In the previous entry I have illustrated a phenomenon in contemporary Chinese cities known as "Da Wu Ding" (大屋顶), which literally means big cap. The cap manifests itself by crowning a building constructed in contemporary methods (concrete, steel, etc.) with traditional Chinese roofing elements; its methodology coincides with some of the most iconic Postmodernist examples of the West (image 1), its intended content however, remains theoretically unique and independent. [1]
(image 1) Prime Hotel, Beijing | Caesars Palace, Las Vegas
As told from the previous entry, the cap was experimented as early as 1950's, predating Postmodernism in the West almost three decades. At a time when the aesthetics of modernism began to adapt new metaphors as seen in the newly emerged International Style, in China the new political program hijacked the old roof to represent people over the celestial. The demonstrative ability of signs become organic to carry multiple meanings.
With the exterior adorned by such references, traditional roofing, which functionally serves as protective and structural elements, transforms into the skin of objects. In cases where the caps are cover-ups of completely unrelated interior spaces, the skin separates even more and eventually become clothing pieces (image 2).
This of course is nothing tectonically new, the architecture themselves are objects much blamed for that blatancy of adaptation [2]; however, through the process of capping, signs become organic in forms and highly evolvable by isolating objects from their respective context, which in return create new conditions and form new contexts.
(image 2) Tianzi Hotel, Beijing
[1] http://www.shiy.net/Article/lunwen/20061203/2134.html
[2] http://2009.chinese.cn/article/2009-09/16/content_65050.htm
by Neil Yan, 3rd Year Standing
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