiting Scholar Fellowship from the Ministry of Education to University of Pennsylvania (2009-2011).

His research focuses on the basic issues of architecture discipline, especially the problem of material in architectural design, and its extended and related field into the modern architecture theory (1750 onwards) and the modern/contemporary practice of architecture in China (1980 onwards). He is currently  directing a NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China) funded research project, which investigates the problem of tectonics, especially when facing the environmental demand, in order to unveil the theory potentials and strategy possibilities latent in its deviation from and challenge to the classical theories of tectonics. He has completed several other NSFC projects, as director or major participant.

He published one book The Presence of Material: Research on Material’s Constructional and Spatial Properties in the 19th and 20th Century Western Architecture (2008, 2017), also the Chinese translation of Surface Architecture by David Leatherbarrow & Mohsen Mostafavi (2016). From 2009 on, He guest-edited special issues for some distinguished Chinese architectural journals like Architectural Journal, Architect, Time Architecture, New Architecture, the latest of which was four issues in Architectural Journal on lightweight architecture. He has been a regular contributor to these journals and has published some 50 papers on them. Students’ works under his instruction have won prizes on both national and international levels.

ZOOM Link: https://snu-ac-kr.zoom.us/j/86964629915

ZOOM ID: 869 6462 9915

문의: 건축도시이론연구실 02-880-7253