Turning East: Design Research in China in a Global Context (original) (raw)
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Architecture and Design: China's Encounter with the World
This is a course that I designed for the fall 2015 curriculum of the Alliance for Global Education in Shanghai, focusing at introducing the students to some key concepts of architecture and urban design vis-a-vis Shanghai where the students are spending a semester away from their home institution on this Alliance for Global Education's study abroad program. Shanghai’s unparalleled history of melding Chinese and international architecture begins with its birth as a site of colonial encounter. An exploration of the architecture and city planning of the concession period is followed by consideration of the Mao-era vision of the industrial socialist city and the repurposing of architectural heritage. The course concludes by considering the impact of the marketizing reform era as well as Shanghai’s newest internationally designed landmark buildings and its branding as a ‘green’ city. Students argue policy and design aspects of the sites concerned and consider whether Shanghai’s melded approach to international architectural encounter will enable it to escape its possible 'generic' future. In this course, we will chronologically explore the rich history of architecture of Shanghai. Because the history of the illustrious city is part and parcel to the understanding of its architectural heritage, we will study the history of the city and the architecture side-by-side.
China’s transformation in the decades following its transition from Maoism is seen nowhere more dramatically than in its skyline. Indeed, the speed and scale of the country’s urban construction are unprecedented in human history. Just as up-to-date Western technologies and styles were introduced to Chinese port cities by American, British, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian and Swiss architects in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so architectural and planning ideas developed by designers in the West are reconfiguring public and private spaces in Chinese cities today. However, unlike the colonial setting in which the earlier transplantation took place, China’s importation of foreign architecture today is framed by the increased pace of global interconnection. Not only iconic buildings but whole towns are being created by the world’s architects in China. Illustrated with a wealth of photographs and drawings, this book considers the work of these architects, many of them famous international stars, as well as the opportunities and challenges they face as they practise their craft in the world’s fastest changing environment.
Archives: In Process. Atelier Deshaus, Long Museum, Shanghai
Perspectives in Architecture and Urbanism, 2024
Archives: In Process "Archives: In Process" is a recurring segment within the Multimedia column of Perspectives in Architecture and Urbanism. The segment focuses on the work of contemporary practitioners in urban and rural China, featuring representative projects completed in recent years. While images and descriptions of these projects may already be available in international print and digital media, what is largely missing-particularly in English-speaking literature-is evidence of the motivations, practices, conditions, and contingencies that shaped them. The segment aims to fill this gap by exploring the processes of architectural design through a curated selection of visual materials collected from practitioners' working archives. These materials include high resolution scans of sketches, technical drawings, and photographs-taken before, during, or after construction-along with written notes, letters, documents, memos, screenshots, diagrams, and study models. The selection of materials and the structure of each installment follow extensive interviews with the architects. Brief critical paragraphs introduce the images, while detailed captions describe each unique document, ensuring they are easy to access, identify, and cite for both current and future research. Case studies are chosen by members of the Editorial Office to offer insight into broader Chinese architectural discourse and the ongoing transformation of the country's built environment. Atelier Deshaus, founded in Shanghai in 2001, is led by partners and principal architects Liu Yichun (b. 1969) and Chen Yifeng (b. 1972). Based in Shanghai's Xuhui District, the office currently employs approximately 30 collaborators. Since its foundation, Atelier Deshaus has showcased its work in major international architecture and art exhibitions. Liu and Chen are regularly invited to deliver academic lectures at leading universities in China and abroad, and their projects have received multiple national and international awards. In 2011, the office was named one of Architectural Record's Design Vanguard firms of the year. The Long Museum (completed in 2014) is a cultural and exhibition space located in the West Bund corridor of Shanghai’s Xuhui District. Over the past decade, the museum has been featured in international architectural media, both in print and online, and has earned numerous awards. These include the 2014 DFA Awards (Silver Prize, Hong Kong Design Center), the 2014 AR Awards for Emerging Architecture (Runner-up, The Architectural Review, UK), the 2015 Designs of the Year (Finalist, London Design Museum, UK), the 2015 Iconic Award for Architecture Best of Best (German Design Council), the 2015 WA Awards for Chinese Architecture (City Regeneration Award, China), the 2016 Architecture Creation Award (Gold Prize, Public Architecture, China), the 2019 AIA Shanghai Design Awards, the 2020 ARCASIA Awards for Architecture (Gold Prize, Public Amenity: Social and Cultural Building), and the 2021 WA Achievement Award (High Commendation). The Long Museum was commissioned by the Shanghai Xuhui Waterfront Development, Investment & Construction Co., Ltd. and promoted by private collectors and entrepreneurs Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei. Structural, electrical, and mechanical engineering services were provided by the Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co., Ltd., while the lighting design was overseen by Shanghai Guangyu Lighting Design Co., Ltd.
Making a Museum in the 21st Century, Asia Society, 2014
Ou Ning, “Shrine of Knowledge, Palace of Aesthetics, or Theater of History: Museum Design in China”, Making a Museum in the 21st Century, edited by Melissa Chiu, published by Asia Society, New York, 2014.
Experimental architecture in Shanghai (extract from)
2011
This volume collects some meaningful examples of projects and built experimental architectures designed by young Chinese architects who studied and work in Shanghai. The aim is to read design strategies and composition features so that to direct the reader in the varied panorama of the contemporary Chinese architecture. These designers belongs to, quoting Zheng Shiling, the generation that, born between the ‘70s and the ‘80s, already got studying or working experiences abroad, that begins to be known abroad, that deals with innovative design experiences and that actively researches, is involved in publishing activities and teachesin the architectural field. Among the new protagonists of what can be defined the shanghainese “school” there are, together with differences, important common features that let useful to present their works together and a comparative reading possible.
Importing American architecture to China: the practice of John Portman & Associates in Shanghai
The urban space of Shanghai has been forcefully shaped by American architects during the past thirty years. Among these movers and shakers, John Portman & Associates is the most notable because it was the pioneering American commercial design practice to enter Shanghai. It has actively participated in the process of Chinese urbanisation since the early 1980s. This paper reviews the practice's design projects in Shanghai: namely, the Shanghai Centre, the Bund Centre and Tomorrow Square. Each project — its intention, design, and usage — is analysed from the perspective of Chinese modernity in a 'global-local' context. The authors try to reveal the historic process of how American design rewove the urban fabric of Shanghai, and the reasons for and impacts of importing architecture from the West to contemporary China.
Made for China: Localizations of International Architecture in China, 2001-2018
KnE Social Sciences, 2019
To date, the story of architectural production in 21st century China has focused on institutions and actors in an ever-globalizing system of practice [1–4]. This worthy approach nevertheless obscures opposite yet equally significant trends, namely the localization of architectural products. Architectural practices are indeed becoming moreglobal,andyettheirworkis—withnotableexceptions—morefrequentlyconvicted of a necessity for localization, such that two buildings designed by an American firm, one in California and the other in Shanghai, should not be indistinguishable from each other. Thus, a more complete telling of this story demands an investigation of how the local and the national are represented materially in work that is, structurally, international. Through a close reading of several iconic buildings in China designed by international architects, this contribution proposes a framework for categorizing localization strategies. In addition, it investigates the origins of the loc...