Roman Dreams
by Shai Oster
Sergio Giocondi doesn't have the wild-eyed,
wholly-haired look of a prophet.
But he has a vision of a bright new future --a place where East and West meet and a harmony is born.
Giocondi is not a guru, quack or crank.
He is an architect.
The founder and head of the Italian architecture and interior design firm SGA Design Studio talks with the frenzy of a true believer. And his creed? Combine western architecture with Chinese beliefs to create a truly modern Chinese style.
"Like Yin and Yang, the two contrasts put together create a new balance," he says. It's a creed that should have more adherents. To the casual observer, it may sometimes appear that city planners are bent on paving over every last square inch of charm and converting it into yet another gaping mall.
"In Beijing there is no real architecture --only some really good buildings," Giocondi says. The primary reason is that cost is put before everything else, he says.
The trend appears to have slowed somewhat now that go-go building of the mid 1990s has abated. In fact, newer projects are exhibiting more sensitivity to Beijing's architectural history, and the government has also stressed the importance of preserving the past in its quest for a new metropolis.
But as Giocondi points out, some architects' modern interpretation of tradition is to put a traditional Chinese roof onto a chrome skyscraper.
The effect is somewhat like watching your grandmother dye her hair bright blue. She may have the color right, but the result doesn't work. Making a modern synthesis requires more than just combining different styles. "You need to understand the old cultures to produce a new culture," Giocondi says.
So, does an Italian understand Chinese architecture? Base your opinion on his work at the Guan Yue Tibetan Temple Residence.
From the outside, the building is a modest, yet delicate temple made of red brick and forest green tile. Inside is a sleek and inviting apartment of modern, angular and curved spaces.
The construction was limited by one thing: none of the original building could be changed. To solve that problem, what Giocondi did was to essentially build a large piece of furniture or sculpture that fits inside the temple and divides the space into two floors and rooms.
The addition has no explicitly Chinese stylistic elements but the stark white walls and bold shapes fit effortlessly against the rich designs of the original temple. Each element plays off the other: dark versus light, baroque versus simple, rigid versus free.
"The apartment is just a small example," Giocondi explains. "This creates a new synthesis. We want to make something completely Chinese but with new blood."
SGA opened a representative office here two years ago and was one of the firms to proffer a design for the Grand National Theatre of Beijing, which drew entrees from top firms across the China and the world. It is the first Italian architecture firm with offices here and its goal is nothing less than the transformation of Beijing.
"It's not a beautiful city, but has potential to be really, really beautiful --if they accept our experience and our heritage," Giocondi says. "We know how to work a modern city in terms of city planning creating spaces for people."
The Chinese need to be more open to outside
suggestions in the quest to rebuild, he says.
Currently, SGA is negotiating with potential join venture partners. Under current, foreign architecture firms are limited to interior design. A Chinese partner will allow SGA to do buildings and other designs as well. Working with Chinese poses no problem to Giocondi, who already has Chinese architecture students working at his office.
He sees it as an opportunity to spread his gospel of cross-culture building. Giocondi was raised in Rome, a city where the past intrudes on the present through such stunning buildings as the Coliseum and other ancient ruins. "You grow up with a sense of beauty and proportion," he says. When 16, he decided to pursue architecture because it combined creativity with other process.
He graduated as an architect from Rome University in the 1970s and later moved to California where he got an advanced degree from the University of California of Los Angles. It was on the invitation of a Chinese classmate who had returned home, that Giocondi began his relationship with China.
That first trip was just as a consultant, but he soon started visiting regularly and then decided to open an office here. While China's economy has slowed since the go-go days a few years ago, he believes there will be another building boom to match the first.
Until the, he will continue living in China, nearly full time, forsaking his beloved spaghetti and visiting his wife and child only once every two months.
"Here, every day there is something to. We are ready to participate.