SPACE May 2025 (No. 690)
Now that a second Chinese architect has been awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize, SPACE turns its attentions in this issue to Chinese architecture. It has not been addressed with the same critical depth as the well-documented architecture of Japan. Since the implementation of its Open Door Policy in 1978, China has experienced a dramatically transformed design environment, and the new generation of architects that emerged in this period led the new direction in architectural discourse from 1990 onwards. The focus of this FEATURE, Chang Yung Ho, is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures at the centre of this movement, shaping the trajectory of contemporary Chinese architecture.
Inha Jung (professor, Hanyang University), the interviewer of this FEATURE, is a scholar who interprets the history of modern architecture in East Asia as the convergence of an imported Western modernity and a regionally specific, indigenous modernity, suggesting that both forms have long coexisted. He views Chang Yung Ho’s work within the broader framework of modern architecture in East Asia. Throughout this interview, Jung examines Chang’s architecture both diachronically and thematically, revealing how modern Chinese architecture often reaches beyond its domestic scope to follow a bold new trajectory.
Split House (2002). A residential building designed by Chang Yung Ho as part of the Commune by the Great Wall (2002), which involved collaborations with various architects from across Asia. The house is split right in the middle, to save trees already on the site, separating public functions from private ones, and bring the natural scenery into the embrace of the residence. It is also attempt to transplant siheyuan, a traditional courtyard house adapted to the dense urban context of Beijing, into the prisine landscape, to create a flexible prototyepe of houses located in the valley, and to make a building that can be easily disintegratable.
Modernity and Chinese Architecture
Inha Jung: Let me begin with a question on modernity and Chinese architecture. I believe there are two kinds of modernity in East Asian architecture—one imported from...
