The father of Chinese modernist architecture?

The first Chinese to serve as a judge for the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which is known as the Nobel Prize in the field of architecture, is Zhang Yonghe, the father of Chinese modernist architecture.

Zhang Yonghe was admitted to the Department of Architecture of Nanjing Institute of Technology (School of Architecture of Southeast University) in 1977. In 1981, he went to the United States to study at his own expense. He successively received M.A. degrees from the Department of Architecture of Paul State University and the University of California, Berkeley. Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design and Master of Architecture. While in school, he received fellowships from the American Institute of Architects and the American Foundation. After graduating in 1984, he worked in several architectural design firms in San Francisco, USA. In 1985, he began teaching at Paul State University, University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley, and Rice University in the United States. During this period, he won awards in a series of international architectural design competitions. For example, in 1986, he won the first prize in the Japan New Architecture International Residential Design Competition. In 1988, he won the first place in the "From Table to Tablescape" conceptual object design competition sponsored by the American Formica Company. In 1988, he won the W. Sanders Architectural Design Teaching Research Fellowship from the University of Michigan. Became a registered architect in the United States in 1989. In 1991, he participated in the San Francisco/Los Angeles 3×3+9 design competition sponsored by the San Francisco Chapter of the American Institute of Architects/San Francisco Architecture Foundation and won the winning award. In the same year, the "Vertical Glass House" won the Excellence Award in Japan's New Architecture International Residential Design Competition. In 1992, he won the Young Architects Forum Award from the Architectural League of New York, held a work exhibition and gave a speech in New York. In the same year, he won the Steadman Architectural Travel Fellowship Award from Washington University in St. Louis.

Domestic Development

Since 1993, he and Lu Lijia have established a very architectural studio and started practicing in China. At the end of 1996, he officially resigned from his teaching position at Rice University in the United States and returned to China. Since 1992, projects such as Luoyang Old Town Kindergarten, Zhengzhou Xiaozhaozhai Residential Area and Kindergarten, Shantou Hualidi Entertainment City, Qingxi Mountain Residence and Humen Government Garden Hotel designed by him have been published in domestic and foreign magazines. In 1994, he was selected as one of eight Chinese architects in Japan's "581 Architects in the World" book. In 1995, the "Slope Residential Group" project in Qingxi, Guangdong won the 1996 Outstanding Architectural Engineering Design Award from the American "Progressive Architecture". (The Progressive Architecture Award is one of the most authoritative annual architectural awards in the American architectural community. This is the first time a Chinese-designed project in China has won this award.) In 1996, he completed interior design projects such as the Xishu Bookstore in Beijing, Nanchang, and Wuhan. In 1997, he completed the "Inverted Office" project of the American Cummins Company in Beijing and the Runtang Villa residential complex project in Shenzhen. From 1998 to 1999, he completed the Qingxi Slope Residential Group in Guangdong, the Chenxing Mathematics Building project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Zhongguancun, Beijing, and the interior design of the Beijing Modern City model room. Engineering, Beijing Huairou Mountain Yujian Residential Project, Beijing Glass Onion Restaurant, Beijing Hongshi Industrial Office Interior, Beijing Crystal Stone Computer Image Company Exterior and Interior Design, Hebei Yanjiao Painter Studio/Residence 7#, 4#, 5# , 3# project, Chongqing pilot base and other projects were completed in 2000.

Since 1992, he has participated in many international architecture and art exhibitions held in Asia, Europe, America and other places, including: the 2000 Shanghai Biennale, and won the 2000 UNESCO Art Contribution Award. Award (in recognition of outstanding and creative achievements in the field of visual arts); as the only Chinese architect to participate in the 7th Venice Architecture Biennale held in Venice in 2000; in 1999, he held a solo exhibition "Roadside" at the Apex Art Art Gallery in New York, USA Theater"; from 1997 to 1998, he successively participated in and completed part of the exhibition design in "Cities in Motion" held in Vienna, Austria, PS1 in New York, the United States, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, and London, the United Kingdom; in 1999, he participated in the Beijing International Exhibition of Chinese Young Architects' Works at the 20th Congress of the International Association of Architects held at the Convention Center; "Big or Small - Asian Architectural Trio Exhibition" at the AA School of Architecture in London, UK; held in Osaka, Japan in 1997 and India in 1998 Asian Progressive Architecture" exhibition and the '97 Gwangju Art Biennale in South Korea, etc. In 2008, Zhang Yonghe became one of the curators of the Chinese Pavilion at the 2008 Venice Biennale.

Zhang Yonghe’s masterpiece: Ten Years of Events Museum. After entering the field of architecture for more than 30 years, Zhang Yonghe held his first personal retrospective exhibition. Thirty years ago, when people mentioned Zhang Yonghe, they would say that he was Kaiji’s son.

Kaiji Ji is a second-generation designer of New China. His works include Tiananmen Observatory, Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, etc. Zhang Yonghe is now known as the "Father of Chinese Modernist Architecture". It takes several generations to improve people's cultivation, and it is simply too late. In fact, the United States now has a very simple approach: if I remember correctly, any house that is over 80 years old cannot be tampered with. It cannot be demolished or modified. This is set by the government. Italy is much shorter, for example, more than fifty years, and the inside can be moved, but the outside is not allowed to move at all. The government will send someone with an old photo to compare it with your house. Windows, doors, materials, and the surface cannot be touched. I think if the country now has this awareness and passes some laws and regulations, it can protect it. It’s not even possible to talk about in China right now.