ABSTRACT

A Philosophy of Chinese Architecture: Past, Present, Future examines the impact of Chinese philosophy on China’s historic structures, as well as on modern Chinese urban aesthetics and architectural forms. For architecture in China moving forward, author David Wang posits a theory, the New Virtualism, which links current trends in computational design with long-standing Chinese philosophical themes. The book also assesses twentieth-century Chinese architecture through the lenses of positivism, consciousness (phenomenology), and linguistics (structuralism and poststructuralism). Illustrated with over 70 black-and-white images, this book establishes philosophical baselines for assessing architectural developments in China, past, present and future.

chapter |11 pages

Introduction

part 1|73 pages

Past

part 2|56 pages

Present

chapter 4|25 pages

The Positivist Turn

The Loss of Apperception in Present-day Chinese Architecture

part 3|56 pages

Future

chapter 6|28 pages

A Philosophy of Chinese Architecture