Interviewer: Welcome to the Mega Information Series called Chinese Business Interviews. Today we are reporting from the Jiaxing’s World Trade Center just 30 minutes from Shanghai’s Main Railway Station. Today, I am very happy and proud to be able to interview a prominent architect who actually built the twin towers the Jiaxing World Trade Center. The architect’s name is Mr.Zhu and the company was called 9Leor. Thank you for being here today with us Mr.Zhu. The first question that we have is how many architects were working at the company at the time?
Interviewee: More than 100 designers.
Interviewer: As you know there are many famous architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Rem Koolhaas who built the CCTV building in Beijing, Frank Gehry, Tado Ando, Norman Foster. Were there any famous architects that influenced your style?
Interviewee: Of course, for example, Michelangelo, Joslash who designed Sydney Opera House and Neri&Hu in China.
Interviewer: Could you please speak about your experience working on this project, the beautiful World Trade Center. Did the developer give you his ideas about the structure and the size and the look of how he wanted the building to be?
Interviewee: The developer just wanted to build a build a building, me and my team visited some places and got some new ideas, and did a lot of searching. Finally we did it.
Interviewer: I read that the World Trade Center we see has building A, building B. Could you tell us why there are two buildings, and could you speak about the 2 towers and the 5 storey buildings connecting the 2 towers?
Interviewee: First, it’s the World Trade Center. Most World Trade Center has two towers. And there has a lot of business shops, so they need more business place, so we did it.
Interviewer: Where did you get the idea to design with so much glass?
Interviewee: There’s very few building in Jiaxing has this type, Maybe this is the first all-glass building in Jiaxing .The all-glass building is like a symbol for the World Trade Center.
Interviewer: When did the construction began and when did it end?
Interviewee: Started from 2012，ended in 2014.
Interviewer: Could we now speak about the material used in the World Trade Center?
What sort of glass was used? I believe the exterior glass is ecological double glazing.
Interviewee: Yes, it’s energy conserving glass.
Interviewer: Very good. How about the marble that was used in the floor and the lobby of the World Trade Center? Where did this come from in China?
Interviewee: Most marbles are from Shandong province.
Interviewer: I noticed that each floor has 3 configurations: 81 m2, 169 m2 and 218 m2.
Why were these 3 different sizes chosen for the World Trade Center?
Interviewee: It’s according to the customers’ needs, customer like this size, this size also save a lot of public space.
Interviewer: I believe the elevators running up in these two buildings are Hitachi from Japan. Why were they chosen? Do they really go as fast as 4 meters per second?
Interviewee: 3.6 meters，exactly. It’s the fastest elevator in Jiaxing. And the elevator is so big. It makes the customers more comfortable.
Interviewer: That’s true. So underneath the World Trade Center we have a parking underground for 2500 cars. Was it hard to build such a large parking area underneath?
Interviewee: According to geological conditions and the requirement of the government, it’s ordinary in Jiaxng. It’s not hard.
Interviewer: How many workers were needed to build the building?
Interviewee: The workers didn’t work at the same time. The most people worked at one time was more than 100.
Interviewer: What were the difficulties of building a tall building?
Interviewee: Good question, building a tall building is not difficult for Chinese today.
Interviewer: I recently read a article that a Chinese company called “Broad Group” built a 30 storey skyscraper in Hunan Province in just 15 days. The builder used prefabricated modules and 200 workers to construct the 30-story building in 15 days. To do it this quickly, the sections of the building prefabricated in a factory and brought to the site and then assembled to build a 30 storey hotel. Do you work like this or do you use the different system?
Interviewee: In my opinion, it’s a good try, it maybe a trend. But needs time to prove. And I always believe human parts be make in this way like 3-D printing.
Interviewer: Do you also design hotels and shopping malls?
Interviewee: It’s my honor to study with my teachers and my team to design
a lot of hotels and shopping malls. It’s a great treasure for me.
Interviewer: If a company wants to build a building in China they need to get an architectural permission certification from the government. Is this complicated to get?
Interviewee: In many foreign customers’ mind, they think it’s so hard to get the permission, but it’s easier now.
Interviewer: What is the most difficult aspect of being an architect in China today?
Interviewee: Every good architect needs a good dream. Today in China the hardest thing for Chinese architect is to keep their dream and try to do better.
