A collection of essays on architecture of modern China, arranged chronologically covering a period from 1729 to 2008, focusing mainly on the twentieth century. The distinctive feature of this book is a blending of ?critical? and ?historical? research, taking a long-range perspective transcending the current scene and the Maoist period. This is a short, elegant book that condenses the wide subject matter into key topics.

Contents:
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Beijing as a Critical Problem
In Search of a Chinese Space
Outline of the Research and the Argument
A Note on Method
1. A Geo-Political Project
2. City Plan as Ideology
A Classical Tradition
Neo-Confucianism
3. Social Space of the City
A City of Cities
Space of the State
Space of Society
Concluding Notes 1: Architecture of the City and the Land
4. A Sea of Walls: The Purple Forbidden Palace
5. The Palace: Framing a Political Landscape
The Inner Court as a Corporeal Space
The Outer Court as an Institutional Space
A Composition of Forces
6. The Palace: a Battlefield
Flows of Reports and Directives
Defence
Recurring Crises
7. Constructs of Authority
Legalism and The Art of War
Vis-a-vis the Panopticon: Two Ages of Reason
Concluding Notes 2: Architecture as a Machine of the State
8. A Religious Discourse
Composing and Building the Discourse
Performing an Ideology
9. Formal Compositions: Visual and Existential
Beijing as a Scroll
Vis-a-vis 'Cartesian Perspectivalism': Two Ways of Seeing
Concluding Notes 3: Architecture of Horizon
Appendix: dynasties, reigns and emperors
Notes
Bibliography
Index

A collection of essays on architecture of modern China, arranged chronologically covering a period from 1729 to 2008, focusing mainly on the twentieth century. The distinctive feature of this book is a blending of a ~criticala (TM) and a ~historicala (TM) research, taking a long-range perspective transcending the current scene and the Maoist period. This is a short, elegant book that condenses the wide subject matter into key topics.

With 41 scholars worldwide contributing 46 chapters, and with nearly a decade in the making, this is one of the largest books in a single volume to cover a topic in architectural history and theory. A pioneering book that explores ways to integrate social methods and historical narratives in Chinese architecture. First English language reference volume on Chinese architecture.