At the beginning of their studies, architecture students at the China Academy of Art are given a unique spatial and material experience: They build sculptures using nothing but bricks and mortar.
At the southeastern end of the Xiangshan campus in Hangzhou lies a kind of real-world laboratory for architecture students at the China Academy of Art. Integrated into an introductory course on the fundamentals of bricklaying, they construct their own designs here year after year. The only requirement is that they use only bricks and mortar as building materials. According to Lichao Chen, professor at the China Academy of Art and deputy director of the Sustainable Construction Lab, the physical experience and the aesthetic engagement with the building material, and, not least, the physical and manual activity involved in the construction process allow the students to develop a relationship with the material itself and to get to know its properties firsthand.
On a rectangular plot of land measuring just 30 by 15 meters, around fifty brick constructions arose between 2014 and 2024. At the beginning of each course, some of the existing structures have to be dismantled to make room for new ones. The salvaged bricks are then simply reused. Currently, the open-air laboratory comprises around twenty-six structures: The range of brick constructions extends from simple walls and stairs to slides, fireplaces, and pavilions, all the way to barrel and cross vaults. The resulting structures can be explored and climbed. The students not only gain practical skills, but they can also experience their completed designs spatially and recognize the aesthetic and poetic qualities that come with reducing them to a single material, brick. As the jury’s statement explains: “It trains students in a collaborative process from design to realization, combining reflection and craftsmanship.”
