The Grand Tour · 2026 China Academy of Art (CAA) Graduation Season has come to a successful close. Graduates from 20 academic units responded to the times with art and explored the future through creativity, unfolding a youthful narrative of ideals, journeys, and growth across the city and campus, transforming Hangzhou into an open art venue that gathers intellectual power, creativity, and action.
The China Academy of Art is proud to launch the "Youth Insights" series, which continues to focus on topics such as avant-garde practice, humanities and technology, rural academies, A better China, rooted construction, people-centered, poetic cinema, visual sinology, Eastern design, and overseas insights. The series closely follows how young creators measure the world with their footsteps and respond to the times with their works. Between every departure and arrival, we jointly witness the grand explorations and boundless possibilities of a new generation of artists.
The School of Architecture at the China Academy of Art pursues the academic direction of "reconstructing a contemporary indigenous Chinese architecture," committed to integrating traditional craftsmanship, humanistic reflection, and contemporary art into a cohesive whole, and reviving a holistic approach to local building practices that harmoniously connects nature, city, architecture, garden, and artifact. Led by Professor Wang Shu, the architectural team, with a broad international vision and rooted in traditional Chinese architectural arts, insists on the return of manual craftsmanship. Centered on a hands-on construction experiment curriculum, the school strives to bridge the gap between traditional and modern architectural language and building craftsmanship. With the philosophical depth of the "linguistic turn," it aims to establish an architectural discipline system with distinctive Chinese indigenous characteristics.
Old Factory, New Learning
Xu Rui
College:
School of Architecture
Supervisor:
Zhan Yuan
Genre:
Architectural Design
This design takes "learning behavior" as its point of departure, responding to the trend in the AI era where vocational education shifts from knowledge memorization toward practical ability, collaborative capacity, and problem-solving skills. Knowledge learning, skill learning, and social learning together constitute the complete learning process, among which skill learning is the core, relying on observation, imitation, operation, feedback, and repetition; social learning, meanwhile, permeates the process continuously through discussion, peer evaluation, exhibition, and recognition.
The design transforms the Zhejiang Silk No. 2 Factory into a "productive campus," integrating industrial heritage, real production lines, and skilled-worker education. The upper suspended structures accommodate theoretical learning, self-study, design, critique, and project-based learning; the existing factory buildings at ground level host production practice, skills training, and workshop spaces; the social hub and street-facing exhibition boxes serve as windows for learning outcomes to engage with the wider community. The overarching logic is not a mere stacking of functions, but an interweaving of the learning chain, production chain, and exhibition chain, forming a cyclical campus model of "learning—production—exhibition + social interaction."
Supervisor's Remarks：
Xu Rui's graduation project demonstrates a well-chosen topic and a clear research trajectory. From preliminary site investigation and conceptual development to scheme refinement and graphic representation, each phase is coherently connected and methodically advanced. The design logic is rigorous, with spatial organization and tectonic system both grounded in explicit design rationale; the drawings and model presentations are standardized and comprehensive, reflecting a solid professional foundation in architecture. The scheme achieves a fine balance between site context, functional requirements, and spatial experience, demonstrating the student's mature command of core architectural issues. Throughout the design process, Xu Rui displayed strong initiative and the ability to make independent judgments and effectively solve problems. The thesis is clearly articulated, and the defense was delivered with composure. Overall, this graduation project attains a high level of completion and professional quality, representing an outstanding undergraduate achievement.
Xu Rui
Born in January 2003, from Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Graduated from the Department of Architecture, School of Architecture, China Academy of Art with a Bachelor's degree. During his undergraduate studies, he was a member of the China Academy of Art Men's Volleyball Team. He was awarded the First-Class Scholarship once and the Second-Class Scholarship twice, and received honors including Outstanding Student Cadre and Outstanding Graduate at the university level. He participated twice in exhibition setup work at the China Design Museum. His graduation project was awarded the Gold Prize of the 2026 Graduation Creation and Lin Fengmian Creation Award.
