《現代之眼──張肇康百年誕辰建築紀念大展 香港巡迴展》

Modern Eye──The Centennial Exhibition of Architect Chang Chao Kang

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《現代之眼──張肇康百年誕辰建築紀念大展 香港巡迴展》2024年10月29日至12月13日於牛棚藝術村1a空間展出。本次展覽於2022-2023年在台灣首展且巡迴3次，這次回到張肇康先生的故鄉，極具歷史意義。張肇康先生在香港成長，並與甘洺 (Eric Cumine)、貝聿銘等重要建築師合作，太平行大樓、陳樹渠紀念中學舊址、薄扶林的多福大廈，是他在香港的重要作品，也是他以新的觀點重新思考華人現代建築的實驗場。 

 

張肇康先生是華人近代建築史上最具傳奇性、也是第一代接受最前衛的包浩斯教育的建築師。1922年出生於廣東中山，長居香港，曾祖父是前清的道臺；祖父在香港經營地產，如安蘭街、蘭桂坊、啓德機場和一些碼頭；1941年12月月25日至1945年8月15日日本佔領香港期間，家族開始衰落。祖父喜歡收集骨董，思想較傳統，因此張肇康也在私塾念過四書五經、唐詩宋詞，和華人文化很親近。張肇康是長孫，自小受溺愛，儘管父系母系的家庭都是大商賈，自己卻不擅做生意，喜歡文學、藝術。 

 

1946年畢業於上海聖約翰大學建築系，中國第一所採用包浩斯教育方式的建築系，張肇康是第一屆畢業生，隨後進入基泰工程司跟隨楊廷寶建築師兩年。大陸政權易手前，張肇康赴美伊利諾理工學院(IIT)深造，受教於巴克敏斯特．富勒(Buckminster Fuller, 1895-1983)，1949年進入哈佛大學設計研究生院(GSD)，師從葛羅培斯(Walter Gropius, 1883-1969)。取得碩士後，短暫幾年在美工作，1954年在貝聿銘的邀請下，和陳其寬一起參與東海大學校園規劃和建築設計，這是他與臺灣結緣的開始，隨後展開他精彩的一生。 

 

早年在臺灣、香港、美國都留下許多重要的作品。1970年代中由美國返回香港定居，1983年起，率領香港大學建築系學生多次考察中國傳統建築與鄉村景觀，與瑞士建築師維爾納．布雷澤（Werner Blaser, 1924-2019）及港大講師龍炳頤同行，共遊歷了一萬二千公里，並於1987 年與布雷澤共同出版《中國：建築之道》(China: Tao in Architecture)。張肇康晚年必然有一股神秘的力量牽引著他，告訴他回到滋養華人文化的土地上尋找答案，並以新的、當下的眼光來看待並紀錄傳統民居，所以該書不僅僅是測繪紀錄，裡面還飽含觀點與未來的視野，張肇康知道如果今天回顧傳統還有任何意義的話，唯有以「現代之眼」詮釋之。張肇康先生留下的建築資產，對整個華人建築文化的現代性，潛藏著無以限量的重要性，這是策劃此展覽的緣由。歡迎各界關心建築文化的朋友蒞臨觀賞。 

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‘Modern Eye──The Centennial Exhibition of Architect Chang Chao Kang’ will be held from 29 October to 13 December 2024 at 1a space, Cattle Depot Artist Village. The exhibition, originally launched in Taiwan in 2022-2023 and subsequently toured thrice, holds considerable historical significance as it returns to the birthplace of Mr. Chang Chao Kang. Mr. Chang Chao Kang, who was raised in Hong Kong, collaborated with prominent architects such as Eric Cumine and I.M. Pei. His noteworthy works in Hong Kong include the Pacific House, the former location of Chan Shu Kui Memorial School, and the Dor Fook Mansion in Pokfulam. These sites functioned as experimental platforms where he reimagined modern Chinese architecture from a novel perspective. 

 

Mr. Chang Chao Kang is probably the most legendary architect in the history of Chinese modern architecture, not to mention the first generation to receive the most advanced Bauhaus education at the time. Born in Zhongshan, Guangdong in 1922 and lived in Hong Kong, his great grandfather was a Qing-dynasty government official and his grandfather a property developer in Hong Kong with assets in On Lan Street, Lan Kwai Fong, Kai Tak Airport and several ports. 

 

During Japanese occupation of Hong Kong from Dec 25, 1945 to Aug. 15, 1945, the Chang family fortune began to decline. His grandfather was a conservative man who enjoyed collecting antiques, so he also studied classics like the Four Books and Five Classics and Tang and Song poetry at a Chinese private academy, thus cultivating his affinity to Chinese culture. As the oldest grandson, he was indulged by the entire family and never learned how to do business despite the immense commercial success on both his maternal and paternal sides; instead, he revelled in the world of literature and arts. 

 

In 1946, Chang graduated from the architecture school at Saint John's University, Shanghai, which was the first to adopt Bauhaus education in China. Chang, graduating among the school’s first batch of alumni, then worked under architect Yang Ting Pao at Kwan, Chu and Yang Architects for two years. Prior to the shifting of political powers in China, he left to study at Illinois Institute of Technology in the U.S. and studied under Buckminster Fuller. He then studied under Walter Gropius at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). After completing his master's degree, Chang worked at Gropius’ Collaborative Architects (TAC) for two years, and then was employed at Thomas & Worster in Boston. In 1954, at the invitation of I.M. Pei, Chang participated in the campus planning and architectural design of Tunghai University with Chen Chi Kwan. This was Chang’s first major contribution towards Chinese Modernism.  

 

During the mid-1970’s, Chang moved his family back from the U.S. to Hong Kong where he started a private practice. He broadened his scope of work in 1983 by teaching at the Department of Architecture of the University of Hong Kong. The topics of his lectures were on traditional Chinese architecture and he led numerous student field trips to study the architecture in rural landscapes. Chang travelled a total of 12,000 kilometers with fellow Hong Kong University lecturer Lung Ping Yee and these travels provided materials for a collaboration with Swiss architect, Werner Blaser (1924-2019). Chang and Blaser co-published China: Tao in Architecture in 1987.  

 

Despite his waning health in the 1980s, he undertook numerous trips into the most ancient and remote parts of China and completed detailed studies and measured drawings of the vernacular dwellings he saw at the time through his modern eye. To him, it was imperative to document with a humble attitude these already or soon-to-be damaged dwellings, which he believed embodied the essence of Chinese architecture, with a view to preserve the traditions for posterity as invaluable reference and inspiration.