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Anti-Tectonics Beijing Design Week

Architectural Event in China – Pavilion Building, 2013

9 Oct 2013

Anti-Tectonics at Beijing Design Week 2013

“ANTI-TECTONICS”
A curated event about design and architecture

Beijing Design Week 2013
26 Sep – 3 Oct 2013
“Anti-tectonics pavilion”, Power Square 751 D-Park, Beijing

“Anti-tectonics” is a long-term program that pursues Italian and international cooperation in the research, promotion, and production of innovative technologies in the design and industrial fields. Curated by architects Giannantonio Bongiorno, Momo Andrea Destro, and Eugenia Murialdo, the program has been presented in the context of Beijing Design Week 2013 (26th September – 3rd October 2013).

photos courtesy of Anti-Tectonics

With China’s massive urbanization process showing no sign of abating, there emerges the need and opportunity to investigate alternative and innovative approaches to architecture, design, and related industrial production. “Anti-tectonics” gathers a leading network of professionals, innovative industries, and institutions to generate breakthrough ideas and projects while, also, exposing Italian technological avant-gardes to the Chinese context to spur innovation and new business perspectives.

The project featured the “Anti-tectonics Pavilion,” a structure wrapped by an iconic curtain that staged a series of talks and discussions about the role of design in technological and industrial innovation, from manufacturing to the market place.

Starting from September 27th with an official opening hosted with the presence of the Italian Ambassador to the PRC, His Excellency Mr. Alberto Bradanini, the program presented a variety of activities including the “Anti-tectonics forum” (curated in co-operation with the Berlin based R&D and design office Hybrid Space Lab), IDI “Italian Design Industry, a full-day of moderated discussions about the role of Italian design in China, an introduction of Milan EXPO 2015, and the program “Cultural Constructions” that featured movie projections and a panel discussions with Italian Architects.

The “Anti-tectonics” project is made possible thanks to the support of the Embassy of Italy to the PRC within the framework of the activities organized by BJDW.

Institutional Partner: Beijing Industrial Design Centre, Supported by: Red Star Communication Centre

photos courtesy of Anti-Tectonics

“Anti-tectonics Pavilion”

The program “Anti-tectonics” for Beijing Design Week 2013 has been hosted at the “Anti-tectonics Pavilion”, a structure wrapped by an iconic curtain that staged talks, discussions, and other events during the entire length of the Design Week. Designed by Giannantonio Bongiorno, Momo Andrea Destro and Eugenia Murialdo, the pavilion has been conceived as a simple structure with a roof and 2 main walls. It included a lounge bar, an exhibition area, and a conference room for a total amount of 150m 2. The 50 meters long curtain has been designed as a temporary envelope, able to open the entire pavilion to the Power Square of the 751 design fair grounds, avoiding divisions between inside and outside when open and creating a soft and iconic barrier when closed.

“Anti-tectonics” event list:

Forum “Anti-tectonics”: on September 28th leading Italian and international experts covered topics relevant to emergent technologies, materials, and processes in the field of architecture and urbanism. The forum included two sections and has been developed in cooperation with the Berlin based R&D and design office Hybrid Space Lab:

The first section was about “Emergent designs: Techniques and processes for architectural envelopes”. The discussion has been led by Giannantonio Bongiorno, Momo Andrea Destro and Eugenia Murialdo together with: Inge Goudsmit (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), Emilio Genovesi (Material ConneXion Italy), Matthew Smith (Buro Happold), Prof. Thomas Tsang (The University of Hong Kong), Prof. Yung Ho Chang (Atelier FCJZ, MIT College of Architecture and Urban Planning).

The second session, named “Digital – Material: tracing a new expression of urbanism interweaving materials, informations and programming” featured lecturers Prof. Frans Vogelaar and Prof. Elizabeth Sikiaridi (Hybrid Space Lab) together with a number of lecturers involved in academics, innovation and architecture including: Xu Feng and Nikolaus Wabnitz (Laboratory for Computational Design), Clement Renaud (Researcher), Holger Kehne (Plasma Studio), Markus M Schneider (Metroshapes/thismedia).

EXPO 2015: on September 29th, the forum presented EXPO 2015. Mr. Emilio Genovesi introduced the main exhibition themes and projects. HIs keynote address highlighted the topic of “food” and the thematic pavilions “Pavilion 0”, “Biodiversity Park,’” and the “Art and Food pavilion at the Children Park”. IDI – Italian Design Industry: on September 30th, there was a full day round table about the role of the Italian design industry in China that included representatives from the main Italian architecture and design firms present in China including Archea Associati, Progetto CMR, Kokai Studios, and others. Cultural constructions: on October 1st and October 2nd the “Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Pechino” (Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing) presented the movies “Spring in Shenzhen”, “Passeggiate romane: diario di viaggio di Mo Yan”, “Napoli, Piazza Municipio,” and others, then concluded with a talk with the Italian architect Fabrizio De Leva.

About Beijing Design Week

First launched with a pilot effort in 2009, Beijing Design Week has quickly become China’s leading international design platform. Since 2011 BJDW is an annual citywide showcase of initiatives celebrating creativity and innovation from the design field at large, offering an expansive overview of its transforming landscape, while serving as a catalyst and incubator for innovative perspectives generating from industry to academia that inspire and shape contemporary design discourse and practice.

BJDW is an initiative of the Ministry of Education of the PRC, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the PRC, the Ministry of Culture of the PRC, and the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality. Undertaken by Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group and Beijing Industrial Design Center.

About the curators of “Anti-tectonics”

Giannantonio Bongiorno, Momo Andrea Destro and Eugenia Murialdo are a team of Italian architects coming from different backgrounds and with wide international experience. They look to the fast paced changes of today’s society as a source of inspiration, and their aim is to promote innovation in the field of design and industry.

About Giannantonio Bongiorno

Giannantonio is an italian architect active in Asia, Europe and U.S.A.

After his studies at universities in Germany and Italy, he graduated from Politecnico di Milano. In the past years he has been working for architectural firms including Office for Metropolitan Architecture (Rem Koolhaas) and MAD Architects as well as held teaching positions at Strelka Institute in Moscow and Politecnico di Milano in Italy. He is currently working on a number of large scale developments and promoting cultural projects in the field of urban planning bridging Europe and China. His goal is to achieve a balance between cultural and pragmatic approaches in the architectural discipline.

About Momo Andrea Destro

Momo Andrea Destro (1979) is an architect graduated at the Architecture Faculty of Florence in 2007. Since 2008 he is a Class A architect, registred in “Albo dell’Ordine degli Architetti, Pianificatori, Paesaggisti e Conservatori della Provincia di Pistoia” (www.architettipistoia.it/). From 2008 to 2010 he served at Studio Archea, first in Florence and later in Beijing. From 2010 until the beginning of 2012, he has been the director of the Studio Archea Beijing. Together with the management of the Beijing office, he has been coordinator of the Chinese edition of Area magazine and Form@ magazine.

In 2012, he started works as an independent architect, cooperating with different companies in the architectural domain. In 2012, he also co-founded LocalDesignStudio that in March 2012 won the Yanqing Grape Garden international competition and in August 2012 was honored with third prize for the Award “Young Italian Architect 2012”.

About Eugenia Murialdo

Eugenia Murialdo (1978) is an architect graduated at the Università degli Studi di Genova. Form 2001 to 2002, she also studied at the Institut Français d’Urbanisme (IFU) and at the Ecole Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris Belleville (ENSA-PB). Since 2006 she is a Class A architect, registred in “Albo dell’Ordine degli Architetti, Pianificatori, Paesaggisti e Conservatori della Provincia di Genova” [www.ge.archiworld.it]. From 2004 to 2008 she served as Project Architect at ARCHEA Associati www.archea.it in Genova and Beijing. From 2009 to 2010 she became Chief Architect at ARCHEA Associati in Beijing. During this time she cooperated with “Area China” magazine.

Since December 2010, she works as an independent architect, and cooperated with different companies in the architectural domain. In December 2010 she began a partnership with MODOURBANO (www.modourbano.it), a network of professionals, leading projects in China. Since 2011 she is an architect consultant in China for “Favero e Milan” (www.favero-milan.com). Since 2012, she became one of the curators of Hutopolis research program (www.hutopolis.info) together with Gianantonio Bongiorno and and “AQSO arquitectos office”.

Anti-Tectonics at Beijing Design Week images / information from Giannantonio Bongiorno / “Anti-tectonics” team

Location: Chaoyang District, Beijing, People’s Republic of China