ABSTRACT
Liu Jiakun is based in Chengdu, which is located in the Western region of China, and as an individual architect, he represents one specific stream in the increasingly diversified architectural discourse in China. The chapter analyses how Liu Jiakun decodes socialist architectural-aesthetic programmes in the new social context, and constructs new architectural identities on the basis of a subconscious familiarity with architectural traditions and routines from the pre-reformed China. A brief comparison of life trajectories and works between Liu Jiakun and Zhang Xiaogang, a contemporary Chinese symbolist and surrealist painter, further explores their methods in polishing and consolidating the collective memory in architectural or painting details. Regarding architecture, this analysis offers a fresh perspective by defining tamed architecture and evaluating the untamed thread that can be discerned in various elements in his built work. Yet the architect is psychologically tamed in the social conflicts. In other words, psychological adjustment provided new impetus in design and pushed the limits of existing forms in architecture by embracing some embarrassments in social conflicts. This chapter reveals that Liu’s architecture has overcome ideological deviation and retains its integrity, instead of serving the purposes of the government, simulating a sense of involvement in the socialist regime or serving the imagination of the West.
