ABSTRACT

A collection of essays on architecture of modern China, arranged chronologically covering a period from 1729 to 2008, focusing mainly on the twentieth century. The distinctive feature of this book is a blending of ‘critical’ and ‘historical’ research, taking a long-range perspective transcending the current scene and the Maoist period. This is a short, elegant book that condenses the wide subject matter into key topics.

chapter 1|10 pages

Modern Chinese Architecture

A social, historical and formal analysis

chapter 2|30 pages

Perspective as Symbolic Form

Beijing, 1729–35

chapter 3|34 pages

The Architect and a Nationalist Project

Nanjing, 1925–37

chapter 4|30 pages

A Spatial Revolution

Beijing, 1949–59

chapter 5|24 pages

The 1980s and 1990s

Liberalization

chapter 7|30 pages

A Global Site and a Different Criticality

chapter 8|16 pages

Beijing, 2008

A history

chapter 9|16 pages

Geometries of Life and Formlessness

A Chinese urban tradition

chapter 10|14 pages

Twenty Plateaus, 1910s–2010s