Luis Fernández-Galiano   Is the Middle Kingdom panda or dragon? Is it the kind bear that fascinates everyone or the mythical animal that everyone respects and fears? Probably, China is at once panda and dragon: a voracious mammal that needs to consume thousands of bamboo sho

Li Xiangning   The Beijing joint exhibition of ten years of work of MADA s.p.a.m., Jiakun Architects and Urbanus and the seminar held in March 2010 were a landmark event for Chinese contemporary architecture in recent years. The three firms have built mainly in fiv

Wang Lu   Since 1978, the reforming and open policy has led China to a golden rush of economic development and a fast process of modernization and urbanization. China has become the biggest building site in the world, and attracted many foreign architects to t

Tang Keyang   We have in the first place to question the necessity of bringing up this issue: aren’t most recent ambitious Chinese projects unmistakably ‘public’ for both their investment structures and their intended uses, are they? It is clear, however, that the

Dong Yugan   China   This dwelling defies the common notions of what a house is and must be. Located on the countryside, close to Beijing, its construction process lasted six years divided into three phases, reflecting how attention diverted from building to courtyard, a

Xu Tiantian   China   Located east of Beijing, right next to the sixth ring road of the city, Songzhuang is the most important artist village in China, and in the last years, with the boom of the art market there, it is undergoing a dramatic population growth. Located by

TAOA | Tao Lei Architect Studio   China   This Project was especially designed for Dazhong Feng, a prestigious artist in China. The building includes multiple functions such as residence, studio and gallery. Therefore, it not only required a quiet living space for the artist but also a dynam

MAD Architects   China   Located in Kangbashi, one of the new districts of the city of Ordos created on terrains which previously belonged to the Gobi Desert, the museum addresses the particular urban planning of the area – a masterplan of strict radial geometry around a lar

Liu Kecheng   China   The city of Xian, once known as Chang’An, was since the 2nd century B.C. and for a long time the eastern terminus of the Silk Road. Along with commercial transit, the political capitality it held during different periods turned it into one of the mos

ZAO / standardarchitecture   China   Mirui Road follows the Niyang River along its sinuous course towards the south, enjoying the mountainous landscape of Tibet. Along its path it meets Daze village, chosen to be the entrance to this tourist attraction with a visitors’ center that has a

TAO | Trace Architecture Office, Li Hua   China   The Museum is located in a beautiful landscape next to Xinzhuang Village and under Gaoligong mountain, an important world ecological preserve. The village has a long tradition of handcraft paper making, and the museum’s program is to show how the cul

Urbanus   China   In search of protection from the bandits that besieged the small rural communitites, the peasants of the Hakka etnia in the southern province of Fujian began in the 12th century to build the Tulous, literally ‘earth building’. Their closed and usuall

Wang Shu, Amateur Architecture Studio   China   The new campus of Xiangshan accommodates several faculties of the Academy of Fine Arts, such as the School of Architecture or that of Design. When it was time to determine its location, instead of choosing the district preferred by the government, th

AZL Architects , Zhang Lei   China   On the eastern edge of Yangzhou’s new development area and east of the 2500-year-old Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, this community center stands out amid the gleaming office blocks and rendered houses of the surroundings with its at once rustic and co

Atelier Deshaus    China   This kindergarten is located on the outskirts of Shanghai, in the district of Jiading. It is divided into two longitudinal and zigzagging blocks separated by a narrow space that serves as access and also acts as a place in which to develop activities

Neri & Hu Design and Research Office   China   Located by Cool Docks, a new development on the South Bund District of Shanghai, the Waterhouse is a four-story, 19-room boutique hotel built into an existing Japanese Army building from the 1930s. The concept behind the renovation rests on a clear c