The Condition Of Chinese Architecture

China accounts for only 1 per cent of the world's total architects, but produces 10 per cent of the world's buildings and uses 33 per cent of the world's reinforced concrete. How does this condition affect architecture?00Translated for the first time into English, 'The Condition of Chinese Architecture' is the result of a five-year immersive investigation by TCA Think Tank into this paradigm. The research presented in this publication provides an insider's perspective to decode what is occurring in the midst of Asia's most recent construction boom, the extent of its global impact and the circumstances in which its actors must operate.00This book rejects the standard approaches to studying this condition, in which sweeping conclusions are cast from big data and a fetishisation of statistics including the growth, size and quantity of projects; the speed of their production and demolition; and the relationship between a project and its context (or, in many cases, its non-context). Instead, Pier Alessio Rizzardi and Zhang Hankun trace a line from the significance of building culture in Chinese history and identity, dissecting how the longstanding influence of Western movements from Baroque to Soviet architecture, megastructural modernism and the latest generation of avant-garde and post-critical 'global' movements meld together to form this current state.

A Philosophy of Chinese Architecture: Past, Present, Future examines the impact of Chinese philosophy on China’s historic structures, as well as on modern Chinese urban aesthetics and architectural forms. For architecture in China moving forward, author David Wang posits a theory, the New Virtualism, which links current trends in computational design with long-standing Chinese philosophical themes. The book also assesses twentieth-century Chinese architecture through the lenses of positivism, consciousness (phenomenology), and linguistics (structuralism and poststructuralism). Illustrated with over 70 black-and-white images, this book establishes philosophical baselines for assessing architectural developments in China, past, present and future.

In the early twentieth century, Chinese traditional architecture and the French-derived methods of the École des Beaux-Arts converged in the United States when Chinese students were given scholarships to train as architects at American universities whose design curricula were dominated by Beaux-Arts methods. Upon their return home in the 1920s and 1930s, these graduates began to practice architecture and create China’s first architectural schools, often transferring a version of what they had learned in the U.S. to Chinese situations. The resulting complex series of design-related transplantations had major implications for China between 1911 and 1949, as it simultaneously underwent cataclysmic social, economic, and political changes. After 1949 and the founding of the People’s Republic, China experienced a radically different wave of influence from the Beaux-Arts through advisors from the Soviet Union who, first under Stalin and later Khrushchev, brought Beaux-Arts ideals in the guise of socialist progress. In the early twenty-first century, China is still feeling the effects of these events. Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-Arts examines the coalescing of the two major architectural systems, placing significant shifts in architectural theory and practice in China within relevant, contemporary, cultural, and educational contexts. Fifteen major scholars from around the world analyze and synthesize these crucial events to shed light on the dramatic architectural and urban changes occurring in China today—many of which have global ramifications. This stimulating and generously illustrated work is divided into three sections, framed by an introduction and a postscript. The first focuses on the convergence of Chinese architecture and the École des Beaux-Arts, outlining the salient aspects of each and suggesting how and why the two "met" in the U.S. The second section centers on the question of how Chinese architects were influenced by the Beaux-Arts and how Chinese architecture was changed as a result. The third takes an even closer look at the Beaux-Arts influence, addressing how innovative practices, new schools of architecture, and buildings whose designs were linked to Beaux-Arts assumptions led to distinctive new paradigms that were rooted in a changing China. By virtue of its scope, scale, and scholarship, this volume promises to become a classic in the fields of Chinese and Western architectural history. Contributors: Tony Atkin, Peter J. Carroll, Yung Ho Chang,Jeffrey W. Cody, Kerry Sizheng Fan, Fu Chao-Ching, Gu Daqing, Seng Kuan,Delin Lai, Xing Ruan, Joseph Rykwert, Nancy S. Steinhardt, David VanZanten, Rudolf Wagner, Zhang Jie, Zhao Chen.

In China, 1% of the world's architects have to design 50% of all the buildings and must do so for 15% of the profit. This extreme situation in which architects have to operate, design and build, creates the theoretical basis for 'The Condition of Chinese Architecture'. In addition to interviewing the critical voices of contemporary Chinese architecture, the authors report the nowadays reality of the country, the architectural evolution since the first contacts with the West in 1582 and the issues affecting its contemporary practice. The result is a groundbreaking, cumulative reckoning teased out through layers of personal accounts and cross-disciplinary research, drawing on architecture, aesthetics, philosophy, politics, and society. © 2018 TCA Think Tanktcathinktank.com'The Condition of Chinese Architecture'Pier Alessio RizzardiZhang HankunContributing AuthorsLi XiangningHarry den HartogRory StottCharlie Q. L. XueIntervieweesChang Yong Ho, Atelier FCJZLiu Jiakun, Jiakun ArchitectsMa Yansong, MAD architectsLiu Xiaodu, URBANUS Architecture & DesignZhang Ke, Zao/StandardarchitectureQi Xin, Qi Xin Architects and EngineersChen Yifeng, Atelier DeshausRocco Yim, ROCCO Design Architects LimitedLi Xiaodong, Li Xiaodong AtelierLi Hu, OPEN ArchitectureZhang Lei, AZL Atelier ZhangleiZhang Bin, Atelier Z+Zhu Pei, Studio Pei-ZhuXu Tiantian, DnA Design and ArchitectureLiu Yuyang, LYA Atelier Liu Yuyang ArchitectsLu Wenyu, Amateur Architecture

This handbook, representing the collaboration of 40 scholars, provides a multi-faceted exploration of roughly 6,000 years of Chinese architecture, from ancient times to the present. This volume combines a broad-spectrum approach with a thematic framework for investigating Chinese architecture, integrating previously fragmented topics and combining the scholarship of all major periods of Chinese history. By organizing its approach into five parts, this handbook: Traces the practices and traditions of ancient China from imperial authority to folk culture Unveils a rich picture of early modern and republican China, revealing that modernization was already beginning to emerge Describes the social, intellectual, ideological, and formal enterprises of socialist architecture Frames a window on a complex and changing contemporary China by focusing on autonomy, state practices, and geopolitics of design, ultimately identifying its still evolving position on the world stage Examines the existing cultural and political theories to highlight potential avenues for future transformations in Chinese architecture that also retain Chinese identity Providing a pioneering combination of ancient and modern Chinese architecture in one coherent study, this book is a must-read for scholars, students, and educators of Chinese architecture, architectural history and theory, and the architecture of Asia.

China accounts for only 1 per cent of the world's total architects, but produces 10 per cent of the world's buildings and uses 33 per cent of the world's reinforced concrete. How does this condition affect architecture? Translated for the first time into English, The Condition of Chinese Architecture is the result of a five-year immersive investigation by TCA Think Tank into this paradigm. The research presented in this publication provides an insider's perspective to decode what is occurring in the midst of Asia's most recent construction boom, the extent of its global impact and the circumstances in which its actors must operate. This book rejects the standard approaches to studying this condition, in which sweeping conclusions are cast from big data and a fetishisation of statistics including the growth, size and quantity of projects; the speed of their production and demolition; and the relationship between a project and its context (or, in many cases, its non-context). Instead, Pier Alessio Rizzardi and Zhang Hankun trace a line from the significance of building culture in Chinese history and identity, dissecting how the longstanding influence of Western movements from Baroque to Soviet architecture, megastructural modernism and the latest generation of avant-garde and post-critical 'global' movements meld together to form this current state. In addition to interviewing key voices of contemporary Chinese architecture--including such icons as Chang Yong Ho, Liu Jiakun, Ma Yansong, Liu Xiaodu, LU Wenyu, Zhang Ke, Li Xiaodong, Li Hu, Chen Yifeng, Zhu Pei, Zhang Lei, Qi Xin, Rocco Yim, Zhang Bin, Liu Yuyang and Xu Tiantian--the authors weave together the entire spectrum of individuals involved in this condition, from construction workers to developers, curators, critics and artists. The result is a groundbreaking, cumulative reckoning of the history and future of Chinese architecture that is teased out through layers of personal accounts and crossdisciplinary research drawing on architectural history, design and aesthetics, technology, philosophy, politics and society.

A new design expression is being formed in China as architects look internally for visionary design instead of toward the West.

A groundbreaking book by one of the world's leading historians of Chinese architecture Translated by Alexandra Harrer. Fu Xinian is considered by many to be the world's leading historian of Chinese architecture. He is an expert on every type of Chinese architecture from every period through the nineteenth century, and his work is at the cutting edge of the field. Traditional Chinese Architecture gathers together, for the first time in English, twelve seminal essays by Fu Xinian. This wide-ranging book pays special attention to the technical aspects of the building tradition since the first millennium BC, and Fu Xinian's signature drawings abundantly illustrate its nuances. The essays delve into the modular basis for individual structures, complexes, and cities; lateral and longitudinal building frames; the unity of sculpture and building to create viewing angles; the influence of Chinese construction on Japanese architecture; and the reliability of images to inform us about architecture. Organized chronologically, the book also examines such topics as the representation of architecture on vessels in the Warring States period, early Buddhist architecture, and the evolution of imperial architecture from the Tang to Ming dynasty. A biography of Fu Xinian and a detailed Chinese-English glossary are included. Bringing together some of the most groundbreaking scholarship in Chinese architectural history, Traditional Chinese Architecture showcases an uncontested master of the discipline.