2000 Bachelor of Architecture
Complexities, Contradictions, and Context

China currently rests at a unique crossroads. A place of immense history and presence, it has yet to lose its authenticity and character to tourism and contemporary globalization, but its immense borders, cultural and physical, are beginning to erode and expand. Largely undiscovered, the rural and urban settings within provide a unique opportunity for study. Chinese architecture has always operated within rather rigid parameters of history, government, and tradition.

Traditional Chinese architecture still remains largely ignored by popular study, favoring European and Renaissance architecture for its places of interest. Its history, reaching back thousands of years, has yielded architecture deeply rooted in tradition. This architecture of temples, vernacular homes, and unique cityscapes harbors systems and methods of operation drastically different than that of the West. Understanding these values not only offers understanding of the architecture and culture, but also gives insight to the practice of building and understanding regardless of context.

The power of the Chinese government on the ideology and zeitgeist of the people can not be ignored. Its values, beliefs, and imposed orders are inherent members of the culture and its understanding. Rather than historical tradition, the communist government and its desires, which at times may happen to coincide with the image of tradition, have until recently held a strong grip on the populace and the arts. The recently forced loosening of grip has presented a compelling opportunity for the culture to evolve. However, in order to understand its culture and its direction, it becomes necessary to acknowledge the past and present roles of the government in shaping China.

With increasing globalization, intervening within the strongly traditional context has become and issue of import. Reconciling tradition and a rapidly exploding modernity becomes a subject of study and necessity. Considering its classification as the most rapidly growing economic and computer landscape in the world, China's contemporary architecture is in a state of relative infancy due to the government's relatively recent acceptance of "Westernization"—in art, music, architecture, and thought. Its cities, landscapes, and architecture now present an open and fertile ground for architectural interpretation and intervention considering not only traditional Chinese philosophies, but also ideologies and methodologies from abroad, both contemporary and historic.

Conclusion

This project has been an attempt to unravel, delaminate, and distinguish threads of tradition, government, and modernity that have shaped China by investigating spatial manifestations of these trajectories.

The particular aspects addressed in each unique city are present and influential in varying degrees throughout China. The Mongolian grasslands are intricately tied to Beijing as definitions of urban and rural, and the entire structure of cities in China changes. Throughout the entire range of scales and densities, China's cities are elements in a continuous fabric.

An ancient imperial-feudal system of isolation that propagated walled cities, palaces, and homes was subverted as a series of events shifted power and exclusivity out of the city and into the country.

The rumblings of revolution in Shanghai rose out of an era of colonial occupation throughout China, and eventually made its way to Beijing.

A new era of government endorsed open borders, special economic zones, and globalization bears resemblance to the colonial past it sought to overthrow.

China bears the scars of history in its cities, buildings, and infrastructures. While some wounds have healed, and others persist, still new violences have yet to be inflicted.