Last June we met the American architect Adam Mayer in the city of Chengdu. Adam was educated at USC LA and worked for two years as an architect in Chengdu. Apart from producing architecture in the fastest urbanizing region in the world, Adam also writes on his blog China Urban Development. He reflects in an interesting and profound way on the current spatial developments in China. The piece below is his most recent writing, and we’re very happy to be publishing it as well. Hopefully many more to come..
A few months ago I read a piece from Bloomberg discussing Frank Gehry’s decision to ‘turn to Asia for architecture projects as U.S. growth slows.’ In terms of big name architects from the U.S. and Europe turning to Asia for work, Gehry is late to the party. Nevertheless, it is a very telling sign that Gehry, someone who in the past could be highly selective of his clients, is looking to Asia to keep his office busy.
In the Bloomberg article, Gehry is candid about his desire to work domestically in the U.S. yet lacking the opportunity due to the depressed economic situation. As if another reminder is needed about the sorry state of the industry, Salon published a piece about the dire outlook for the profession last month titled ‘The Architecture Meltdown‘.
So aside from returning to graduate school, designing furniture or leaving the profession completely, most architects in the U.S. and other Western nations have limited options, therefore turning to emerging markets where there is work happening. China is by far the largest of these emerging markets for new buildings.
