Artfully Planned Ambience

"A Conceptual Representation of Our Inner Energy"

"The energy in me is tangible, growing..., time changed and reshaped the flows..., both trees and I found shelters in the space..." -- Andy Goldsworthy

Minimalism is already Andy Goldsworthy's choice. His outdoor conceptual art is ephemeral, often consisting of simple and fragile materials such as twigs, leaves, ferns, or ice placed in natural settings with no attempt to protect them from decay and disruption. Each work of him grows, stays and decays. He says, “process and decay are implicit". The energy involved in his works is always melodramatic and sentimental. In his "beehive-like structure of stone" project, the stone was over lapped by the ocean; when the tide of the sea receded, the stone re-emerged to be more isolated and imperfect. The energy of the tides changed both color and shape of the stone, and therefore left a scar during a certain period of time: as a proof of passing on pains from the past to the present, ending at a closure in the future.

As beautiful as many of Mr. Goldsworthy's works are, torture is part of his authentic "character" of works that he wants to bring to his environmental art. But why there are so many pains in the magnificent world of nature in terms of Mr. Goldsworthy's meditation? Those twisted and isolated natural flows are the shelters for him, where he escaped from the greatly urbanized world. However, maybe he could flee the space of floors and ceilings to the space of the ground and horizon; he is never able to overcome the eternity of time. Time changes the existential importance of everything. The flow of time never pauses. That is the reason why we fear the aging, death, and the transformation of the things we've already known by hearts.

I regard myself as the same kind of person as Andy Goldsworthy, who tends to be very conservative to accept rapid changes. Urbanization haters. Totally idealistic and artistic. I lived in Beijing, China for a long when I was little. The only thing I could remember about that gigantic city is the constant noises produced by the constructions of new buildings and tearing down old streets. The sky was forever gray and yellow – they are the colors of steel and clay. Father said to me one day, “We have to get out this disrespectful and murderous city.� Then he told me a story: when the new China was just founded at the year of 1949, there was a nationwide argument about the re-planning of Beijing. Some “leftists� strongly suggested that the new re-planned Beijing should preserve all the ancient architecture and old streets, meanwhile some “rightists� simply wanted to tear down anything “old� to create a “new� Beijing. Liang Sicheng, a famous Chinese architect was one of the leftists, who presented a perfect plan creating a functional and old-fashioned new Beijing without damaging the ancient architecture at all. But his idealistic blueprint was never commissioned by the government. On the day the ancient Forbidden City was tore down, Liang sited at the gateway of Forbidden City, crying helplessly when the monstrous machinery was destroying the 2000-year-old buildings. Pathetically, he could not protect the best architecture of ancient China. It was not only a tragedy of an architect, but also a tragedy of an ancient civilization. This ignorant destruction can be seen as a devastating transformation of a city, which ruined most of the memories and sensations of this old city. I can only imagine the pains Liang was going through. It was a pain caused by the industrialization. It was a pain of the changing time.

No matter how naturalistic I am, I still cannot prevent the natural environment from being urbanized. Nor can Andy Goldsworthy. Urbanism in many ancient cities is inevitable so that the reconstruction of much architecture is unavoidable. Almost all the old cities have suffered or are suffering the rapid transformation like Beijing, Tehran and Istanbul. Compromises have to be made. To concretize the essence of "genius loci" in ever new historical contexts, in terms of architecture and urban plan, is becoming a significant issue. The existential purpose of architecture is therefore to make the balance between natural and urban environments, and to uncover the potential meanings of the urban architecture presented in the given natural environment. Only in this way can "the spirit of the place" be conserved, can the ancient culture be ceaseless, and finally can we overcome the pains of trading the past with the present.

I believe that both architecture and city celebrate the joy of retrieving their lost cultural spirits and natural roots. The energy of architecture and city will be carried on throughout the lives, memories and sensations contained in them. Then their motions will grow humane and permanent.

"The Old Forbidden City, Beijing, China"

"Bavinger House by Bruce Goff, expressed the sense of amalgamation of natural and urban environment"