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Issue 11 - Made In China

Tradition within Contemporaneity

In economic terms China developed phenomenally in the last few years. From one of the poorest third world countries it has become within twenty years the second biggest economy in the world. Foreign investors and architects were called to built a contemporary global city. We are trying to find out whether there is a tendency in contemporary Chinese architecture to seek inspiration in their own tradition. In October 2012 the chair of J.Ll. Mateo organized a study trip to China. The visit to the traditional Chinese city Pingyao compared to Beijing made one understand the extreme change which Chinese cities have undergone in the last century.

Issue 11 - Made In ChinaXiaodong Li, Obiol Cecilia , Wang Lu , Wenyi ZhuInterviews

GLOCAL CHINA

Interview with Wang Lu, Li Xiaodong and Zhu Wenyi

IDENTITY. Could we say that there is a new tendency in Chinese architecture orientated to the recovery of its original identity?

WANG LU. Shortly to say in China we cannot escape from style. After the Cultural Revolution the whole China started to reconsider how to build the...

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Issue 11 - Made In ChinaWang Lu , Wenyi Zhu, Xiaodong LiInterviews, Videos

URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN BEIJING

Interview with Wang Lu, Li Xiaodong and Zhu Wenyi

Tradition in the Beijing urban development

ZHU WENYI: From the viewpoint of urban space or urban design, a lot of things are related to tradition; they have not disappeared and still alive. The Chinese architecture and city, as same as the Chinese food, is a part of Chinese culture...

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Issue 11 - Made In ChinaObiol Cecilia Essays

SUBJECTS AND OBJECTS

by Cecilia Obiol

The ancient city of Pingyao stands on the East bank of the middle reaches of the Fenhe river, which runs across the south of the Taiyuan Basin of Xanshi province. According to the Records on Pingyao County completed in 1882 the old city was established during Western Zhou Dynasty (827-782 BC),...

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Issue 11 - Made In ChinaSano Mitsunori, Hotz Anna, Vital NotVideos, Interviews

ART AND ARCHITECTURE - Atelier Not Vital in Beijing

Interview with Not Vital and Mitsunori Sano

Not Vital was born in 1948 in Sent, Graubünden (CH) and has been living and working between the USA, Africa, Chile, Italy and Switzerland.
In 2008 he commissioned his collaborator, the young Japanese architect Mitsunori Sano, to design his new Atelier in Caochangdi, an artist neighbourhood of...

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