STATEMENT OF PURPOSE UPENN

STATEMENT OF PURPOSEName: CHEN QIDate: Jan.10.2009When I was young, I read a poetry written by Phyllis Lin (Lin Huiyin), who is regarded as the first female architect in China. “The soul of whatever ancient lofty gate towers, or a declining corner of the base of a hall of Buddhist Temple, is telling even singing in an immaterial way.” Just from here, I began to wonder what these souls are singing. Although I had played violin for more than 15 years, I had never think of the melody of any architecture. Eventually, I decided to follow Lin’ footsteps and pursue my own comprehension and interpretation of architecture.The comprehensive study in the past 5 years enlightens me on the initial understanding of construction. My membership in SCUT debate team has given me the opportunity to read a diversity of theories including feminism, rationalism, and dialectics, and to exchange my ideas about life, laws and public policies with other team members as well as with experts and professors in various fields. Besides, a clear realizing of the inequality and a strong sense of social responsibility has been urging me to try my best to help the weak. Therefore, I volunteered to teach secondary students in rural areas, to donate blood twice per year, and to give lectures for charities. And then a piece of news that some young architects has built a simple bridge for students in Maosi village to go to school caught my attention, and fostered me to realize that architecture can also be a solution to social problems.Since then, I’ve been exploring the way to use design to solve problems, especially in my widely praised studio works. For instance, I created a barrier-free and vehicle-free environment for elders and children in the residence design, and planed a green walkway to link three different elevations and to provide a leisure space for nearby residents, teachers and students in the campus theater design. In the 3rd Canton Architecture Competition whose theme was Migrant Worker's House, after carefully analyzing the temporary management model of migrant workers, I proposed a new model in which migrant worker’s houses would play a key role in connecting workers, enterprises and the local government, so as to help solve the living problems of migrant workers and ease the chaos brought by the rapid urbanization.Knowledge can be powerful only in practice. For this reason I’ve accumulated working experiences involving Chinese Tao temple design, opera house design, exhibition center design, and urban design of coastal area. My recent role as a key designer for the ICB of Architecture Schematic Design of Zhuhai Opera House has taught me much about the complexity of a practical project and the importance of teamwork. I’ve worked out more than ten schemes with other team members considering adverse factors such as typhoon, tide and construction difficulties in building on a man-made island, together with favored conditions such as scenery surroundings and significant geographical location. At last we succeeded in creating an amazing architecture with comfortable environment, and our proposal was awarded the Prize of Excellence.Culture pondering can be a soul of architecture. A two years period of extensive research on my hometown Chaozhou Ancient City and the folk houses has urged me to realize our predecessors’ wisdom in planning a city and building houses, as well as various design strategies that are developed to respond to local climate, geography and hierarchy. Standing on Chaozhou’s Guangji Bridge, the first bascule bridge in the world, I am lost in thinking: Some cities forget their own culture in the rapid development; another some cities preserve splendid culture at the cost of the absence of new architecture. Then how to preserve culture of a city, like Chaozhou, while at the same time set up the stage for an experimental architecture?Closing my eye, I seemed to hear the hubbub in Kongfu Teahouse. Closing my eye, I seemed to hear the voice of the weak for space during the modernization. Closing my eye, I am aware I am insufficient in technological knowledge dimensions to write down the transient note and solve these problems. That’s why I apply for UPENN’s MArch program, which has combined technological exploration and artistic experimention to help compose architecture melody. I am absolutely longing for the study in UPENN and I believe I will have enough motivation and abilities to orchestrate wonderful architecture here.CHEN QI。