Course Gains
This course has been incredibly rewarding for me. On one hand, it helped me become more familiar with a variety of artworks and gave me the opportunity to train my hand through practice. I even encountered some of these original works during my travels—for example, Giacometti and Piranesi at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and David Hockney’s Great Canyon at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. These original pieces rarely tour in China, so being on exchange here has greatly enriched my experience.
On the other hand, this course has inspired new design approaches for me—such as translating paintings into architectural floor plans and creating secondary layered works based on original paintings. At my home institution, art modeling classes are taught by artists rather than architectural designers, and they tend to focus more on pure art training—like sketching and color studies—without effectively linking to design. This course has offered me a fresh perspective and helped me think more directly and effectively about the connection between art and architecture.
David Hockney, Great Canyon
Photoed on 28/05/2025 Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
Future Outlook
In recent years, the architectural profession in China has faced a sudden downturn, due to the stagnation of real estate development and the unsustainability of land finance. Many professionals have left the field, and students have grown disillusioned with their major. A few years ago, being an architect in China was very lucrative, but now it seems to have returned to the global average salary level. As a result, those who pursued architecture purely for financial gain have left, leaving behind only those with a genuine passion for the field.
Personally, I believe architecture is a great discipline—it enriches the mind, even if it doesn't bring great wealth. However, I find the architectural design process to be overly complex and inefficient. In the future, I may pursue doctoral research focusing on how to make architectural design production—such as layout work—more efficient, in order to free up architects' time and allow them to concentrate more on meaningful design stages. In this regard, this course has prompted me to think deeply about the operational aspects of design, and I believe it will have a lasting influence on my future development.
Alberto Giacometti, Portrait of a Woman (Rita?)
Photoed on 03/03/2025 Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid