In contemporary Chinese architectural culture, Hua Li’s work stands out as a phenomenon. His architecture demonstrates little in the way of formalistic eccentricities, cultural symbolism, or indeed the ‘Chineseness’ that some others seek to pursue. Instead, what interests the architect is, most of all, the quality of material, construction, space, and place. As indicated by Hua’s recent lectures, his concept of place remains connected to the larger site of a building project, its topography, climate, local materials, and craftsmanship. As such it is similar to, though also different from, the concept of place proposed by Christian Norberg-Schulz – the Norwegian architectural historian and theorist known for his theory of place influenced by philosopher Martin Heidegger, which was developed through various texts including: Intentions in Architecture (1963); Existence, Space and Architecture (1971); and Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture (1979). The similarities consist in Hua Li and Norberg-Schulz’s imagination of place as meaningful and transcending merely the physical aspects of a site. Place, here, is a local condition, an atmosphere or a ‘spirit’ that is to be gathered, revealed, and visualised by the work of architecture. Hua also differs from Norberg-Schulz, in the sense that, unlike the use (or misuse) of Heidegger’s philosophy evident in Norberg-Schulz’s theoretical articulation of architectural phenomenology – concerning qualities of meaning, atmosphere, poetry, and the senses – his concept of place is fraught with fascination at the potential of a place. Instead of the ‘existential meaning’ of architecture, Hua’s interest in place calls for new possibilities of intervening and reconstruction through architectural operations.
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