It is a pleasure to learn that Land-Based Design II, the second monograph by Academician Cui Kai on Native Design will be published soon. This book covers a number of important projects created by the author based on Native Design in recent years, and it also contains discussion articles by the author and other architects on Native Design and Cui Kai’s creation-guiding ideas. With articles illustrated by pictures, this book is very interesting. Practicing architects are different from architectural theorists, critics and planners, and they are also different from architectural educators, because their achievements are evaluated on the basis of their outstanding representative architectural works. China is undergoing rapid economic growth and fast urbanization, and large-scale construction projects are under way, which provides many opportunities for architects. Needless to say, although there are many excellent works, a larger number of works are inanimate or even mediocre, just following the Western or the ancient styles and lack of cultural connotations. In particular, some large key projects which are located in important places, of memorial significance and should have become landmarks were not brilliant, but boring and heavily criticized. This phenomenon is probably not caused by funding, technologies or materials, but mostly caused by creative and design concepts. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss what is the key to the creation of a good work. “Success depends on forethought” should be borne in mind. Designing is like writing articles in that “working out the plot before putting pen to paper” is very important. In terms of architectural creation, “forethought” and “plot” are“conception” and “creative ideas”. It is believed that most architects do not design until thoroughly studying theories (of course, theories can be studied and drawn upon). But surely, they are guided by certain ideas and concepts to study how to handle the relationships among architectural elements, choose the aesthetic orientations of architectural forms, and establish the cultural expressions of architectural images. It should be pointed out that these concepts and ideas are theoretical reserves studied, practiced and summed up by architects for a long time. They are already in architects’ mind, and they are basically theories. Therefore, theories should not be deemed as mysterious, unattainable or faraway. Actually, we are always consciously or unconsciously using some theories to guide our designs and practices. In the history of architectural designs, most design masters in certain eras not only have representative works, but also put forward some original ideas, theories or doctrines which constitute their concepts and principles of their designs. For example, Mies Van der Rohe advocated “less is more” to expressed his basic conceptions of modern buildings and his consistent minimalism; Frank Lloyd Wright put forward “organic architecture” and “prairie architecture”; post-WWII Japanese architects proposed “organic renewal”, “metabolism” and contemporary “Kuma negative construction”etc; and some concepts (”modern vernacular architecture”, “regionalism architecture” and “critical regionalism architecture” ) are related to land-based rationalism. It is easily found that these ideas, theories or doctrines were put forward, developed and improved to solve problems in reality. They are strikingly problems-oriented. As can be inferred from this point of view, when problems in reality are accumulated to a certain extent or even become widespread, a new theory or proposition is likely to emerge, just as scientific soism rose from the cyclical economic crises and intensification of class contradictions caused by the basic contradictions of European capitalism. These new contradictions and problems contribute to theoretical breakthroughs and innovations. These breakthroughs and innovations are mainly reflected in the serious study of cause and main cruxes of problems, refining and improvement of existing knowledge and outstanding thoughts to more accurately,so as to interpret reality and guide practices effectively. This is true in all aspects of the human society. In terms of cities and buildings , both society and the architectural industry criticize that many chinese cities are identical and without characteristics; many buildings are mediocre, coarse or following the Western or the ancient styles. Faced with this situation, the architectural industry is concerned and longing for changes, and the leaders at higher levels are paying attention and expecting improvements. Therefore, in addition to the absorption of traditional architectural cultural essence and overseas outstanding planning and design concepts, we should give full play to our culture to innovate and develop architectural designs, create architectural works which reflect strong local characteristics, striking national styles and the characteristic temper of the era. This important task should be fulfilled by chinest modern architects, and some responsible architects have been exploring for theoretical breakthroughs in practices. Cui Kai is a native architect, and he stands out in the openand competitive design market since the reform and opening up. He has taken charge of many projects and won many awards. He is highly recognized and influential in the contemporary architectural design circle. He is a li
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