WANG Shu and the Possibilities of Architectural regionalism in China

Abstract

The article introduces the work of the Chinese experimental architect WANG Shu who practices Critical Regionalism in China by developing, among other things, the principle of free design that he derives from Chinese garden architecture.
Further the article examines the possibilities of critical regionalism within a typically Chinese socio-cultural context that is determined by a particular relationship with history. A critical philosophical tradition (in the west developed by Humboldt and Ranke) is absent in Chinese thought. Neither in Qing China, during the years of attempted reforms, nor during the Hundred Days Reform or the Chinese Renaissance, has Chinese thought been able to establish a critical tradition. The author discusses if contemporary Chinese architects will be able to create a valuable Chinese environment flowing out of a critical interchange with Chinas history.