Working in the Middle Kingdom

Originally Published Nov 10,2006
Bygge teknik ( Danish Construction News)
Translated from Danish
 
After many years of monotonous construction the Chinese now want to see something new. They don’t mind to throw themselves into big projects like new suburbs. A paradise for an architect. But there are also snakes in the paradise says the Danish architect Dan Lenander. He is the owner of the architect 
company MTA International. ( Now Meter Studio)
 

We met up with Dan in Shanghai for an architecture talk.
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“The best thing ever was when I for the first time saw the building project without scaffolding, and it totally was as I had envisioned it”, he said, while we were walking along his newest building by the Zhangjia river in Shanghai.
 
The brown building is part of a bigger complex, which is going to be used for stores, cafes, arts and craft. It abounds with Chinese workers, who put the last touches on the landscape, which the architect and planning company Møller & Grønborg has designed. In spite of all what is going on, one gets the impression of lots of light and air around the buildings, that are more like sculptures
 
My buildings have to add something personal to the city, and one should get surprised and take an extra look, explains Dan Lenander.
 
Dan does not regard himself as a typical Danish architect. When he was 11 yrs. old, the whole family went to Canada, where they lived close to the mountains, where among other things there was ski sport in the winter.
 
“I think, that the mountains have given  me another dimension. Originally we came from Amager in Copenhagen, a place with lots of sea water. Before I started at the architect school, I studied art in Canada, which gave me another form of feeling of space”, he says.
 
In return he highlights the ability of finding new ideas and work in groups as some of the strengths the architect school in Aarhus have given him, which he has been able to use all over the world.
 
9/11
 
That Dan ended up in China is a bit of a coincidence. 
When he graduated from the Architect school in 2000, he got employed by KPF in New York, who specializes in high-rice buildings and opened his eyes for the new ideas and the big projects in China, when he won the project of creating a new head office for the oil company China National Offshore Oil Corp. in Beijing. A wedge shaped building, which now can be seen in front of the curved building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
 
After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, September 11, 2001, all construction stopped almost from one day to the other in USA, and the number of employees in the company was reduced from 300 to 100 in the matter of three months.
 

CNOOC HQ with KPF

Fortunately a good architect friend encouraged him to come and help him in China, as he had too much to do.  So Dan Lenander jumped into it and moved
to the province capital city of Hangzhou, south of Shanghai.
 
Here he met Kate King, who is an interior designer, and who he is now married to. After 8 months they together started the architect company MTA International in Shanghai, which has given a lot of challenges and insight into the Chinese business culture.
 
THE GREATEST BARRIER
 
Time just flew away, and it has not always been easy.
The methods of doing business are very different from Denmark, but a Chinese marriage has been an advantage.
 
You have somebody you can trust, and somebody who can deal with contracts, communicate and translate. The greatest barriers here is that misunderstandings can easily happen because of the communication and the  Chinese business methods, explains Dan Lenander.
 
In China you don’t always know, what is happening. It is complicated, and things can change. For example we have taken part in a competition for a train station in Mongolia, and now after half a year, no winner has been announced!
Our local partner has just sent a legal letter to the authorities, but we don’t know, what is happening.
 
All I all the Chinese word of “guanxi”, which means “connections”, play a much bigger part, than we know in the West.
 
It is not always the best project, that wins, as “Connections” mean everything.
It is about trust, Dan Lenander says.
 
The well-known Chinese architect Mr. Liang, who is the person behind Shanghai landmark, the TV tower “The Perl of the Orient”, invited Dan to be the city planner for the aria around the new TV tower in Guangzhou in South China. A project of 179.000 square meters, which also Møller & Grønborg took part in. The invitation came at a good time, as Dan had just started his own company, so that was a good connection and help to get.
 
Another experience is, that as a small Danish company it often has to compete with some big American and British architect companies. When taken part in a competition, it is often an advantage, if beforehand one knows some investors or can bring renters - as example a big company, that wants to use the project
as a head quarter. But there are not that many big Danish companies, says Dan.
 
THE WORST
 
There are also other things, one has to be prepared for when working in China.
The worst is, when they change ones design and not respect ones ideas, Dan 
Lenander says.
 
The foreign and local architect companies have divided the job between themselves, so that the foreign architect companies work out the main concept and ideas as to the visible forms. Where after the local architect companies take over the project, and they have the opinion, that it has to be as cheap and functional as possible.
 
According to Dan Lenander the reason is, that the architect schools are only 10 yrs. old in China. So there is no tradition of creativity. During the cultural revolution (1966-76) the old architect culture disappeared, and after that the engineers took over construction. 
Then one had 10 directions: One for train stations, one for schools, one for public buildings and so on. And each had a big manual. If there had to be a certain number of rooms, the building should look a certain way. That is why, a lot of buildings look the same in China.
 
BIG WHITE CANVAS
 
 But after the many years with engineers as architects, the Chinese now want to see something new, something organic and especially something with water, because according to the Chinese it brings good luck.
 
There should not be too many sharp corners or too many straight lines. A reminder too much of the boxes the Chinese have lived in for the last decades, says Dan Lenander.
 
The challenge as architect is the huge projects. One example would be to transform a whole district, which has no context. 
 
It is like a whole blank canvas, where anything can happen. Here one has to find another angle than one is used to and get new ideas. Just like the start of a painting, Dan Lenander says.

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