[ http://news.xjtlu.edu.cn/en/recent-news/5646-graduates-fyp-project-shown-at-prestigious-london-exhibition.html ]

(XJTLU, China, February 5th) Huang Chien-hua, a graduate from the Department of Architecture at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), has recently had his work included in an award exhibition hosted by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in London.

The annual RIBA award recognises outstanding projects that architectural students have developed during their Bachelor and Master programmes at departments of architecture around the world and is known as the RIBA President's Medals Student Awards. Each year a selection of projects entered into the awards competition are showcased alongside the awarded projects to promote excellence in architectural education, and to initiate architectural debate on what architecture is or what it should be, and how architectural education addresses these questions. 

Huang Chien-hua’s inclusion in this year’s award exhibition is a sign of the high quality that XJTLU’s Department of Architecture has achieved in its education throughout the last four years, and highlights the Department’s commitment to providing its students with an architectural education that addresses questions on the edge of international discourse and interest to give them the best possible basis for a start into the life as young architects and designers.

Edward Farrell from XJTLU’s Department of Architecture who visited the exhibition in London in January stated: “The RIBA President’s Medals are widely regarded as the most prestigious international awards in architectural education. It is truly amazing to see an example of the work of our first graduating cohort included in this very prestigious exhibition, showcased alongside works from very well established and well recognized departments of architecture. When we began the Bachelor in Architecture programme at XJTLU we had high aims, but we did not imagine that we would be rewarded this soon. Having taught Huang Chien-hua in one of his very first studio projects I know that he has always been a focused and hard working student. His excellent FYP project is obviously the result of this dedication, but it is also the result of our excellent Bachelor programme, of the support we have received from the University of Liverpool, and in general of the expertise and dedication of the staff at XJTLU’s Department of Architecture”.

The recognition that XJTLU’s Department of Architecture receives through the inclusion of its graduate’s work into the prestigious RIBA exhibition also confirms previous recognition and awards for excellence in education for the department’s academic staff, with both Dr. Thomas Fischer, and Dr. Claudia Westermann having received XJTLU’s award for the most innovative teaching practice in 2013 and in 2014 respectively, Dr. Yiping Dong, and Dr. Nancy Diniz awarded as runners up in the same category in 2014 as well alongside members of the Department of Urban Planning and Design.

Having the work of a graduate included in the RIBA President’s Medal Exhibition also confirms the positive feedback that the Department of Architecture received during the last visit of the RIBA committee in October 2014. The visit was related to the department’s application for validation of its Bachelor in Architecture degree as equivalent to RIBA/ARB part 1. In a first statement preceding the official report that is expected to become available in February 2015, the committee very positively valued the department’s achievements specifically in regards to creating a new type of international architectural graduate with Chinese roots.

The FYP project by Huang Chien-hua, who graduated from the Department of Architecture in summer 2014, was supervised by Dr. Claudia Westermann who was also responsible for setting the FYP studio brief “Architecture Narratives / Common Fiction” that served as an initiation for the students to think about alternative models and methodologies for architectural design in China.

Huang Chien-hua’s FYP project constitutes an outstanding response to the FYP studio design brief and is an example of the excellent quality that has been achieved in the first FYP studio of the Department of Architecture. The research into the historical and cultural context of the site in Pudong resulted in a response that constitutes a relevant contribution to the architectural discourse concerned with the built environment in Shanghai, and in China in general. The student achieved a translation from analysis to architectural proposition that demonstrates exceptional maturity in the way he made innovation, creativity, design thinking and experimentation relevant to the development of an architectural proposition, by taking into account the complexity of contextual issues relevant to architectural design.

In his presentation, Huang Chien-hua states: “The proposal initiates a dialogue between narrative and architecture. Potentiality – and with it free imagination – in architectural spaces can be approached by using the art of narrative as a tool for the creation of new dimensions. The detour of making narrative a core design methodology is thus taken to create new dimensions that could reveal everyday narratives without losing the narrative of a new China.”

The RIBA President's Medals Student Awards exhibition is open to the public from December 3 until January 31, 2015, at The Practice Space, RIBA, 66 Portland Place London W1B 1AD. For more information please see the exhibition announcement at: http://www.architecture.com/WhatsOn/December2014/TheRIBAPresidentsMedalsStudentAwards.aspx

An online version of Huang Chien-hua’s project documentation can be accessed at the RIBA President’s Medal Student Award page at: http://www.presidentsmedals.com/Project_Details.aspx?id=3581&dop=True

(Reporter: Department of Architecture; Exhibition Photos: Edward Farrell)

(Editor: Claudia Westermann, Douglas Warner)