MR. UNCONVENTIONAL:
Zhao Xiaojun, Designer, "Water Cube" National Aquatic Centre
By Helen Yuan
OLYMPIC VIP: Zhao Xiaojun
CEIBS ALUMNI: EMBA 2005
DAY JOB: Architect, cofounder of China Construction Design International
BASED IN: Shanghai
CONTRIBUTION TO GAMES: Chief Designer of National Aquatics Centre, one of five Official Olympic Torch Bearers
"Unconventional." This is the best single word to describe architect-cum-business executive Zhao Xiaojun, best known across China for winning the heated nationwide competition to design the official aquatic center for the upcoming 29th Olympiad. The resulting facility will house some of the most thrilling Summer Games events including swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo.
On a warm day in February, Zhao met with The LINK at the Shanghai headquarters of China Construction Design International (CCDI), the company he co-founded in 1994. The first thing interviewers notice about Zhao is that, unlike other internationally renowned architects, Zhao is strikingly humble. He is also infectiously enthusiastic - a rare combination that is perhaps the secret ingredient behind his successful, but distinctly non-traditional career.
When Zhao and his partners jointly founded CCDI 14 years ago, China was in the midst of a far-reaching movement toward privatization. A growing percentage of traditional state-owned enterprises were either closing down or were privatizing and revamping radically. Against this backdrop, Zhao and his colleagues established their company as a subsidiary of the China State Construction Engineering Corp. (CSEC), a state-owned institute of design. The reasoning behind this unusual decision, Zhao says, is that the newly formed company could capitalize on the strength of the CSCEC brand - the largest construction contractor in China. Zhao believed the move would bring CCDI short-term pain but long-term gain. Back then, no one could have predicted that one of the long-term gains would be a trip to the Beijing Olympics.
AGAINST THE ODDS
By 2003, CCDI had grown to a sizable operation of 320 employees, earning sales of ¥100 million. Based in Shenzhen, most of the company’s work focused on the south China market and the firm made a name for itself in designing and constructing residential projects and public facilities such as exhibition halls and sports arenas. By early 2003, perhaps fortuitously, CCDI had taken on so many sports-related contracts that the firm launched a new department focusing on this speciality.
That year, CCDI’s existence as a mid-scale regional architectural design firm changed dramatically. In January 2003, pre-bidding opened for the design of the National Aquatic Centre of the Beijing Olympics. The firm’s parent company, CSCEC, was given the right to send one representative bidder from among its 10 affiliated design companies. Thus CCDI first faced tough competition among its sibling design firms - all of which were older and better established. When the decision came from CSCEC executives to send CCDI, teamed with two Australian design firms, even Zhao was surprised. "For an SOE, such a step was risky," he says. "Fortunately, we didn’t disappoint them in the end."
GLOWING SYMBOL - Zhao Xiaojun's rainbowhued Water Cube is a testament to the creative spirit of Chinese architects. After months of disagreement within the 10-member, Chinese-and-Austrilian design team, Zhao and three other Chinese designers developed the Cube in the last days before the deadline.
CONTROVERSIAL "CUBE"
But not disappointing the parent firm required three months of intense struggle - including near failure of the project - in order to submit a design by the March 18 deadline. Before reaching their glittering victory, when the CCDI team’s Water Cube design was chosen, Zhao and his colleagues suffered through bitter disputes and East-West culture clashes that nearly ended the life of the project. Zhao shared the "inside story" with The LINK.
Soon after receiving its marching orders from the parent company, Zhao’s team began working with the two Australia-based architecture firms - PTW and ARUP - chosen to form a single design team. CSCEC had hoped the East-West team would bring out the best in eachother, resulting in a winning concept. But the joint venture proved challenging from the brainstorming stage; almost immediately, it became clear that the Chinese and Australian designers had very different ideas on how best to portray Olympic themes via architectural design. In addition, the team felt pressure to make sure the aquatic centre matched the spirit of other Olympics facilities being built in Beijing. Zhao explains the reaction of his team when the design for the Olympics National Stadium was unveiled: "The moment we saw the Chinese red bursting from the Nest like a flame, we knew where to start our work," he says.
But the concept Zhao and his Chinese team-members had in mind differed sharply from that of his Australian team-members. Zhao says the entire 10-member team began by brainstorming for a central theme. Initially, the session went well: team members agreed on a common underlying concept. "No matter where you are from, people seem to share a common reaction towards water: water possesses a soothing power, able to calm us down," says Zhao. Thus, the whole team agreed that the aquatic centre design should portray the way in which humanity relates to water.
But conflicts soon arose as the architects began discussing how to deliver this message. Since Chinese culture emphasizes harmony as a key concept, the Chinese team-members sought to portray the harmonious co-existence of man and nature - which is life’s ultimate blessing. With this in mind, all three Chinese architects including Zhao favored a flat ceiling design in their initial design plans - a feature they felt signified peace and stability. "Such is the typical Chinese way of understanding beauty," says Zhao. "You may not feel stunned at first glance, but after looking more closely, you are sure to feel a peaceful and profound sense of beauty." For the Chinese team-members, their subtle, thought-provoking design represented the beauty and serenity of calm, untroubled water.
But the Australian colleagues complained that the flat-roofed design lacked drama and impact. Instead, they sought to show the power of water in motion. As an alternative, team member Andrew Frost created a waves-theme design depicting the awe-inspiring power of the surf.
This time, the Chinese architects rebelled, arguing that the wave design was too literal - a mere copy of a concrete image that left no room for imagination. The disagreement dragged on and the weeks until the March 18 deadline quickly drained away. When neither side could produce anything that satisfied everyone, and the deadline fast-approaching, the Waves theme was reluctantly accepted.
It was at this point, with just two weeks until the deadline and a tired and disgruntled team of architects, that Zhao risked everything by disrupting work again in order to present a brand new idea - a cube concept. He first took the new design directly to Andrew Frost, the creator of the Wave design. Touched by Zhao’s determination and impressed by his innovative new design, after several seconds of silence, Frost announced that he would abandon the Waves design and support the Cube.
But Zhao’s battle was not yet won. To his embarrassment, the other Australian team-mates refused to accept the change. Aware of a serious crisis brewing, possibly resulting in total failure for the project, Zhao appealed to chief board member John Pauline. "If John vetoes the Cube," Zhao remembers thinking, "that will be the end of the story." But instead of vetoing, Pauline called an emergency meeting the following day - asking the entire team to vote one final time. Zhao and his Chinese colleagues stayed up all night preparing a presentation.
CREATIVE GENIUS - Describing the Water Cube this way, the Evaluation Committee for the Olympic Torch Bearers said: "Zhao Xiaojun's innovation gives a unique touch to the Water Cube. His courage in creating new things will continue to stimulate every innovative mind."
To Zhao’s shock, most team members were convinced by the presentation and voted for the Cube. "Thinking back, the whole week - those painful and tense days - was quite worthwhile," Zhao told The LINK. "Everyone has his or her own idea as to what is acceptable, and none of them should be ignored. Only by accommodation and compromise could we reach a common ground and find a better solution. Truly, it was a learning experience."
Happily for Zhao, that learning experience caught the eye of the International Olympic Committee judges. On July 29, 2003, the IOC announced that CCDI’s Water Cube had defeated all other short-listed proposals. The Water Cube’s distinctive style, featuring a simple cubic shape characterized by a distinctive glowing "bubble wrapped" exterior that can be lit to change colors became the blueprint for constructing one of the most important athletic facilities during the Games. The Evaluation Committee for the Olympic Torch Bearers, sponsored by Samsung, issued the following statement supporting Zhao’s design: "Embodying our wisdom and passion, exemplifying our pride and spirit, the ‘Water Cube’ stands as a historical witness of the Beijing Olympics. Zhao Xiaojun’s innovation gives a unique touch to the Water Cube. His courage in creating new things will continue to stimulate every innovative mind."
LIFE AFTER THE CUBE
Not surprisingly, the five years since winning the aquatic centre have sent CCDI rushing forward in its business development. As the Water Cube design gained recognition worldwide with news reports covered on all major Chinese media channels as well as international media, CCDI saw its business soar.
The company’s first change was to expand its personnel in order to cope with new business volume, growing from 320 employees in 2003 to 1,400 this year. Among the new recruits, 75 percent hold university degrees or above, more 200 have international experience and more than 20 are international expatriates. Perhaps most important for the firms’ growing reputation was the hiring of Shi Kuang as Chief Architect in 2007. Widely known in China as a master architect, Shi has supervised the completion of 230 engineering projects including serving as Chief Planner of the Suzhou Industrial Park.
CCDI has also dramatically expanded its business expertise by hiring in a raft of high-flying executives boasting Fortune 500 expertise. In January 2007, the company hired former Honeywell and American Standard executive Gao Yong as Vice President of Sales. Later that year, CCDI also hired former Atkins executive Wu Xin as a senior executive.
In keeping with its rigorous growth, CCDI has expanded operations aggressively. While establishing its headquarters in Shanghai, it has opened new branches in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and even New York.
Coping with such fast growth, required a revamping of business operations, Zhao says. In 2007, the company set up 14 departments including: infrastructure planning, urban planning, residential buildings, sports buildings, public buildings, traffic structures, building compounds, medical facilities, and international projects. Thus, a model of matrix management combining departments and regional offices was formed. A multi-faceted service could now be offered to CCDI’s customers with the efficient cooperation between different departments and regional offices.
Happily for CCDI, revenues climbed by a bracing rate of 40 percent annually, between 2004 and 2007. All told, the company has now completed more than 300 architectural and design projects in China since 1994, working for clients including the Tianjin Municipal Sports Bureau; Shenzhen Municipal CPPCC; Wuhan Municipal Sports Bureau; Ji’nan Urban Engineering Construction Command Office, and the Zhongshan Municipal Government. To handle workload growth, the company moved its headquarters to Shanghai in 2003, then opened branches in Shenzhen, Beijing, Chengdu, and New York. CCDI has also seen its projects win awards from a host of sources including the Ministry of Construction and the Architectural Society of China.
This summer, international recognition of the architectural prowess of the CCDI-lead team - and of Zhao Xiaojun himself - will grow sky-rocket each time the world tunes in to one of the many high profile water events to be housed in the Water Cube. For China, this means a new acknowledgement of the power of the nation’s architectural creativity, innovation and beauty.
And after the Games? Zhao does not hesitate with his answer: His next challenge, he says, will be to prepare CCDI to go public - a goal he plans to reach by 2010. Jia you!
