At 10:00 on March 17, 2017,?“Meta-Field: Cultural Research of the Urban and Country Architectural Design” was held at the underground exhibition hall of the Building 5, the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The exhibition is hosted by the Central Academy of Fine Arts, organized by the Institute of Architecture and Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the President of Central Academy of Fine Arts Fan Di’an is the academic chair.

The honored guests who attended the opening ceremony included: Prof. Fan Di’an, President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Wang Xiaolin, Assistant to the President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Dean of the Academic Affairs Office, Liu Yuan, Deputy Secretary General of the Design Committee of the China Building Decoration Association, Qiang Zhanpo, Deputy County Chief of Xinglong County People’s Government, Hebei Province, Prof. Peng Jun, Dean of the School of Environment and Architectural Arts at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Prof. Duan Bangyi from Shandong Normal University, Zhang Guochen, Secretary of Rural Work Committee at Pingquan County, Chengde City, Hebei Province, Lv Yugui, President of Dianyi Space Culture and Creative Industry Group, Prof. Han Jun, from the School of Art and Design at Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, a distinguished designer at the Institute of Architecture and Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, You Bin, Nippon Engineering & Marketing Director, Mi Shuwei, Director of Furnishings Magazine, Liang Jianhua, Chairman of Tiangang Building Materials Co., Ltd., Pingquan County, Hebei Province, Yi Junkang, President of the Zone Decoration Design Institute Co., Ltd. Prof. Wang Tie, Dean of the Institute of Architecture and Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts presided over the opening ceremony. “Meta-Field: Cultural Research of the Urban and Country Architectural Design” is the first exhibition for the Institute of Architecture and Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and also part of the warm-up to the academic exchange activities ahead of the 100th?Anniversary of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and it announces that the research of architecture and design in the Central Academy of Fine Arts starts to extend the teaching to social practice, the teachers and students from the Institute of Architecture and Design which was established two years ago, present the school and the public with the design results from the preparation to the establishment over the past two years.

The Central Academy of Fine Arts is the first architectural college in the higher art education system in China. The academy has strengthened the research work of architectural design in the past two years and formed the “Institute of Architecture and Design”, which makes the School of Architecture centre on teaching and research-oriented institute of design connect and form an internal mechanism. This exhibition does not only offer an opportunity to carry out a special seminar in the exhibition space, but also offers an opportunity for the Central Academy of Fine Arts to support the organization of teaching and research to establish an academic platform and conduct an academic discussion.

At the opening ceremony, Prof. Fan Di’an, President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts said that, “Under the leadership of Wang Tie, together with the efforts of all the colleagues from the Institute of Architecture and Design, it has constantly accumulated over the past few years, this exhibition becomes the epitome of the work in the process. The Institute has also received strong support and cooperation from local governments and related enterprises in various practice processes, especially the institute’s practices in architectural design, which is also a channel for the connection between art institutions and society. Although the exhibition space is limited, the exhibition presents a social concern that needs to be constructed in the field of architecture today, especially through the research practice of architecture to respond to the new proposition of current social and cultural development in China.”

It is themed the “Meta-Field”, “field” refers to the previous single concept of the service place of the building which has moved towards a more extensive field – it refers to a broader perspective, a problem deserving more exploration and??the broad and in-depth spatial concept. Fan Di’an pointed out that the concept of “field” could be considered as a position for us to think on current architecture. Since it was in the process of modern development, it has not been a concept of living any more, but linking the individuals and groups, linking groups and greater society and even linking the cultural history and cultural ideals of the humanities and architectural problems becoming more and more integrated, so that this exhibition takes “Meta-Field” as the theme, which prompts that it is necessary to think of the generation of architecture in a lot of complex relationships.

In the development of modern Chinese architecture, “New Urbanism” once became a popular term in the construction industry. When China is about to enter a comprehensive well-off society in 2020, the central government proposes the planning and construction of 1000 featured towns, which can be considered to offer the change of rural life landscapes an huge opportunity. The present countries and cities are faced with the challenge of the double squeezing by both time and space. The rapid urbanization makes the history and symbols difficult to continue, and the natural and historical coordinates of the production site are constantly cracking, while it brings the shaping of space a greater pursuit and opportunity that transcends the previous construction ideas. Then, as an academy of fine arts, as a scholar of the research of building, how are they consciously aware of the fundamental problem needed to be solved in the new round of building climax? Fan Di’an believed that the fundamental solution to this problem was to focus on how to establish a new “cultural symbiosis” and think of the cultural symbiotic space offered by architecture – rather than considering the building as a fixed space. This “cultural symbiosis” includes both the new symbiotic social relations and also the identification of cultural values, for example, the cultural context, cultural doctrines and cultural characteristics of the architecture, and so on.

“Meta-Field: Cultural Research of the Urban and Country Architectural Design” exhibition can be regarded as a new proposition for the development of today’s Chinese buildings, and puts forward a way of thinking. It uses the forms of illustrated documentary, models and images for an in-depth presentation of the overall planning of the Yanjiao Campus of Central Academy of Fine Arts and the teaching building of the High School Affiliated to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the planning of “Beautiful Village” (dwelling, public facilities and landscape space) of two counties in Hebei (including Laishui County in Baoding City and Xinglong County in Chengde City), China Fu Culture Park, Fujian Lacquer Commune, 798 Art Collaboration Innovation, Fujian Island Gucuo Village Culture Tourism Planning, Fuzhou Silk Road Cultural Square, World Chinese Collection Museum, Linquan Innhouse Meditation Research Center in Dalian, and Golden Valley 88 Art Street in Yanjiao, Tourism Restored Hotel and other design practices and research results. As the preface statest: “Meta-Field” attempts to promote the passive and simple horizon then orderly upgrades to a scientific expansion of the cultural and social field, while it is dedicated to solving the medium in the practice and the specific problem of the general spatial core, as well as the extension of social and cultural values, to form the constant practice with the current intention and meaning, the place and field.

Text by Lin Jiabin and Photo by Hu Sichen/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

About the Exhibition

Title: “Meta-Field: Cultural Research on the Urban and Country Architectural Design”

Academic Chair: Fan Di’an

Manager: Wang Xiaolin

Producer: Wang Tie

Curator: Wang Tiehua

Executive Curator: Fan Ershuo, Lei Dahai, Zhao Jian

Duration: March 17 – March 26, 2017

Venue: the underground exhibition hall of the Building 5, the Central Academy of Fine Arts