Culture – Art | Albergue exhibition brings together work of 3 architects

Alice Iu smiles

An exhibition showcasing the sketches and artworks of three young architects from Macau has opened at Albergue SCM on Tuesday night.
Co-organized by Albergue SCM, the Architects Association of Macau and the Friendship Circle of Culture in Macau, and sponsored by the Macao Foundation, the exhibition is titled “Architects Sketches x 3: Young Architects Series”. The three participating artists-cum-­architects are Dennio Long, Chan Chi Lek and Alice Iu.
Long, an architect based in Macau, has participated in a number of public architecture, planning and heritage conservation projects. In order to capture some of the inconspicuous or “vanished” buildings not included in Macau’s World Heritage List, the artist seeks to depict traditional and perspective drawings of lesser-known structures.
Lek wrote in his artist’s description that he enjoys strolling around and sketching the architecture of Macau and other cities. He has held solo exhibitions of Macau’s churches, temples and cityscape on numerous occasions in 1998, 2005 and 2015. He has published a number of books containing his works, which are also featured in local magazines and newspapers.
Chan’s works feature similarities with Long’s in the sense that both artists portray actual buildings in Macau in a defined and intricate manner with accurate perspective. The difference lies in the technique as Chan’s works are more abstract than Long’s, featuring fewer sharp strokes and more variation in tone. Chan’s drawings are sketches in a realist sense, providing a ‘warm’ and full representation of the city’s structures, while Long draws more inspiration from the architectural aspect, with his works appearing more as blueprints than art.
However, it is Iu, the third of the participating artists, who really stands out from the other two contributors.
Educated in Macau, Hong Kong and the UK,  Iu and a fellow architect were awarded last year for their design proposal for the “Nam Van and Sai Van Lakes Architectural Design Competition.” Her interests lie in architecture, urban design and urban infrastructure. In addition, she is fascinated with recording the differences between cultures, particularly between the East and the West, paying specific attention to how cultural ideologies affect architecture.
Iu’s works exhibited at Albergue SCM are not just depictions of Macau’s architecture, but suggestions for it and for the future of the MSAR’s urban planning.
One of her suggestions is to include the year of completion on the exterior of all buildings in Macau. Other suggestions in her artwork include further land reclamation, a “sunken bridge for pedestrians” and a natural swimming pool next to one of Macau’s artificial lakes, which would be able to purify water using biological filters.
The Times enquired whether these ideas were purely artistic or rather intended for implementation. With specific consideration to the ‘dated buildings’ concept, Iu replied: “I hope for actual implementation because I think Macau evolves [changes] so fast that some of its history gets left behind.”
“But [marking the completion date] on buildings will help tourists and locals to understand the layers of the city, rather than just having the new part and the old part. It makes both residents and tourists more curious and interested in exploring [Macau] even though they are so familiar with the environment,” she justified.
In regard to her interest in the confluence of Eastern and Western culture in Macau’s architecture, Iu argued that most buildings in the city fall into one of the categories, with  little in between.
“The interesting thing about Macau is that, even though we say there is a fusion [here] between the East and the West, there aren’t actually many examples in between. The exception is the Mandarin House, where I can see that there are some Western ideas [imbued], but the rest of the town is fairly distinguished between what is Chinese and what is [Western],” she said.
The president of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Ung Vai Meng, and Portuguese Consul General Vítor Sereno, were also in attendance on Tuesday among other guests.
The exhibition will be open until September 15. Admission is free of charge.