He Jingtang: Designer of Oriental Crown

The organizing committee of the World Expo 2010 Shanghai sent out invitation on April 25， 2007， shortly after Shanghai won the bid to host the expo， to architects with Chinese ancestry all over the world to design for the Chinese national pavilion， hoping that a design would best embody the Chinese wisdom in urban development and highlight the value of Chinese tradition and culture.

The request for China’s first world expo in the history of world expositions since 1851 excited many world-class architects. He Jingtang， director of Architecture School of South China University of Science and Technology， was very excited about the opportunity. He and many other architects rushed to Shanghai and attended the press conference about the global design contest.

He Jingtang decided to compete. Though he was not viewed as an architect in the top-tier， the architect had engaged himself in planning and designing college campuses across the country in China’s modernization drive. In fact， he had played a key part in overall plans and designs for 100 universities and colleges across the country. The new campus of Zhejiang University was his creation.

In his 70s， He Jingtang was still ambitious. Though he had won many top architectural design awards and many of his designs were adopted for key universities， all these had been domestic top honors. The greatest designs， such as the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as well as the CCTV New Building and the National Theater in Beijing， were all designed by foreign architects. As a Chinese architect， He Jingtang wanted to try again. Chinese architects all regarded it as their honor to compete with foreign architects again for the Chinese national pavilion.

As soon as he flew back from Shanghai after the press conference， he called in 20 plus architects and announced his decision. At the meeting， he put forward the guiding principle for the design: their final design should perfectly embody Chinese characteristics and Chinese spirit. They had two months to come up with a plan for the preliminary round of selection in Shanghai.

He Jingtang said that the design must be full of Chinese elements. If a structure merges well with an American background or Japanese background or any background in any part of the world， it wouldn’t be essentially Chinese.

He and his associates went over Chinese elements they could think of: the Forbidden Palace， Peking opera， traditional painting， Chinese pictographs， porcelain， garden， bronze， Yellow River and Yangtze River. His associates were divided into three groups. In a few days， they came up with three tentative concepts: the oriental crown， the garden in the south of the Yangtze River Delta， and the Chinese good-luck expression.

The oriental crown was his idea. The bracket is a building block frequently used in traditional Chinese architecture. Structurally， it bears the weight of the roof. But such a structural component also shows a noble social status. Aesthetically， He Jingtang believed， such a touch would give a structure a depth and a look of majesty if appropriately and cleverly incorporated. But a bracket was just an idea. The roof of the Chinese national pavilion would be as large as two and a half football court. A giant bracket would probably produce a sense of suppression. Moreover， the pavilion needed to convey a sense of power and authority. He Jingtang and his associates borrowed the idea of Ding， a representative bronze artifact popular in China’s Shang Dynasty (16th century-11th century BC). Three Chinese concepts were adopted for the crown design: the bracket would be the basic idea for the structure; the Ding for the overall appearance; and the nine-square grid for the roof structure. It looked like a crown and it had a grand look.

He Jingtang and his associates were all excited and confident. The team’s three designs were just a small part of the 344 possibilities. To their huge disappointment， the three designs were all rejected in the first round. They didn’t come out even in the top 20. He Jingtang and his associates hastily looked at their oriental crown and figured that the failure might have been because it had been presented in inappropriate way. They had wanted to add an additional touch to the majesty and suggested a decorative device of steel rope structure and waterfall outside the crown. The jurors did not see the beauty of the original design in a photograph and cast it aside casually.

Fortunately， however， the jurors were dissatisfied with the top 20 picks. They decided to re-examine all the plans for the second time. In this round， the jurors really saw and understood the beauty of the plan designed by He Jingtang and his associates.

It was shortlisted for final consideration. In the final round， jurors examine all the plans by asking three questions: “Is it unique enough? Can it be a good enough landmark? Does it feature the regional characteristics and highlight the spirit of modern China?

Two designs answered these questions perfectly. The oriental crown was on the winner list. The Shanghai municipal government held more than 20 meetings to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of the two. The State Council held three discussions of the final two. The oriental crown was chosen in September 2007.

He Jingtang and his associates further improved the final design by incorporating valuable ideas from the other final design by an architect business in Beijing. They decided to have a red color for the pavilion. They decided to absorb more Chinese elements in details.

In September 2009， China National Pavilion was successfully translated from blueprint into reality. The national pavilion is the core of the greater China pavilion which comprises the national pavilion， pavilions for Taiwan， Hong Kong and Macao， and other regional pavilions. All the regional pavilions stand around the national pavilion envisioned and designed by He Jingtang and his associates. □