About this item
Highlights
- Since the mid-1990s, when China allowed its architects to practice independently from government run design institutes, a new kind of architecture, distinguished by unique regional characteristics, has emerged.
- Author(s): Vladimir Belogolovsky
- 250 Pages
- Architecture, Regional
Description
Book Synopsis
Since the mid-1990s, when China allowed its architects to practice independently from government run design institutes, a new kind of architecture, distinguished by unique regional characteristics, has emerged.China Dialogues is a rigorously selected collection of insightful interviews that the book's author Vladimir Belogolovsky has conducted with 21 leading Chinese architects during his extensive travels in China. At the time when so many buildings that are being built around the world are no longer rooted in their place and culture, the leading Chinese architects succeeded collectively in producing a unique architectural body of work that could not be confused with any other regional school. The interviews are accompanied by 190 photographs and drawings of beautifully executed projects built throughout China since the early 2000s. China Dialogues opens up the thinking process of the country's top architects, as they share their ideas, insights, intentions, and visions in unusually revealing and candid ways. The book includes a foreword by photographer Iwan Baan, author's introduction, and 21 interviews, including with Wang Shu of Amateur Studio, Yung Ho Chang of Atelier FCJZ, Xu Tiantian of DnA_Design and Architecture, Dong Gong of Vector Architects, Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, Li Xiaodong, Zhu Pei, Liu Jiakun, Atelier Deshaus, Li Hu of Open Architecture, Neri&Hu, Wang Hui of URBANUS, and Zhang Ke of ZAO/ standardarchitecture.
Review Quotes
"Away from the stereotypes about China's massive urban transformations, Vladimir Belogolovskylifts the veil on a prolific new generation of designers, who have in common a highly intellectualized and conceptual understanding of architecture. Amply illustrated, Belogolovsky'sinterviews reveal the ideas underlying the work of some twenty firms, helping to understand their site-specific, reflexive buildings. These focused conversations highlight how, despite their diversity, the strategies of the contemporary architects converge in the search for the creation of unique spaces, islands of poetry in the ocean of China's prosaic developments."
Jean-Louis Cohen, Sheldon H. Solow Professor in the History of Architecture, New York University Institute of Fine Arts
"InChina DialoguesVladimir Belogolovskycharts a panorama of Chinese architecture through the words of its main players. He draws his 'landscape with figures' with excellent prose, deep understanding, and outspoken wit. The curator makes conversation with a dash of contact sport into an art form, showing once more that interviews are as intelligent as the interviewer."
Luis Fernández-Galiano, Editor-in-chief, ArquitecturaViva, Madrid
"My first trip to China in December 2001 changed my life. I was invited to an international competition for a new town in Nanningin Guangxiregion. China was opening up to a desire and an excitement for modern architecture in a spirit of new freedom and hope for the future. In China Dialogues, Vladimir Belogolovskytirelessly presents the Chinese architects who in 20 years have embodied that new freedom and promise."
Steven Holl, America's Best Architect (Time, 2001), PraemiumImperiale(2014)
"This bringing together of interviews from among China's emerging group of architects, sheds light on their common and individual motivations, backgrounds, and ambitions. Lavishly and thoughtfully illustrated, this volume will serve scholarship on contemporary Chinese architecture for years to come."
Peter G. Rowe, Raymond GarbeProfessor of Architecture and Urban Design, Harvard University
"This remarkably revealing and celebratory book is a summation of a series of interviews recently conducted by Vladimir Belogolovskywith all leading architects currently practicing in the People's Republic of China. Herein each conversation is an extraordinary testimony to the energy of an undeniable renaissance, in which these talented and highly cultivated architects are engaged in the common project of creating a civic culture for a new society. In its move away from the instant high-rise megacity, the Chinese government has seemingly opted, for the decentralized modernization of the society, an inspiring project, which is largely lost in the rest of the world."
Kenneth Frampton, Ware Professor of ArchitectureatGASP, Columbia University
"My first trip to China in December 2001 changed my life. I was invited to an international competition for a
"Until the turn of the century, China was generally seen as a country of an ideologically oriented eclectic architecture. However, during the past two decades numerous talented young architects have emerged, projecting new imagery and meanings to today's architecture in general, which is increasingly declining into a shallow commercial aestheticization. Vladimir Belogolovskyshares his deep personal knowledge of current Chinese architecture and the leading individual designers, as well as their thinking and intentions."
Juhani Pallasmaa, Professor Emeritus, Aalto University, Helsinki
"Vladimir Belogolovsky'sbook gathers an inquisitive collection of thoughts from outstanding architects in contemporaryChina; it is a critical documentation of the author's in-depth conversations about the past, the future, and the currentmoment of Chinese architecture."
Cui Kai, Honorary President, Chief Architect of China Architecture Design & Research Group (CADG), Beijing
"Vladimir Belogolovskyhas caught China in mid-somersault from tradition to ways of building and anchoring communities that go far beyond what we know in the West. This book assembles some of the verybest practices not just in Asia, but in the world, displaying their work with photographs of great depth, while letting the designers tell us about their sources, dreams, and aspirations."
Aaron Betsky, Director, Virginia Tech's School of Architecture
"Vladimir Belogolovskyis an important voice in a global architectural realm. His book China Dialoguesis a pivotal introduction to current architecture in China that did not exist before to such an extent. Well-traveled, the author shares his deep personal knowledge of current Chinese architects' thinking and intentions. Through his judicious editorial choices, this scholarly work synthesizes diverse directions through contrasting examples of very strong authentic and beautiful architecture that explores the deepest strata of China's culture, which is so dear to my heart. The book is full of wonderfully unexpected discoveries of projects with vernacular evocations of unique places. Belogolovsky'sdialoguesshould be the primary text for westerners to understand the ethos of Chinese architecture."
Antoine Predock, Architect and Professor, Albuquerque, New Mexico, AIA Gold Medal (2006)
"With refreshing query, engaging themes, and deep insights, Vladimir Belogolovsky'sDialogueswith China's cutting-edge architects investigate and illustrate a vivid scene of contemporary Chinese architecture."
XiangningLi, Deanand Professor, Tongji University, Shanghai