Nestled in the valleys of a beautiful site on the outskirts of Beijing is a group of contemporary houses and a clubhouse designed by 12 outstanding Asian architects.  Each house is an individualistic object and they bear little relationship to each other.  Although there are some nice moments in many of the houses, this project seems to be symptomatic of something wrong with architecture today.  These houses are less about site, human inhabitation and building a community than they are about each architect’s personal expression.  They all seem a little hollow and empty.

Furniture House by Shigeru Ban.

Bamboo Wall House by Kengo Kuma from Japan

The Shared House by Kanika R'kui from Thailand

Forest House by Nobuaki Furuya from Japan

Split House by Yung Ho Chang from China

Rammed earth wall in Split House

Suitcase House by Gary Chang from Hong Kong

See and Seen House by Cui Kai from China

Distorted Courtyard House by Rocco Yim from Hong Kong

Cantilever House by Antonio Ochoa from China

Airport House by Chien Hsueh-Yi from Taiwan

The Twins by Kay Ngee Tan from Singapore

The Clubhouse by Seung H-Sang from South Korea

One of the best parts of the trip to China was the opportunity to see these things with my son, Sloan and his girlfriend, Kate.  Sloan’s background in history and law and Kate’s background in anthropology complemented my own background in architecture.  They are really smart, perceptive people who could absorb the places we visited with great depth.  They are also full of positive energy and lots of fun.

We all love to photograph what we are seeing.

And we all love to try new food.

We are not afraid of a lot of hiking.

We visited the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall which is more remote and less visited than the Badaling section near Beijing.  It was renovated in the 1950s and 1960s and is in an area of magnificent natural beauty.

It would be worth visiting this area just for its mountain scenery even if there were no Great Wall here.

We took a second trip to a different section of the Great Wall which required getting up at 3:30am to see it at dawn. This section was unrestored, and it was great to see it being taken over by nature.

Although Datong is a very old city and was a dynastic capital of China two different times, it is now dominated by coal mining and power production.  It is not a charming city as a whole, but it is interesting as an example of an “ordinary” Chinese city.  There is a transformation happening that is common across the country where cities are tearing out their old city fabric and replacing it with more modern buildings.  The new architecture is not good, but it is providing much needed decent housing and work places.

Old fabric of single story courtyard houses. At ground level this is a dismal place to live.

Neighborhood undergoing transformation.

New city fabric in Datong

Even in these bland new parts of the city there is a vibrant life. This is a "fast food" joint.

There is a big open central square full of all ages of people--but especially a lot of little kids.

A real treasure of Datong from 700 years ago is the 9 Dragon Screen.

It is 150 feet long and made of glazed tiles.

The countryside outside Datong is dotted with compact farming towns.

This 1400-year-old temple contains statues of Confucian, Buddhist and Daoist gods in stone, iron and bronze.  Many temples in China are similarly ecumenical, bringing together the 3 major religions of the country.  The temple was located at a critical pass on a trade route.  It is beside a river that is now dammed, but was once prone to flooding.  Hanging the temple from the side of the cliff kept it safe from rising waters.

I have long been fascinated by buildings created by carving out a void rather than by building a solid form.  I love the rock cut temple at Carli in India and the whole cities carved in the sides of the hills in Cappadocia in central Turkey.  But the very best version of this architecture  by subtraction may be the elaborate series of spaces created to house Buddhist figures near the border of Inner Mongolia.  There are over 51,000 statues here making it one of the most lavish expressions of Buddhist art in the world.  Some of the spaces are mammoth and some are tiny.  Almost all are articulated elaborately on every surface.  These structures were built 453-494 AD at the height of the period when Silk Road trade opened this area up to influences from Greece, Persia, Central Asia and India.

Dramatic scale and light inside.

Some of the more elaborate spaces have wooden temple facades outside.

Mammoth seated Buddha inside.Gateways mix wood and carved-out stone.

Thousands of tiny statues are carved out of some walls.

Much of the detail is still in beautiful condition and shows the uniqueness of each figure.

Soft light shows mottling of surfaces to best advantage.

The front of this space collapsed revealing the giant sculptures within.

Cave 18 is one of the most spectacular with its tall standing Buddha.

Buddha looms above once you are inside.

Sometimes the various spaces work together as an ensemble

Elaborate portals seem almost Egyptian in their scale.