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I. Mr. Pei, world-renowned architect, creator of the Louvre Pyramid, the National Gallery of American Art and the Suzhou Museum in China, pbaded away at 102 years old, confirmed Thursday his son Chien Chung Pei.
Art museums, concert halls and are scattered throughout the world, in areas that have different cultural backgrounds, stories, traditions and standards of aesthetics. And yet, even after the initial skepticism and controversy, people always came to admire or venerate Pei's designs.
Pei, with his kind but firm air, was one of the few architects to attract as much property developers as business leaders and art museum councils, writes the New York Times in his obituary.
The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, United States / VCG Photo
John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, United States / VCG Photo
The Pride of the Master
I . Mr. Pei was born in 1917 in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province (southern China). He spent most of his childhood and adolescence in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Pei settles in the United States with his family in 1935 and soon after receiving a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he joins William Zeckendorf's company, where he worked for seven years, before to start your own business.
Pei's works are distinguished by their neat and reserved outlines, applications of geometric art, which combines a conservatist modernism to perfectly integrate architecture with its environment, with its own history and its traditions.
The Louvre Pyramid in front of the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. / VCG Photo
The Louvre Pyramid in front of the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. / VCG Photo
One of his best-known and probably most controversial works is the glbad pyramid outside the Louvre.
The glbad-walled pyramid, along with three smaller ones nearby, has now served as a grand entrance to the museum. When it was built in 1989, the project was widely criticized and mocked.
Local media have described it as "an annex to Disneyland" or "a scar on the face of Paris". An environmentalist group said that the structure belonged to a desert.
Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, Germany. / VCG Photo
Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, Germany. / VCG Photo
Compared to the traditional French style of the Louvre, the architecture of glbad and steel seemed to belong to the future. However, with the help of French President François Mitterrand, Pei completed the construction of the pyramid, which became an indispensable element of the Louvre and an emblematic monument of Paris.
Pei rarely explained the ideas behind his architectural designs. he always insisted with his drawings. As he said, what he liked most about architecture, was that it "stood the test of time".
A Root in China
The architect was once asked to say how his architectural work had been so universally successful. 19659002] "Maybe because I'm more patient," said Pei, "because of my Chinese identity."
Skyscraper of the Bank of China in Hong Kong, China. / VCG Photo
Bank of China skyscraper in Hong Kong, China. / VCG Photo
Pei has six works in China, including the Fragrant Hill Hotel and the headquarters of the Bank of China in Beijing, the Suzhou Museum in Suzhou City, the skyscraper of the Bank of China in Hong Kong, the Luce Memorial Chapel Taichung City and Science Center of Macao
The Suzhou Museum, located in the center of the ancient city, was opened to the public on October 6, 2016. When IM Pei returned to his hometown to attending the opening ceremony the locals told him in local dialect: "Thanks, old pei!"
This is an informal way to greet an old friend, just like an "old friend" to United States
Suzhou Museum in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province of East China. / VCG Photo
Suzhou Museum in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, East China. / VCG Photo
The Pei family was an ancient and distinguished clan of the ancient city of Suzhou, and the Lion Grove Garden, a representative site of the famous Suzhou Gardens, once belonged to the Pei family.
The ink painting style of Suzhou Gardens have clearly become a source of inspiration for Pei in the design of the Suzhou Museum.
The architecture adopts the traditional colors of white and gray as your main tone, while the traditional Chinese architectural elements, such as the application and combination of hills, plants and waters were applied in a modern way.
Suzhou Museum in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, East China. / VCG Photo
Suzhou Museum in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, East China. / VCG Photo
Instead of using traditional wood as a material, Pei however preferred glbades and steels, especially for the ceiling and some walls, giving the showrooms a brighter view and wider while maintaining the same aestheticism of the old gardens.
Clearly, Pei devoted a lot of effort to the Suzhou Museum and called it "my little girl".
However, for Pei, the gardens of Suzhou are the creations at the forefront of Chinese aesthetics. could hardly be exceeded. But traditions could be learned and renovated. As he once said, "be the best, not necessarily the most original".
The Luce Memorial Chapel in Taichung City, Taiwan, in southeastern China. / VCG Photo
Luce Commemorative Chapel in Taichung City, Taiwan, Southeast China. / VCG Photo
"I understand that the weather has changed, that we have evolved. But I do not want to forget the beginning. Sustainable architecture must have roots, "Pei told the New York Times in an interview in 2008.
I. Mr. Pei's designs also include the Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, the Miho Museum in Kyoto, among others. hundreds of others.
his life, he garnered at least half of the American awards in architecture, including the Pritzker Prize, called the Nobel Prize for Architecture.
Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. / VCG Photo
Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. / VCG Photo
In his 102 years of life, he has witnessed and lived the changing times. In fact, with a number of landmarks that have either decorated the skyline of modern cities, or renewed the history of architecture, it has been part of the changes.
exists, to be loved and admired, even when the creator is gone.
Cover image designed by Li Yueyun
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