CROSSBOUNDARIES BEYOND ARCHITECTURE
Over time Crossboundaries has expanded its design scope, including also interior, urban planning and research, to offer more comprehensive design services to its clients. After more than ten years’ of practicing, other than design, we have developed our own interest in community building, and begun to involve ourselves as architectural professionals in various educational programs for the younger generations. Looking back now, we find our role has become far more diversified than years before. Three main fields of our work are shaping, with our own teenager education program kicked off and study on community and future living being in progress, as well as our design work especially in the educational sector growing steadily. Our practice has gradually developed into three different areas of expertise, away from a purely architectural profession. As a next step, we intend to integrate our work in three main fields furthermore, to generate a larger impact on our clients, communities and next generations in China.
X EDUCATION
Crossboundaries is not only specialized and involved in designing educational buildings, we also take great interest in participating in the education itself. We do this with the idea that the more we know what the education of the future will be like, the more we will be able to apply this knowledge in designing the educational spaces for that future. We also recognize that, as architects and designers, we can offer a unique set of skills to the field of education, especially in the domain of design thinking, creative thinking and analytical thinking. By entering this important dialogue with teachers, children, students and parents we constantly gain new knowledge and we see our engagement in education as one never-ending participatory experiment. Our activities include the engagement in architecture studios on Tsinghua University and Central academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, as well as our very own workshops and summer schools that we hold in our office or as guests in international schools across Beijing.
Architecture and design workshops are based on design thinking principles to nurture the 4 C’s (Critical thinking, Creativity, Collaboration and Communication. The goal is to make learning about architecture and design that is more aligned experiential learning and include elements of experimental education to supplement learning for public school students with the future outlook of learning for all ages and supported online learning.
THE WORKSHOPS ARE USUALLY HELD IN CROSSBOUNDARIES’ OFFICE DURING AUGUST. FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE OR SCAN THE QR CODE BELOW.
X LIVE WITH LESS
IT’S ABOUT REDUCING EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION.
IT’S ABOUT COMMUNITY.
IT’S ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY IN USING SOCIAL CAPITAL TO CREATE A SHARING ECONOMY.
Open, free and value-orientated, Live With Less is one of the most influential events we host for public, and gradually turns into a long-term educational program for communities. Initiatived by Crossboundaries to reduce excessive consumption through sharing economies across communities, Live With Less is all in view of happier lives. The first public swap event under this idea was organized in 2015 winter in our office, and sustained several times annually since then, with higher popularity and more joint-hosts in other venues in Beijing. All the items that don’t find the new owners during the event are donated to various charities in China.
WHAT TO DO:
1
IF YOU BROUGHT THINGS PUT THEM OUT ON SHOW
2
HAVE A LOOK AROUND AND TAKE AS MUCH AS YOU NEED
3
JOIN THE CROWD AND SAY HELLO TO THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU
Logo and rules of LIVE WITH LESS
X CITY
The cities we live and work in are both our inspiration and our constant design challenge. As an architecture practice, we try to participate in the debates on how the cities can be improved and listen to what other disciplines have to say on these matters. The office had a long term engagement with China – Europe branch of Citymakers – a platform dedicated to making cities better places to live with the help of various professionals. You can learn more about the Citymakers here.
THE CITIES WE LIVE AND WORK IN ARE BOTH OUR INSPIRATION AND CONSTANT DESIGN CHALLENGE
In Frankfurt we recently initiated “Deinufer” project, a participatory program consisting of events and workshops dedicated to finding most suitable solutions for Frankfurt riverbank urban regeneration.
LEARN MORE ABOUT “DEINUFER” HERE
Another way we engage with the city are the tours that we occasionally organize for the people coming to Beijing for the first time. Among them where the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Heiko Maas and the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jürgen Trittin, one of the Berlin mayors and also a state secretary. Sharing our understanding of Beijing with all its facets and introducing the old and new city with all its change in regard to planning and living conditions gave us a great satisfaction and helped us learn more about the complexity of ownership structures especially in the old city of Beijing.
X SOCIAL
Since 2015 when we moved into the new office in Beijing that we designed, we have begun to utilize the large open space at first floor not only as a meeting area for ourselves, but also a venue for all kinds of activities for the public. Driven by the value of bringing together – Crossboundaries practices by name. For years we are trying to serve our space as a community center.
We both organize annual socials and other events by ourselves, and let other organizations with common interests use the space, to create opportunities for groups with different background gather together, sharing knowledge and fun with each other. There are non-stop events, workshops, documentary evenings and summer camps for professionals and public, children and adults, throughout the year.
FOR YEARS WE ARE TRYING TO RUN OUR SPACE AS A COMMUNITY CENTER.
