Modern Chinese Architecture: 180 Years

Modern Chinese Architecture: 180 Years tells the story of the transformation of Chinese architecture from a traditional timber-frame, single-story building system with ceramic tile roofs of anonymous craftsmen to supertall skyscrapers designed by internationally acclaimed architects. From temple markets to megamalls, and from open-air stages to auditoriums and stadiums, the architectural changes mirror China's extraordinary evolution from an imperial dynasty to a people’s republic and from a country with a largely rural and illiterate citizenry to at least 97% literacy, where 60 percent of the population is urban. 

In this live webinar, author Nancy S. Steinhardt will view the changes in Chinese architecture through five generations of architects: first, through foreigners who practiced in China; then in a first generation who studied modern architecture abroad; a third generation were the students who designed during the years of war with Japan, internal warfare, and the Cultural Revolution; in the 1980s, a next generation began to study abroad, who have been followed in this century by designers from every continent.

Nancy S. Steinhardt is Professor of East Asian Art and Curator of Chinese Art at the University of Pennsylvania where she has taught since 1982. A leading scholar of the art and architecture of China and China’s border regions, she is is author or co-editor of more than a dozen key books in the field, including Chinese Traditional Architecture (1984), Chinese Imperial City Planning (1990), Chinese Architecture and the Beaux-Arts (2011), Chinese Architecture in an Age of Turmoil, 200-600 (2014), The Chinese Mosque (2015), China: an Architectural History (2019), and The Borders of Chinese Architecture (2022), as well as  more than 100 articles. Steinhardt has been involved in international collaborations in China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Russia and has been an advisor, guest curator, or author for exhibitions at China Institute, Asia Society, the Metropolitan Museum, Japan Society, Chicago Art Institute, Smart Museum, and the Penn Museum.