The Power of Architectural Criticism: Reviewing the People’s Daily and the Architectural Journal and their Role in Establishing the New Chinese Socialist Identity during the 1950s.
At the early stage when the People’s Republic of China was found, the Chinese architecture field has reached a peak moment in which the discussion of “National style,” “Socialist new style” and a radical ideological transformation happened. Besides, the subject of “Architectural criticism” is an area that has not been fully developed or given particular attention in China. For the moment, historical research on Chinese architectural criticism is still limited to some pioneering studies, and also the number of Chinese architecture scholars whose topic is relevant to Chinese architectural criticism is minimal. In this case, this research focuses on the architectural history and criticism in the first decade after the founding of new China, that aims to undertake a first step toward the construction of a historical overview of architectural criticism in the period between 1949-1966. (From the founding of new China to the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.) After a preliminary analysis of general questions about the history of architectural criticism as well as the pilot research and selection of architectural and social publications. The research was decided to conduct mainly based on the analysis of architecture debates/articles/discourses and keywords that appeared in Architectural Journal —- the authority professional architectural publication in the 1950s and People’s Daily — the mainstream social media in 1950s. Through the identification of the key themes that were considered in parallel by the two publications, this resulted in outlets to construct the knowledge framework of Chinese architectural criticism in the 1950s
Qian Lin
The Living Conditions of the Elderly: A Comparative Study of Suzhou Old City and Suzhou Industrial Park
With a growing number of the elderly, ageing is becoming a critical social issue in China. The “One Child Policy” that had been pursued in the 1980s restricts the number of newborns, resulting in a 4-2-1 family structure (4 grandparents, 2 parents and 1 child). Due to rapid socio-economic development, the younger generation born in the 1980s (Millennials) tends to have a lifestyle different from their predecessors. Regardless of a choice of late marriage or Dink (Double Incomes No Kids) families, the new lifestyle leads to an increasing proportion of elderly people within the population. However, existing research works have not adequately addressed this issue to the extent that coping strategies have been systematically set out to deal with problems confronting the elderly living in any specific geographical areas. As largely Chinese elderly people prefer to age at home, the research studies the elderly living in the local communities of Suzhou by looking at their daily life and living environments. In view of the economic boom and urban development in contemporary China, the research studies the elderly living in both the old city and a newly developed area of Suzhou, with intent to identify the commonalities and differences therein. The fruit of the research is a set of design guidelines on improvement in the elderly’s life and living environments.
The practice of practices: Chinese Independent Architectural Design from 1949
From its establishment to the 1950s, the People’s Republic of China gradually completed a process of Socialist transformation. All private sectors were either dismissed or reformed to fit the public-owned economic system. The practice form of private architectural design offices encountered a temporary termination. It took decades for the architectural profession to reclaim the freedom of private practice, and this happened in the 1980s after the government implemented reform and opening policies. From then on, the small-scale private practice began to flourish and multiply in number.
This research reviews the decline and revival of private architectural practices in the 1950s and the 1990s in China and reinterprets the role of architects in the design process in the context of collectivism. It examines, in Mao’s era when individualism was criticised, how the independence claimed by architects survive in the collective design system. Meanwhile, this research further reflects the so-called “independent practice” after the 1990s when China’s market economy brought back the freedom of private practice. Based on case studies on the architects and their built works, it explores the hidden restrictions to individual practice in an “open era”. Furthermore, the ideological contradiction between private and public, and between individualism and collectivism behind this scene is revealed.
Guillermo Sanchez Sotes
The Appropriation of Autopoiesis in Architecture
This thesis investigates the merits of cross-disciplinary appropriations of natural-scientific theory in architecture, particularly of the theory of autopoiesis as appropriated in Patrik Schumacher’s two-volume tome The Autopoiesis of Architecture. This investigation began with an interest in perceived connections between urban dynamics and autopoietic processes in biological cells. In this context, Schumacher’s work was expected to offer, but did not deliver, an explanatory theoretical framework. This raised questions about the role of cross-disciplinary appropriations of natural-scientific theory in architecture in general and the appropriation of autopoiesis in architectural theory in particular. A review of related literature shows that investigations of these questions are confounded by the conceptual broadness granted to theoretical ideas and the indirect route along which autopoiesis has been appropriated in architecture. From its original conception by Maturana et al. in microbiology in the 1970s to its appropriation by Luhmann in sociology in the 1980s, on to the appropriation of its sociological interpretation by Schumacher in architecture around 2011, the phenomena described by the three instances of autopoiesis theory, and their varying grounding in empirical evidence, have changed significantly. Meanwhile, natural-scientific theories inform architectural practice and research across a broad spectrum between metaphorical ambiguity and literal exactitude, from conceptual inspiration in applied design and literal design guidance as is common in biomimicry, to scholarly explanation and empirical prediction. Between these intricacies, the following research question arises: What are the merits of Patrik Schumacher’s appropriation of the theory of autopoiesis from the perspective of academic architectural research? To address this question from an academic architectural research perspective, this study uses a mixed-method approach, drawing on discourse analysis, close reading, visual interpretation, and inference to the best explanation to analyse 16 pertinent samples from The Autopoiesis of Architecture both individually as well as in aggregate, using previously-established categorisations of language use and merits of theory appropriation. It thereby determines how Schumacher’s theory relates “architecture” to prior (i.e., Luhmann’s or Maturana et al.’s) instances of autopoiesis theory, the degree of literality of these references, and their likely beneficiaries. The outcomes of this analysis show that the connections drawn between architecture and autopoiesis in The Autopoiesis of Architecture evoke (or at least do not preclude evoking) biological systems rather than aligning exclusively with Schumacher’s conceptualisation of architecture as a social system. They also suggest that a significant portion of these connections appear to benefit the author (Schumacher) rather than the reader by legitimising and obfuscating rather than providing explanatory convergence. Furthermore, the analysis shows how these connections are not committed to a uniform use of language, ranging across literal, metaphorical, analogical, and similised modes. Schumacher thus seems to operate somewhat ambiguously across all analytical frameworks and distinctions applied in this study, taking an approach that may benefit conceptual inspiration of the design practice rather than rigorous descriptions of academic research his theory purports to do. In this view, Schumacher’s theory appropriation appears to enjoy the conceptual tolerance cultivated on the design practice side of the field but seems unlikely to substantially benefit either the professional practice or academic research arms of the discipline.
This research reviews the decline and revival of private architectural practices in the 1950s and the 1990s in China and reinterprets the role of architects in the design process in the context of collectivism. It examines, in Mao’s era when individualism was criticised, how the independence claimed by architects survive in the collective design system. Meanwhile, this research further reflects the so-called “independent practice” after the 1990s when China’s market economy brought back the freedom of private practice. Based on case studies on the architects and their built works, it explores the hidden restrictions to individual practice in an “open era”. Furthermore, the ideological contradiction between private and public, and between individualism and collectivism behind this scene is revealed.