It is the end of May 2016, Alexandro Arravena?s ?Reporting from the Front? Biennale is about to kick off the next day and I just landed at Venice airport. Vaporetto waterbuses are no longer running at this late hour, so I am heading for a water taxi, thinking that it will cost me a bundle to get to the city. But maybe not! I see a lonely figure, ?Are you going to Venice" Would you like to share a taxi"? A young Chinese woman agrees without hesitation. As soon as the boat leaves I keep pressing my luck, ?Are you an architect, by any chance"? Yes! The next hour flew unnoticed, as we discussed our discipline and common friends. Two years passed, and I am back to Venice Biennale. At the opening of the Chinese Pavilion, I am hopping from conversation to conversation until I am introduced to Xu Tiantian, ?China?s most promising female architect.? We looked at each other and said in unison, ?The taxi girl/guy!? We finally exchanged contacts and on my next trip to Beijing we met at Xu?s DnA Design and Architecture studio. What follows, after a brief introduction, is an excerpt from that conversation.
Bamboo Theatre. Image © Wang Ziling

It is the end of May 2016, Alexandro Arravena?s ?Reporting from the Front? Biennale is about to kick off the next day and I just landed at Venice airport. Vaporetto waterbuses are no longer running at this late hour, so I am heading for a water taxi, thinking that it will cost me a bundle to get to the city. But maybe n...