Exhibition period: December 6th to December 20th, 2009

Exhibition locations: Halls E and F on the third floor and the middle hall on the second floor of the Guan Shanyue Art Museum

Academic Forum on "Xia Changshi and Lingnan Architecture": December 6, 2009 14:30pm

Forum location: Lecture Hall on the Second Floor of Guan Shanyue Art Museum

    As the only solo exhibition of the 2009 Shenzhen Hong Kong Urban Architecture Biennale, "Under the Sunshine - Lingnan Architect Xia Changshi Retrospective Exhibition" will be exhibited at the Guan Shanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen starting from December 6, 2009. This is also the first architect solo exhibition since the establishment of the Shenzhen Hong Kong Biennale.

    Xia Changshi (1905-1996) was an architect who introduced lightness, transparency, and clarity into the land of Lingnan, both in terms of spatial spirit and architectural form. Prior to this, the buildings on this damp and hot land were heavy, enclosed, and gloomy. In the southern region of the 1950s, at the beginning of the country's flourishing era, it was Xia Changshi, Chen Boqi, Tan Tiansong, and others who worked together to move from creating microclimate design to regional climate adaptability design. They used new technologies and local techniques in shading, insulation, and ventilation solutions, breaking free from the constraints of form and style, introducing the traditional Chinese garden spirit into modern Lingnan architecture and transforming it into a free and flowing space, giving Lingnan architecture a new personality, creating regionalist architecture that is both highly technical and formal rationality, and rich in garden connotations, reshaping the character and style of Lingnan architecture.

     Xia Changshi was born in 1905. He studied abroad in Germany in his early years and obtained a doctoral degree in art history from the University of T ü bingen in 1932. He taught at several famous architectural schools in China. During his tenure as a professor at South China Institute of Technology, he dedicated his most important works to the land of Lingnan. As an important explorer, practitioner, and disseminator of Chinese modernist architecture, he did not simply transplant the concepts, techniques, and formal features of German modern architecture to China, or simply put on the coat of national form for modern architectural technology and materials. Instead, he sought the spatial spirit rooted in traditional regional culture and Lingnan climate characteristics, and endowed it with a form that was suitable for the social reality and technological conditions of the time - Xia Changshi completed the settlement of modern architecture in Lingnan during his own return journey, digging the spring of thought and form for Lingnan style architecture.

     This exhibition will focus on Xia Changshi's architectural career, attempting to leverage a gradually forgotten history and sort out the complex development of modern Lingnan architecture. The exhibition will re read Mr. Xia Changshi's architectural works through architectural models, historical photos, and blueprints; And read with literature materials such as his works, papers, and sketches. The exhibition will use both film and animation media to explore the development process of Lingnan style architecture. In addition, some conceptual models and videos completed by students with the theme of "Thinking Sunshine Like Xia Changshi" will also be exhibited.

     On the opening day of the exhibition, a themed forum on "Xia Changshi and Lingnan Architecture" will also be held from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. The speaker and theme are:

     Academician He Jingtang: A Generation of Architectural Masters - Professor Xia Changshi

    Eduard Koegel: German Architecture Education and Chinese Students Studying Abroad in the 1920s and 1930s

    Wang Fangji: A Timetable

    Feng Jiang: The Floating and Sinking of Modernist Architecture in Lingnan

    Song Gang: Design of the Model Exhibition Stand for the Xia Changshi Retrospective Exhibition

     The Xia Changshi Retrospective Exhibition is an in-depth case study of contemporary Chinese architects. Reviewing the architectural ideas and practices of Xia Changshi, presenting the efforts and achievements of Chinese architects in exploring the local characteristics of architecture in the context of modern architecture, sharing the fine structure and technical beauty of Xia Changshi's design, and showcasing Xia Changshi's profound influence on Lingnan architecture, is aimed at inspiring contemporary architectural education and awakening Chinese people's reflection on contemporary architecture: has our architecture lost basic respect for regional characteristics? Has the first generation of architects lost the courage to absorb Western ideas and technology while creating themselves?

    This exhibition was curated by Feng Jiang, Xiao Yiqiang, Song Gang, etc. from the School of Architecture of South China University of Technology, and supported by the School of Architecture of South China University of Technology, the Institute of Architectural Design and Research, the Oriental Institute of Architectural Culture of the Research Center for Architectural History and Culture, the State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Architectural Science, and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Guangzhou.