All-star Asian architects design an upscale subdivision near the Great Wall of China.

By Krystal Chang
The Metropolis Observed
December 2001

Commune by the Great Wall, an upscale Chinese housing development, is marketing itself as "collectible architecture." Twelve of Asia's star architects have been commissioned to design houses, such as this one (above) by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban.
There's excitement in the air in China. As the country buys into the market economy, its cities teem with scaffolding, cranes, and the sounds of construction. In Beijing the hutongs (winding alleyways between low tiled roofs) of the Ming dynasty are being displaced by skyscrapers, seemingly overnight. But too often the traditional is giving way to the unoriginal. What emerges from the scaffolding is usually just another cookie-cutter condominium in a sea of cookie-cutter condominiums.

Husband-and-wife developers Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin are rushing in where others are too busy to tread and building a business niche for themselves in the process. Their latest project--the Commune by the Great Wall housing development, an hour's drive from Beijing and only six miles from Badaling, the most heavily visited section of the Great Wall--features the designs of 12 of the best and brightest architects of Asia. "These young architects are ready to challenge the conventional concept of architecture," Zhang has said. "Their designs often have the power to change the ordinary patterns of living." They are Mainland China's Yung Ho Chang, Cui Kai, and Antonio Ochoa; Hong Kong's Gary Chang and Rocco Yim; Taiwan's Chien Hsueh-Yi; Japan's Shigeru Ban, Kengo Kuma, and Nobuaki Furuya; South Korea's Seung H-Sang; Singapore's Kay Ngee Tan; and Thailand's Kanika R'kul. With the exception of Ban and Gary Chang, few are known in the West.

In China the word commune often evokes uniforms, canteens, and hard labor in the fields, but at $500,000 and 4,000 square feet, these homes are instead weekend retreats for the well-to-do. Pan and Zhang are betting that having a one-of-a-kind house designed by a rising star will become the ultimate status symbol for the nouveau riche. (The sales pitch reads, "Collect the art of architecture.") The first phase, consisting of 11 houses and a clubhouse, will open by the end of the year; to promote the project the developers are turning them into a hotel. If that proves successful, a second phase will add another 40 houses. According to Rocco Yim, the Commune's master planner, the project has already garnered interest for a simple reason: "The concept of individual architects designing for a unique site has itself generated anticipation."

The development's proximity to an iconic act of building (the Great Wall is visible from most of the houses) demands that the designs rise to the occasion. "If you don't do it right," Yim says, "you could destroy the ambience of the setting. With twelve architects working here, you need sufficient dialogue between them to create a cohesive environment. The landscape becomes the unifying factor." Indeed many of the architects interpret the idea behind the name "Commune" in terms of individuals communing with nature, not one another. For example, Yung Ho Chang's Split House is halved by a creek that ultimately runs beneath the glass-floored entrance room. Many of the architects were equally sensitive to Chinese traditions, incorporating local materials and traditional building methods. Shigeru Ban devised a bamboo-veneer lumber; Yung Ho Chang uses rammed earth for the walls. And Kengo Kuma draws inspiration from the nearby engineering marvel itself: his Wall House features a bamboo partition running the slope of the site, much as the Great Wall follows the ridges of the Shuiguan mountains.

A stay at the Commune Hotel should prove irresistible to potential buyers. "Being able to wake up in the morning and jog to the Great Wall for exercise and then back to the house for a shower in a matter of minutes is a real luxury," says Gary Chang. Where else can you experience one of the world's great wonders as part of a day's routine?


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