"The other day, we went out of town to discuss a project. On the plane flight, Elder Xing drew a drawing on napkins, and I was deeply moved by this scene. Liu Wei, vice president of the Fourth Academy of Architecture of Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute of Huajian Group, sighed.
Liu Wei said that "sketching on napkins" is the famous architect Xing Tonghe. In the past 60 years, Xing Tonghe has presided over and designed more than 300 projects, he is a witness to the golden 40 years of Urban Construction in Shanghai, and is also a deep participant, and his representative works such as Shanghai Museum, Bund Scenic Belt, Shanghai Longhua Martyrs Cemetery, and a major memorial hall of the Communist Party of China have become landmark buildings in Shanghai. He also presided over the planning and design of major construction projects such as the Memorial Hall of Deng Xiaoping's Former Residence in Guang'an, Sichuan, the Memorial Hall and the "New Era" Square. On February 26th, at the "Premiere Ceremony of the Corporate Culture Documentary of "Jian Chu Xin, Building People's Livelihood" held in the East Library of Shanghai Library, "Xing Tonghe Original Sketch 丨 Planning Collection", "Xing Tonghe Original Sketch 丨 Architectural Collection" and "Da Yi Xiao Cheng" by Chen Guoliang, Chief Architect of Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute of Huajian Group, were unveiled at the same time.
In 1962, Xing Tonghe graduated from Tongji University majoring in urban planning. The turning point in life occurred at the moment of the graduation project defense. At that time, the architect Chen Zhi attended the defense meeting as an external professor and admired Xing Tonghe's graduation design. He had no previous encounter with the student, but he was impressed by the defense.
At the time of graduation assignment, the students went to Tiannanhaibei, and Xing Tonghe rarely stayed in Shanghai and entered the Shanghai Civic Architectural Design Institute. The day before the report, the head of the department told him: "After work, remember to thank Elder Chen, it was Elder Chen who wrote a letter to the Ministry of Construction and asked to assign you to him." Since then, Xing Tonghe entered the civil architectural design institute, and later the unit was renamed Shanghai Modern Architectural Design Group and Huajian Group.
In today's popular computer drawing, hand-drawn paper is a habit that Xing Tonghe insists on. His family rarely has his own model of his own works, but he treasures almost all hand-drawn paper, early with pens, watercolors, etc., and later with pens, markers, etc., bright colors, proper rendering, clear and easy to understand.
"Since graduating from university in 1962 and entering the 'Shanghai Academy', I have always maintained a strong creative passion. I love architecture, choose architecture, and aspire to be a people's architect. The collection of works published every ten years is the fourth set. These two books contain the main works I have designed from 2009 to 2021, that is, in my 70s and 80s, two-thirds of which are in Shanghai. Xing Tonghe said that these sketches bear witness to the 100% enthusiasm he has invested in the process from scratch to the completion of construction, and some works are worth staying even if they do not land in the end.
Among the works included in the book, Xing Tonghe highlighted the key word as "red feelings", and he devoted great efforts to the development project of a major memorial hall of the Communist Party of China and the Revolutionary Martyrs Memorial Site of Longhua Martyrs Cemetery. In the whole design process of the FIRST MEMORIAL HALL OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY, Xing Tonghe has more than 90 pieces of hand-drawn paper, and the design scheme respects the original urban street style and scale, adopts the method of block reduction, and through the façade design, makes the first memorial hall of the COMMUNIST Party of China consistent with the overall style of the first congress site of the CPC and Xintiandi. On the Qingming Festival in 2020, he worked until 4 a.m., when the overall connection design plan of the Longhua Revolutionary Martyrs' Memorial Site was finalized, and Xing Tonghe, who was full of emotions, left such a sentence on the design drawing: This is the best way to comfort the revolutionary martyrs.
Xing Tonghe has always advocated: the plan should be blank, do not do too much, think clearly to keep it first, and leave a little room for future generations. He summed up his planning for Shanghai into eight words - "planning leaves blank, culture leaves the soul", "culture leaves the soul" to excavate Shanghai's culture and cultural context. There are many museums, former residences of celebrities, and red venues in Shanghai, and the red culture that came out of Shikumen continues and improves, and there are many articles to be done.
"At this time, I am proud to have left my work and footprints on the land of Shanghai." Xing Tonghe said that the purpose of Shanghai design and design for the people runs through his works, "as long as my thinking is not exhausted, the cause of designing for the people will not end." ”
As a series of activities for the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Huajian Group's Shanghai Hospital, the documentary "Jian Chu Xin • Building People's Livelihood" looks back at the urban construction process of Shanghai, explores the close connection between architectural design and the development of Shanghai city, highlights the spirit and character of the city, pays tribute to the new era, and has been broadcast on the Documentary Humanities Channel.