FIRST PRIZE WINNER!
Dingbang Qi
Dingbang Qi, Undergraduate student at Beijing University of civil engineering and architecture ( BUCEA ), majoring in Building Materials.
Third Prize and the Best Exhibition Board Award winners of 2021 "Taijai Cup" the 6th National Civil Engineering Materials Creative Works Competition in December 2021, working as designer and team leader.
The First Prize winner of Notion of Space 2022.
Interview with the Winner
What is your design philosophy?
Actually, I’m still trying some new design styles, methods, even software, exploring my own path in this field. My design philosophy is reasonable. Whatever the reason is and whatever the method people use, the most important thing is that the design has a strong logical support.
Can you briefly explain your understanding of the topic and the source of ideas?
The competition is about paradoxical architecture, and the intention of the competition is to add excitement to everyday mundane life in an architectural way.
The meaning of paradox in the dictionary is “one (such as a person, situation, or action) having seemingly contradictory qualities or phases.” I think these contradictions will create some tensions between these qualities. These kinds of tensions are the reason why paradocial things are so beautiful. The tension creating tricks is very common in the music field, such as the bass line is a series of stable root notes while the guitar is playing some kind of nervous unstable chords. And this beautiful result matches with the competition’s goal.
So I finally chose Damascus steel as the prototype of my design. This is because firstly, Damascus steel always gets involved in two or three different types of materials, entwining them together, which means it has two or three different kinds of material languages. However, these different types of materials can coexist in the Damascus steel as an entirety successfully. This is a kind of mathematical paradox that makes seven equal to one.
Secondly, the special patterns created by the Damascus forging process create the feeling of liquid, which brings people the visual feeling of fluid. But Damascus is a solid metal piece. So, this special nature of Damascus steel makes people have a paradoxical feeling.
When and how you were first introduced to architecture?
I was introduced to architecture when I was about 17 years old. I was searching for my path at that time and I just watched a bunch of Yixi lectures on the internet. A professor talked about his project that is helping people who lived in the southwest part of China rebuild their village ruined by a severe flood in an architectural way. This project impressed me most.
What does architecture mean to you?
Architecture is a way to make connections. A lot of events happened in these buildings. These buildings become the background of our memories, our feelings are always related to the space where important events happen. These kinds of connections with people are very moving.
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