A Reserch On Design Competition And The Thoughts Of Contemporary Chinese Architecture

Architectural design competitions have first been introduced to China in the1920’s–30’s and gone through a rough journey in1930’s to1970’s. Since then, it has beendeveloping fast in light of the Reform and Opening-up all the way till now. All thesephases of architectural design competitions play a significant role in the development ofChina’s Architecture. The Government led the trend of architectural design by settingrules and restrictions for these competitions; the international competitions influence theideas of Chinese architects; and academic design competitions provide an excellentplatform for young bright architects. We can see that architectural design competitionshave been a great boost on the development of China’s architectural trend of thoughts.On the other hand, the variety of architectural thoughts within a time period wouldinfluence the theme of the design competition and also the competitor’s work’s trend.As a result, it is essential to focus on the relationship of the two and to analyse howthey impact and push each other forward, especially during the evolutionaryexpansion in1980’s (the Opening-up), which will be the focal point of this paper. Myanalysis and research will be based on the different time periods of architecture designcompetitions’ development through history to explore its ties with the evolution ofarchitecture design trend, and ultimately to apply it in reality successfully.This paper consists of three sections. In the first section (chapter1), the conceptsof architecture design competition and architecture trend are defined. These conceptsare explored based on research of modern China that has been through reform andopened up to the world. Moreover, the purpose, meaning, innovative ideas and structureof this research are determined. The general concepts of architecture design competitionand architecture trend are analyzed chronologically. In the second section (chapters2-4),the main focus is to analyze the development of architecture design competitionschronologically. Furthermore, basic background information of the research such as thespecific era, culture, and social background are also examined. The relationship ofarchitecture design competitions and the development of architectures in China or morespecifically, how the works of the design competition influence the developments ofarchitecture in China is analyzed in-depth. Then, this paper also analyzes how themainstream trends in architecture design influences the works in architecture designcompetitions. Multiple examples of designs in actual cases and examples of designs incompetitions are compared and analyzed to produce a conclusion. These influential relationships “catalyzes” one another on the road of their development and it is exactlythe main topic of this research paper. In the fourth chapter, some personal experiencesof participating in architecture design competitions of the author is mentioned to showhow exactly is local architecture analyzed for the use of creating ideas for design.Besides examine how to incorporate those ideas into actual designs, the relationship ofdesigning competition and architectural trends are also investigated. Lastly in the thirdsection (chapter5), a final conclusion is made based on the analysis and theories in theprevious chapters. Such conclusion states the “catalytic” relationship betweenarchitecture design competitions and architectural trends and also provides a outlook offuture developments in architectural competitions and trends.