In the past battles
Deputy Director of the Department of Environmental Art Design, Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University
Interviews
【Zhongzhao Xinnet】Hello Teacher Yu, please introduce your career path, why did you choose design academic research and teaching as your career?
I used to study art design, and graduated from the original Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, that is, the Department of Environmental Art. Whether in the field of design or in the field of teaching, it has gone through a long run-in period, and now it has been more than 20 years, and there are several aspects to education and love for design:
First, design itself is a means to create a higher quality of life and a better life for people, which can make our lives more comfortable and of higher quality.
We do environmental art is mainly the creation of environmental quality, the creation of environmental quality and other industries there are some differences, the environment is often people can not be separated, people in the environment almost no choice, unlike product design, art works, you do not like can not buy or not own. But we are in the environment, whether you like it or not, you can't escape, so the quality of the environment is very important, and the requirements for designers are also very high.
What kind of environment, what kind of style, what kind of quality environment you make will have a crucial impact on the people in this environment in the future. This influence is often subtle, and people in this environment may sometimes not notice it, and they will be affected by this environmental quality. Therefore, the requirements for the quality of the designer and his ability will be very high.
The same is true of education. Education is the link of cultivating people, so what kind of people to cultivate and how to cultivate people have always been a topic facing our educators.
Now the social changes are very fast, completely different from the era when we were in school, and now children's mastery of information and thirst for new knowledge are no longer the same as before, and they also bring a lot of challenges to teaching.
As a person, I have been engaged in teaching work, and I have deeply realized the difficulty of this place. Now the young people's thirst for knowledge, at the same time their literacy, quality is also getting higher and higher, for us engaged in education people continue to put forward new requirements, is the charm of this industry, so I have been enjoying it.
What are the characteristics and advantages of Tsinghua University in the teaching of environmental design?
The Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University has its own unique places, and our characteristics are different at different times and stages.
In the past, in the period of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, we paid more attention to practice and the cultivation of students' practical ability. After merging with Tsinghua University into a comprehensive university, we have also evolved from a school with strong practicality and practice to a research-oriented major, especially from the scale of enrollment, from the quality of students, and from the school's teaching purpose, it is a research-oriented teaching system, so our entire teaching direction and teaching methods have undergone great changes.
Of course, the state of students has also changed a lot, and now students pay more attention to the learning of design methods and pay more attention to the cultivation of literacy and pattern. Undergraduate graduation is only a stage of his learning career, and more students also have to train graduate students, even doctoral studies, so that they can enter the society.
The state in which students enter society is also very different from before. As the professional system of the whole society is getting stronger and stronger, this kind of practice of students in school is different from the practice of real society: students are more methodological learning and mastery of concepts, and they need to be honed in the field of practice for a long time to be able to adapt to real social development. This seems to be not as adaptable to work as before after graduation, but the aesthetic literacy and vision of students now may be better, and the development potential will be much better than before.
Our education is more international because our current education system is almost seamlessly connected internationally. This is also through our students after graduation to go abroad to study graduate school, master's degree and doctoral studies, can be seen that they can be well connected with the foreign teaching system, students will not appear to be uncomfortable, which are some positive changes after the change of our educational methods.
Now, whether from the teaching method or the education system, we are constantly exploring and improving: every school year we will have more or less adjustments in teaching, just to meet the needs of the rapidly changing social development. I believe that this change is always continuing, and the adjustment of our teaching is always ongoing.
What attempts and efforts has Tsinghua University made in the combination of production, education and research, and what are the results?
All of our graduates ultimately want to enter the society, go to the workplace, must engage in related work, make professional contributions to society, and how to better adapt to society and better adapt to the development of the industry is an important requirement for every educator.
As a research-oriented university, it pays more attention to academic research in the teaching system, and pays more attention to the cultivation of patterns, the expansion of horizons, and the improvement of capabilities. In terms of specific ability training, after our second grade, especially in the third and senior grades, there will be social internships to encourage students to enter practical positions and master more practical work experience in practice.
The state of the students now is very different from before. At the student level, the real design and professional work is not as much as before, and the practical nature is so strong, and at the student level, it is more to participate in some design competitions and SRT's kind of teacher workshops. The real and practical engineering design often has to be carried out in professional companies and professional firms. In school, we learn design methods and design concepts, and the design in the company is a more practical operation, so these two legs are carried out at the same time in our teaching, which also enables our students to grasp the concept at the same time, but also understand the trend of social development, in order to be able to better adapt to society when they graduate.
Of course, what we focus on cultivating students during school is his ability, rather than specific skills. The cultivation of ability and pattern, or the expansion of thinking, is what we value more at this stage of school.
【China Equipment Xinnet】What are the current difficulties in cultivating environmental design professionals?
New technologies and new social changes have posed challenges to education. At present, the speed of updating knowledge and various technologies is very fast, especially the intervention of digital technology and artificial intelligence AI in design, which poses a great challenge to our traditional teaching. Some skills that used to be trained for a long time and hard are now quickly completed with computers, leaving designers with more of an expansion of thinking and the expression of ideas.
How to make students produce good ideas and good concepts is actually more focused on cultivation in teaching. Technical training, we only put forward some requirements, or students know some of the latest trends and achievements in the development of science and technology, which requires students to master independently after class, and in the learning stage, it is actually more of a training of thinking.
With the development of the industry, design software and technology are constantly changing, how can universities cultivate design talents that are closer to the current development needs of enterprises?
In recent years, various new technologies and new software, new technical means and equipment have emerged continuously, and students have been continuously attracted by these new technologies in the process of learning. But for the designer, the most essential thing is his thoughts, which is the concern for people, the attention to society, and some research on the design ontology.
In the design process and teaching process, we have always paid attention to the cultivation of students' design ability, and of course, we have also integrated some of the latest technological achievements into the teaching. For example, the parametric design of the course we opened, now the name of this course has been adjusted to digital design thinking, because the current digital technology has been deeply involved in the design, and it is not like the digital technology that used to be just a design means, it is now even a way of thinking, so it will also be integrated into our teaching content. For example, the design of programming and the use of BIM systems in engineering are more or less reflected in our teaching, so that students can understand the current industry dynamics at least in the school stage, so that students can expand their careers and patterns. Of course, the specific technical mastery also needs to be in the actual work, or the students themselves rely on their spare time to learn.
There are no particularly technical computer or digital courses in our teaching system, and they are all about thinking training.
【China New Network】What kind of design talents are most popular and desired by enterprises now?
The needs of enterprises for talents are diverse, and each type of talent will be welcomed to varying degrees in enterprises. For example, skilled talents, the enterprise needs a lot of operational, skilled talents to implement the program and the cooperation of the program, of course, the enterprise also needs some thinking-type research talents, the program, the expansion of the previous work, or the exploration of the enterprise in a wider field, for an enterprise are needed.
Then our training of students is more to hope that students must master some basic technical skills, and at the same time pay more attention to the improvement of students' own design ability and design literacy. Aesthetic ability is actually a foundation established in school, and as his professional experience grows, his literacy will gradually deepen. The student landscape and vision is actually the focus of our training.
As the tutor of the "Zhongzhuang Cup" National College Students Environmental Design Competition, what kind of students are most likely to get your guidance?
We hope that students not only provide better renderings and design expressions, we need to see designs with thoughts, thinking and content, in fact, this is the design potential that can best express students. It is not only the solution of some superficial problems, we hope to see students' thinking about the deeper content behind it, concern for society, concern for people, concern for real life, and then through this attention, expressed in appropriate means, this is what we hope to see.
【China Decoration New Network】What aspects do you pay the most attention to when judging the works of China Decoration Cup?
[Yu Lizhan] Surface design expression is one aspect, which mainly depends on his aesthetic literacy, aesthetic ability, of course, more attention is paid to the deeper thinking expressed in his design - for the user, for the project itself is more suitable; for some social issues, for some deeper people and social relations, people and space relations, people and life relationship understanding, in fact, we pay more attention to.
【Zhongshi Xinnet】What kind of expectations and suggestions do you have for Zhongshi Cup?
The Zhongzhong Cup has been held continuously for some time, and I think it is now developing better and better, more and more professional, and the research presented in it is getting stronger and stronger.
I hope that the "Zhongzhong Cup" will continue to develop like this, while absorbing more professional directions.
What kind of advice do you have for environmental design students who are about to graduate?
After graduation, all students will eventually enter the society and enter the specific workplace, and the graduation of the school is not the end of learning, but the entry into the workplace is to further study. At the same time, I also hope that students will be able to withstand loneliness in their respective positions, have concentration, continue to study and study, and believe that they will definitely be able to achieve very good achievements.
Designer Interview
Planner: Bi Zhiyu
Written by: Li Erqing
Photo: Li Erqing
Editor: Li Erqing
Producer: Zhang Haixia