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c.a.f.a atelier 央艺

About

We are a small studio. There are no lectures and no batch tutoring, and never more than twenty students at once.

A portfolio is not coursework laid out neatly. It is one idea carried from the start to the point where it stands up on its own. So every project here begins at the choice of subject, and a good number of them get torn up halfway and begun again.

The studio is in Beijing. Its mentors come from architecture, visual communication, interiors and ceramics, and most days they are in the same room as the students, drawing.

The studio

The main room of the studio, long tables set out along the windows.
The model shelves, one project to a shelf.
The wall used for reviews, usually full.
The material room, samples ordered by what they are made of.
The yard, where drawings are put out to dry in good weather.

Mentors

  • Shen Zhibai photographed in the studio.

    Shen Zhibai

    Architecture

    Eleven years of construction drawings before ever teaching.

  • Xu Qinghe photographed in the studio.

    Xu Qinghe

    Visual Communication

    Collects printing errors; the count is past two thousand.

  • Luo Man photographed in the studio.

    Luo Man

    Interior and Installation

    Holds that a room’s problem is usually in its ceiling.

  • Gao Yuan photographed in the studio.

    Gao Yuan

    Ceramics and Materials

    Four months a year in Jingdezhen, the rest in Beijing.

  • Pei Shu photographed in the studio.

    Pei Shu

    Landscape

    Draws no renderings, only sections.

  • Tan Wei photographed in the studio.

    Tan Wei

    Furniture and Joinery

    Builds the mock-up at full size first, then decides whether the drawing was right.