Place Spirit Of The Foreign Rebirth

This thesis is to explore a design methodology of the Confucius Institute out of China but with a same traditional quality of the ancient institutes, meanwhile, a specific Confucius Institute project in an African Country is introduced as a complementary discussion about the essence of this thesis.A mere duplication of the visual symbols in the traditional architecture or a mere combination of the symbols and the modern functions is not encouraged. From the author’s perspective, architecture emerges with certain principles. As it is quoted from Louis Kahn: Wants to be?Therefore, similar ancient examples are introduced to regain the identity acceptance based on the awareness of traditional architecture. Then, the Spirit of Place in the traditional college is summed up by a close looking into the colleges and an analysis of their historical background, characteristics of location and certain relationships among society, architecture, culture and environment. A larger picture of the college in ancient China ensures us to capture the essence of these gorgeous masterpieces.The modern interpretation of the Spirit of Places in the ancient college architecture is the prerequisite of a successful design of a modern Confucius Institute, and it is the same with the maintaining of the Spirit in a foreign context. To advise a modern realization of the Spirit, a range of particular case study is described in the Third Chapter.In the Fourth Chapter, the reemerge of the traditional Spirit in the African Confucius Institute is presented. This Chapter starts with description of the Spirit, geological condition and the climate of the African campus. In the latter part. the integration of the design method summed up in the Third Chapter and specific function requirements of this Confucius Institute is introduced. How to reemerge the Spirit of traditional Chinese college while perfectly maintaining the characters of the existing campus? This is the major question. During the design process of a Confucius Institute in a foreign context, which part should be eliminated and which should be emphasized? That is a conflict the author is trying to solve though out this thesis. In a foreign context, the vanishing of traditional shape and symbol allow the newly built to find its own peace with the others around while the presence of its uniqueness in the spiritual level brings its prototype back to being. A fine architecture is supposed to be experienced and appreciated in a spiritual way. It is a destination where the author drives himself.In the final part, a complete design of the Confucius Institute is presented to support the author’s perspectives.