He said that he “uses architecture to create spatial memory from the east”.
These deep forms or structures can be called “space archetypes”.
Teacher Feng Guochuan’s comment on Motay’s works, “Everyday architecture from the perspective of typology — Feeling of Motay’s design”, was published in the magazine “Architectural Art” in 2022.09.
At the same time, architecture has been repeatedly screened and polished by memory in life, and constantly summarized and updated.
So this phenomenon appeared.
Living in the buildings they designed, people may ignore the buildings.
However, Motai’s stable design hides Shen Chi and his team’s persistent exploration for a long time.
Shen Chi and his girlfriend went to the office interview together.
He can be said to be young and promising, because he participated in the design of the construction and science building, supporting projects for the Universiade and so on, which has attracted the attention of the industry.
From the media, we see a China with great architectural achievements, but back to our daily life, it is a thousand cities and a clear and uninteresting environment.
About ten years later, he has worked as the deputy chief architect of the Shenzhen Institute of Architectural Sciences, which is independent from the Shenzhen General Institute of Architecture.
2022.09 Building Techniques P82-85 © Motel Architecture chose to meet two partners of Motel, Shen Chi and Zhao Xing, for many years.
Modernist architecture encountered the crisis of “meaning” in the 1960s.
However, within a few years, Shen Chi unexpectedly left the Academy of Architectural Sciences, which was going to be listed, and founded Motai Architecture with architect Zhao Xing, starting his career as an architect firm.
Over the years, there have been many excellent architects and many excellent buildings in China.
They emphasize the flying side of life, which is somewhat superhuman temperament.
I worked as an architect in Zuo Xiaosi Architects.
Those star buildings that are dazzling in the media have disappeared in real life.
Superman was born in an era, while the safe side of life has eternal meaning.” It is not the case in the construction industry.
According to typology, in this interaction process, the surface style changes quickly, but the deep structure is relatively stable to form the traditional core.
He was about to graduate and come to Shenzhen to find a job.
In general, Motai’s works are basically free of surprises or open and close space.
I think the East is not the key.
Zhang Ailing once said: “I found that people who engage in literature always pay attention to the flying side of life, but ignore the safe side of life…
The key is the team’s grasp of “memory”.
Instead of setting a grand and lofty goal for himself, Mattel turned his eyes to the world around him and quietly polished every place of daily life in the ordinary.
The first contact with Shen Chi was in 2000.
Many excellent buildings really attract attention, but when we think about it calmly, we find that some wonderful buildings seem to have only earned traffic but not really changed our daily life.
So buildings became isolated islands in the dual sense of time and space.
Shen Chi and Zhao Xing in 2022 © Motai Architecture Feng Guochuan and Shen Chi in 2013 © Motai Architecture Shen Chi and Motai have a very clear positioning for their architectural design, that is, they do not stand on the top of the storm, and quietly do ordinary daily buildings.
Different space archetypes form different architectural types.
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At that time, Shen Chi’s intelligence and talent left a deep impression on me.
Meaning comes from people’s conventional value system, which is rooted in people’s memory, while architecture, as the environment of people’s life, shapes people’s memory.
Maybe Shen Chi’s name is Chi Chi Chi, isn’t it? Does a person with such a name inadvertently affect his way of life? Lattice space photography: TAL © Motai Architecture Xinghua Building Photography: Right Angle Architecture Photography, Qingshen Lake Yacht Club Scheme © The bid winning scheme of Motai Building Shenzhen Baishilong Cultural Center © Motai Architecture Suzhou Zhongmeng Science and Technology Building Photograph: TAL © Motai’s architectural memory is meaningful.
This isolated state made the form experiment of modernism lose its meaning while acquiring new forms, Lost contact with ordinary life.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the British architectural theorist Corcon and the Italian architect Rossi revived architectural typology in order to solve the problem of architectural meaning.
Shen Chi doesn’t like to discuss theories while reading and thinking, but his and Motai’s designs express their thoughts in a way that moistens things silently.
The author believes that it is the concept of “memory” that draws the distance between Motel and many architects who are flying to the future.
But what is “memory”? Why does Motel say “create memory” instead of “arouse memory”? Is memory an accurate record of the past or a screening, reconstruction, tampering and reprocessing of the past? Talking with Shen Chi about their architecture reminds me of “typology” of architecture.
Motai’s design is a stable work, calm and relaxed, neither shouting nor groaning.
They hope that the building is like three meals a day, calm but nourishing life.
People found that modernist architecture cut off the context of the city and architecture: architecture has no relationship with history, and there is no connection between buildings.
Finally, Shen Chi chose the Architectural Academy of Shenzhen General Institute of Architectural Design.
As long as the home-grown team truly faces their own “memory”, then where can the cultural information conveyed by their buildings be other than the East? So “Oriental culture” is only a result.
Shen Chi said that he has been interested in traditional culture over the years, so he emphasized the “Oriental culture” gene of architecture.
Memory and architecture are shaped by life as a medium.
Unfortunately, how I lobbied, Shen Chi and his girlfriend did not choose the small office of Zuo Lao.
People tend to pursue flying buildings, and ignore safe buildings.
