Personal Statement
Program: Architectural Design

It is once said that architecture is frozen music, and a nice building is a beautiful poem ever composed on the fragrant ground. The artistic glamour and practical applicability make it a perfect combination of both beauty and practicality. In the long history of mankind‘s development, pieces of magnificent movements have been constantly composed, and scores of exquisite verses have been written. This is reflected in those marvelous structures as from China‘s Great Wall to the Parthenon in ancient Greece, and from the Great Arena in ancient Rome to Egyptian Pyramids. All these breathtaking and soul-stirring wonders, as a token of human civilization, have blended the most magnificent element in the universe with the inexhaustible creative ability of mankind.

As a little girl, I was deeply attracted by these architectural wonders shown on books. At that time, I was frequently perplexed by one question -- "How could it be if these wonders were constructed and erected on the horizon bit by bit by people?" In order to find out the truth, I began to try putting up these splendid buildings with my little and delicate hands, using toy bricks as the materials. It was from that time on that my desire to explore the secret of architecture started to sprout.
Along with my growing up, the young sapling of architecture keeps growing in my mind, eventually turning into the direction of my pursuit. In 1990, I was recommended for admission to one of the best departments of architecture in XXX University, thus starting a pilgrimage to the magnificent palace of architectural arts. As far as the five-year study of my undergraduate courses is concerned, I regard it as a process of fundamental education in which architectural theories and approaches to both classical and modern architecture are comprehensively taught. By virtue of my keen interest and diligence in acquiring knowledge, during the five-year studies in the university, I have made excellent achievements in my academic studies as the top four in our grade respecting academic scores.

From my point of view, the five-year study is not only a long process of knowledge accumulation, but a continuous and happy spiritual journey as well. I am deeply absorbed in the infinite space for imagination rendered by architecture in the aspects of its structure, form, color and material. No matter what I have learned is about basic cartography, model-making, or understanding the architectural thoughts put forward by both eastern and western masters on architecture through my own practice and experiments, I can always find delight in studies and a passion for creation. In the artistic palace of architecture, I persist in my learning with untiring vigor and take heart‘s content to roam in the treasure-house of architectural arts constructed by those respectable predecessors in the field of architecture. Meanwhile, I have also learned to enjoy the joys brought about by architectural designing and put my heart into it through my personal practice. Therefore, by applying my in-depth studying of theories to practice, I have benefited a great deal in my academic studies.

Although my remarkable achievements and an excellent graduation dissertation have helped to bring my five-year academic studies to a successful close, my keen craving for the architectural knowledge spurs me on to pursue an advanced and further study for a master‘s degree. While doing my M.A. programs, based on my previous solid foundation of professional knowledge, I continued to make a thorough and profound probe into theoretical learning on architecture. During this period of time, I have made a systematic study of the architectural thoughts and ideas advanced by Smith, Foster and Zumthor. Such a systematic theoretical study has thus enabled a tentative and personal viewpoint on architecture to take shape. Along with it also goes my deep interest in the development history of China‘s modern architecture, which results in my final decision to take this subject as the orientation of my M.A. dissertation. After in-depth and meticulous investigation and survey on the development history of China‘s modern architecture, I have completed my dissertation entitled "XXX". In this dissertation, I have managed to probe into the impact and influences exerted by the western trend of thoughts in modern architecture‘s development on China‘s traditional architecture complex, and summarized several development climax in the history of China‘s modern architecture. Moreover, the present coexistence state of multi-elements embodied in China‘s architectural industry is also analyzed in the last part of my paper. My supervisor spoke highly of my dissertation due to its unique perspective, and my paper also won the honorary title, "The Excellent Dissertation". Apart from this dissertation, I have also pondered over environment-friendly buildings, and then sorted out my thinking results regarding this problem into a paper which was later published in a domestic periodical"XXXXX"?

Upon my graduation, my supervisor had once invited me to retain to work in the university and continued my research on the same subject. However, I realized that I need more practice and experimental experience, despite the fact that I have a fairly solid foundation on my theoretical training. As far as an architect is concerned, experience is the source of inspiration. Bearing this thought in mind, I began to work for one of the best architectural companies in China. During my two years‘ working in the company, I have undertaken many design projects, most of which have been highly appraised. For instance, the scheme of the XXX , in which I have taken part in designing, won the first prize in the Contest of Project Schemes. A large quantity of practice has thus helped to check my architectural ideas. Nevertheless, this has also revealed some weak points existing in China‘s present architectural industry considering the aspect of its theories, particularly the lack of necessary guidance by applying theory to practical designing. This insufficiency of theoretical guidance will inevitably result in an artistic height hard for the designed buildings to reach. Such acknowledgment has finally facilitated my thought of pursuing an advanced study abroad. By doing so, I hope I can make a thorough and deeper study of advanced theories and methods of western architecture, thus promoting my design ability to a higher level.

One essential inadequacy in China‘s current architectural design is that architects tend to be overly occupied with the external shape and structure of a building. They overlook the application of new construction technology and fail to take into account the properties of new construction materials. For example, steel structures are beginning to be widely applied on domestic buildings, but few architects have developed a sufficient command of the relevant knowledge in this field, resulting in their relatively low designing level when such steel structures are involved. This is an area that a truly well-trained architect can achieve important breakthroughs. Therefore, I also plan to concentrate my future studies on this area.

As I was coming to the bottom line of this personal statement, I couldn‘t help thinking of the little and delicate hands when I was a young girl, together with the scene of my putting up those toy bricks with those little hands. At that time, I must have imagined that, someday in the future, the once clumsy little hands would sure grow stronger and more creative, and would ultimately write the most beautiful architectural poems from the ground