Wilkinson, Tom
Studio Houses in Beijing, China by Knowspace - 17 February 2017 - London EMAP Publishing Limited 2017
The romantic image of the artist is a lone figure struggling in a garret. But this is rarely the case: for many, isolation is not conducive to creativity, whereas community allows for the exchange of ideas and inspiration. The enduring popularity of artists’ colonies is testimony to this: from Giverny to Provincetown, artists have fled cities to settle where life can be reorganised around communal creative labour – and crucially, with cheaper rents. Today, one of the most substantial artists’ colonies in the world is 20km from Beijing in the suburb of Songzhuang. This was established by a group of artists who relocated from the inner suburbs 20 years ago. It embodies ancient and modern aspects of Chinese culture: the long tradition of the artist-scholar leaving the city for rural seclusion, and the more recent process of urbanisation that has devoured formerly peripheral areas of Chinese cities, rendering them insufficiently isolated for such purposes.
ARCHITECTURE GENERAL (AR-GEN)
Studio Houses in Beijing, China by Knowspace - 17 February 2017 - London EMAP Publishing Limited 2017
The romantic image of the artist is a lone figure struggling in a garret. But this is rarely the case: for many, isolation is not conducive to creativity, whereas community allows for the exchange of ideas and inspiration. The enduring popularity of artists’ colonies is testimony to this: from Giverny to Provincetown, artists have fled cities to settle where life can be reorganised around communal creative labour – and crucially, with cheaper rents. Today, one of the most substantial artists’ colonies in the world is 20km from Beijing in the suburb of Songzhuang. This was established by a group of artists who relocated from the inner suburbs 20 years ago. It embodies ancient and modern aspects of Chinese culture: the long tradition of the artist-scholar leaving the city for rural seclusion, and the more recent process of urbanisation that has devoured formerly peripheral areas of Chinese cities, rendering them insufficiently isolated for such purposes.
ARCHITECTURE GENERAL (AR-GEN)