Mr. Shen Jun lives in Hebei District of Tianjin and his hobby is making wooden architecture miniatures of local historical buildings, including churches and ancient celebrities' houses in Tianjin. He has more than 30 miniature models and when you look at the exquisite roofs, precisely cut windows and doors that even can be moved freely, you cannot tell that all of them are made of disused wood. It was Shen's dream to take those exotic buildings back home when he was young.
Shen's father used to work in an Arts Publication Company, so the arts atmosphere at home was quite inspiring throughout his childhood. Ever since then, Shen developed a strong interest in painting and craft skills. After his retirement in 2002, he found some disused wood materials left by his neighbour after they had decorated their apartment. Then he was suddenly struck with a good idea. “Why not use these materials to make some miniature architecture models?”he asked himself. However, the first challenge is the scale ratio. If the ratio is wrong, the miniature will look awkward, hence getting the measurements right was quite difficult in the beginning. He had to go to the scene, measure the real scale of building by walking around, and remember how many steps he walked. Once he got home, he immediately started to calculate the distance and scale. By repeating this procedure so many times, Shen's first miniature was done and it was the Residence of the Yuan Family at Hebei District.
Shen is obsessed with building models thoroughly. No matter what the weather conditions, hot or cold, as long as he wants to make new models, he will carry his palette to the scene and spend two or three hours drawing the building. He said: “Along with the booming economy the city construction of Tianjin is becoming increasingly more beautiful so my inspiration and design resources are more than before. In the future, I am planning to hold an exhibition for my collection and designs to let more people know about Tianjin and Tianjin history. Although I am getting old and my physical strength is weak too, I will still try my best to make iconic architecture as much as I can”.