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New Chinese Architecture: Twenty Women Building the Future
The first survey of China’s leading female architects, this book features twenty established and emerging talents addressing the ever-evolving challenges and opportunities of designing in the most populous country on Earth. Over the past decade, China’s new generation of female architects have proven themselves to be talented, confident, innovative, and successful on the world stage. Engaging with traditions and international trends, as well as posing entirely new architectural ideas, their projects reveal China to be a place full of creative possibility. This book explores the work of twenty leading female architects living and working in China today. Together they represent a mix of creative talents who are having a significant influence on the national scene. Featuring detailed profiles of each architect, this book showcases over fifty of their key projects across China, from small- to large-scale, residential to commercial, and urban to rural developments, many never before published. With a foreword by business magnate Zhang Xin, one of China’s most celebrated female entrepreneurs, New Chinese Architecture offers unique insights into how architects are adapting and responding to the rapidly evolving social and political changes impacting life in the most populous country on Earth. 370+ illustrations
- GenresArchitecture
256 pages, Hardcover
Published May 21, 2019
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 28, 2021
Firstly, I admire their intelligence and their anecdotes are so inspirational and also encouraging.
Through Zhang Jinqiu, I'm reminded of my own experience of walking around the city and talk to myself of what is so interesting about each building as I passed by, the first stage of my interest in architecture.
Something that is repeatedly highlighted in the book is how China has been changing rapidly, that architecture seems to be also very commercial, a controversial topic, that the more we focus on what we need to do, the gender restriction and boundary seems to fade away from our mind. Each of these women is so powerful, so independent, that reading their story is as amusing as reading their project.
Wang Youfen said
" I tell my student to read a wide variety of books- on subjects beyond architecture, such as humanities, sociology, psychology and so on. If you have knowledge stored in your mind, you will know how to observe what is going on around you. This is an invaluable first stage in making value judgments"
" I tell them to go out and have a cup of coffee and think because it is better than sitting indoors surfing internet. The benefit is unquantifiable: if you don't observer reality, how can you design for it?"
Some of my favourite projects listed:
Fan Beibei's Original Homestay
Jiang Ying and her 'repurposed' project such as Youth Hotal in iD Town
Peng Lele's Atelier 100s+1, that inspired by Loius Kahn and his brickwork, I just thought to myself, it definitely fell different when you're working at a place that you personally contributed in the designing process
Wang Youfen's Zhejiang Tourism Exhibition center
Through Zhang Jinqiu, I'm reminded of my own experience of walking around the city and talk to myself of what is so interesting about each building as I passed by, the first stage of my interest in architecture.
Something that is repeatedly highlighted in the book is how China has been changing rapidly, that architecture seems to be also very commercial, a controversial topic, that the more we focus on what we need to do, the gender restriction and boundary seems to fade away from our mind. Each of these women is so powerful, so independent, that reading their story is as amusing as reading their project.
Wang Youfen said
" I tell my student to read a wide variety of books- on subjects beyond architecture, such as humanities, sociology, psychology and so on. If you have knowledge stored in your mind, you will know how to observe what is going on around you. This is an invaluable first stage in making value judgments"
" I tell them to go out and have a cup of coffee and think because it is better than sitting indoors surfing internet. The benefit is unquantifiable: if you don't observer reality, how can you design for it?"
Some of my favourite projects listed:
Fan Beibei's Original Homestay
Jiang Ying and her 'repurposed' project such as Youth Hotal in iD Town
Peng Lele's Atelier 100s+1, that inspired by Loius Kahn and his brickwork, I just thought to myself, it definitely fell different when you're working at a place that you personally contributed in the designing process
Wang Youfen's Zhejiang Tourism Exhibition center
Displaying 1 of 1 review