In the arena between traditionalism and the imported architecture spreading all over China, Gong Dong (Beijing, 1972) had the wisdom to find virtue in the middle way, balancing his local training with a fruitful sojourn in America. The ideas and forms he brought back from there are thus tied to the eternal values of his country, and so it is that his works never come across as too old or too new, but simply in place. Such delicate understanding of the sites, crystallized in atmospheric scenes, is what the following selection of buildings aims to illustrate. Located in patria but looking beyond, they express nocturnal thoughts of Li Bai: “Lift my head and see the moon / Lower my head and pine for home.”[+]