By Tessa Cheek
Photography by Robert McLeod
Images Publishing, October 2013
This sort of magic is well represented in these pages. But it's important to consider a perhaps rarer project -- the intellectual and creative depth with which Jim Spear has defined where and how he works.
From the Foreword by Amy Lelyveld
While I have not yet had the privilege of meeting Jim Spear and Tang Liang and visiting their inspired community, I am fortunate nonetheless to have read Great Wall Style, a beautiful chronicle of their significant journey.
Old spaces have been invested with new meanings that have brought prosperity to a cluster of declining villages. There is much to be learned from these efforts, which respect traditional ways of living while looking forward.
Ronald G. Knapp, Author
Site is the beginning of making the space. What I mean by this is not just the lay of the land or even where the sun comes up. It's also the social environment and what is already built around you.
Jim Spear in Great Wall Style
A piecemeal approach by individual owners, changing and upgrading — that's what's alive. What isn't is when a higher power comes in, kicks the peasants out and slavishly restores a museum.
Jim Spear in Great Wall Style
The Great Wall landscape...
AT LAST complemented by a
sensitive, sustainable and
incredibly stylish project
at Mutianyu using existing
vernacular architecture...
