Vila de Zishi, a vila côr-de-púrpura - Quando o Ocidente projecta no Oriente

Abstract

It was at the A+E Design in Shenzhen, in an internship opportunity created by Professor Marco Ginoulhiac, which I aimed to apply the knowledge and design methods learned at the internationally recognized Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto. Therefore, it was in a China in a constant and rapid modernization that the challenges of the starting in the Chinese workforce have revealed an interesting and revitalizing cultural meeting and, therefore, architectural. This dissertation is the result of a year of work in this big studio. In it, I project all the knowledge that I absorbed about the culture and the architecture in China, which allows me to question both the limits of an architect in this immense country, as well as to confront of the Western and Eastern architectural process. In this paper, I intend to present not only an architectural project but also a study that contributes to a better understanding of the diferences between working methods in China and the West, in order to prepare the Western architect to project in the Asian context. The study presented, is focused on a solitary project of the Cultural Center of Zishi, that represents the result of the experiences and conclusions from the meeting of two diferent processes. The village of Zishi is a remote place in South China that still holds a very own culture, untouched by modernization. For this reason, it has become the ideal stage for a refection on the interactions between architect, client, government, and user.