ABSTRACT
The 1980s saw a profusion of publications on design thinking, accumulated since 1949 but suppressed during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76); they reveal influences from the USSR and the USA. One such book is Jianzhu Kongjian Zhuhelun (A theory of spatial composition in architecture) of 1983, then widely used in teaching. This chapter examines the book for a formation of design knowledge. Revealing its framework, object, and technique – “content and form,” “space,” and “composition” – and its view of design as “engineering with artistry,” this chapter identifies a classical–modern synthesis but also a gravitational – not open and levitational – understanding of space in China at the time.
