Getting a wrong question in the college entrance examination and embarking on the road of architect
Born on August 13, 1957 in Beijing.
In 1984, he graduated from the Department of Architecture of Tianjin University with a master's degree.
In 2011, he was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
He is currently the honorary president and chief architect of China Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd.
In 1977, China's college entrance examination system resumed after a ten-year hiatus, and Cui Kai, an educated youth who had been working in Pinggu for two years, entered the examination room.
He missed out with Tsinghua University because of a wrong math problem, but by chance, he got his favorite architecture major and came to Tianjin University as his "second choice".
The FLTRP Building, the Capital Museum, the Yinxu Museum in Anyang, the China Pavilion for the 2019 World Horticultural Exposition... Every building that everyone is familiar with is born from his pen.
In an interview with a reporter from the Beijing News, Cui Kai, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, honorary president and chief architect of China Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd., said that over the years, he has never left the context of school architectural education.
When addressing future architects, Cui Kai hoped that they would learn from life, "because a good life comes from your pen."
Before the resumption of the college entrance examination, he went to the countryside to do farm work for three years
Beijing News: I heard that you liked to draw since you were a child and were interested in architecture. Is there any reason?
Cui Kai: I was born in Beijing in 1957, and grew up in the yard of my mother's unit.
The compound is located on Jingshan East Street, the former site of the Jingshi University Hall, so I am very impressed with the historical environment and style of the ancient capital.
My mother is an editor of the People's Education Publishing House, and the cultural atmosphere of the whole office compound is very good. I liked painting when I was a child, and I also benefited from this atmosphere.
At that time, we had a youth home. After school, the older children organized the younger children to paint.
I myself also like quietness. After school, I often go to my mother's office to find a desk to draw and paint, which has gradually become a habit.
Beijing News: After learning that the college entrance examination was resumed, how did you prepare?
Cui Kai: Most of the parents in the compound of the People's Education Society where I lived since I was a child were intellectuals. Around the beginning of 1977, I heard the news that the college entrance examination might be resumed, and my family asked me if I could go home to study.
The village I was in when I jumped into the queue at Dahua Mountain in Pinggu was very small, with only 34 households, and educated youth were an important labor force.
I have been doing very well in the village, and I have also been a platoon leader of the infrastructure militia, so it is unlikely that I will completely give up my farm work and go back to the city to review. I used the Spring Festival to find some review materials and bring them back to the countryside together with high school textbooks , while doing farm work and reviewing.
My studies have been put down for three years, and I need to review the questions again.
But we were catching up with the summer and autumn harvests at the time of our review.
During busy farming seasons, the educated youth could only go to work during the day and study at night.
At that time, there was not enough electricity in the village. We read under the oil lamp at night, and several classmates recited formulas together and helped each other.
Beijing News: Do you still remember the specific details of taking the college entrance examination?
Cui Kai: In the early winter, we took the college entrance examination in Dahuashan Commune.
Our village is more than 8 miles away from the commune. In the early morning, everyone rushed to the examination room with dry food.
Young people from rural areas who had attended middle school at that time also participated, and the village also sent a tractor to take everyone to the examination room.
At that time, the deputy secretary of the commune party committee was also an educated youth in the senior grades of our Jingshan school who went to the countryside.
After the test, he said to me, "You did well in the test", and I was very excited.
Architecture students should learn their majors well and also learn from life
Beijing News: What was the environment and teaching conditions of the university campus like when you enrolled?
Cui Kai: After the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, Tianjin was also the hardest hit area. The playground of Tianjin University was filled with earthquake-resistant shelters for citizens.
We don't have a playground, we have PE lessons on the school's little road.
However, the conditions of the teaching building are quite good. The campus where I am located was built in the 1950s and was designed by Mr. Xu Zhong and many young teachers. The building is very distinctive and has been protected and used well.
Before our 77th grade students entered the school, there were two sessions of workers, peasants and soldiers in 1975 and 1976 to select college students, and the teaching building has been in use.
Our 77th grade came in through the exam, the teachers gave us more expectations and attention, and the teaching was very attentive.
At that time, we could see very few foreign materials, and there were no copiers. The teacher drew a lot of lecture notes, materials and model diagrams with a pen, edited them into volumes, and printed them as mimeographs for us to see.
It is our honor to meet these teachers, and we are deeply touched by the dedication of the teachers.
We need to draw a big picture, not a small desk in front of everyone, but a big picture table.
There are 34 students in our class, and there are five or six rows of big picture tables in the classroom. During the design class, there is a teacher in each row, and each teacher is responsible for 6 students, so there is a lot of communication and interaction between teachers and classmates. They give The students talked about the principles of design, the skills of drawing, and even started to change the drawings, which we admired very much. The teachers and students established a deep friendship.
Many teachers, such as Mr. Peng Yigang, Mr. Tong Heling, Mr. Zhang Wenzhong, etc., are of high level and are excellent among the national architecture teachers.
We are so lucky as students!
Beijing News: When you majored in architecture, how did you spend your time in college?
Cui Kai: During the university period, our study atmosphere was very good. Everyone cherished time. Every day was “three o’clock and one line”—the dormitory, canteen, classroom or library. At night, the classrooms were brightly lit. time is full.
Beijing News: After you graduated from graduate school, why didn’t you stay on to teach?
Instead, choose to go to a design institute?
Cui Kai: Mr. Shen, who had instructed me at that time, has been transferred to the Architectural Design Institute of the Ministry of Construction. I visited her office and saw that the design institute was designing the new Beijing Library (now the National Library). The beautiful renderings deeply attracted me. I also saw the design plans of some foreign aid projects at that time, and I was envious.
So I decided to "actually" become an architect, and I didn't want to stay on campus and "sit and talk".
Later, I heard that the old director Liu Shijin and Shi Xuehai of the Architectural Design Institute of the Ministry of Construction came to the school in person to ask for graduates, which made my wish come true.
Beijing News: For students who are about to take the college entrance examination, what advice do you have for them?
Cui Kai: Over the years, I have actually never left the context of school architecture education.
I hope that students who apply for the major of architecture should not only learn the major, but also learn from life, because a good life comes from their writing.
Beijing News reporter Zhang Lu