Studio Houses in Beijing, China by Knowspace
By: Wilkinson, Tom
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Publisher: London EMAP Publishing Limited 2017Edition: 17 February 2017 .Subject(s): ARCHITECTURE GENERAL (AR-GEN)Online resources: Click here
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Architectural reviewSummary: 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.
| Item type | Current location | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Articles Abstract Database
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School of Architecture Archieval Section | Not for loan | 2021-2021608 |
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.
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