Introduction

Current structures of modern, large-scale, multi-disciplinary, collective and collaborative architectural practice are not new.  They are closely related to the emergence of early modern nation-states, with their imperial ambitions, in both Europe and Asia, and have remained structurally and ideologically intertwined ever since through various transformations.  This lecture will explore the evolution of these forms of practice, with a focus on early modern France and England and Qing Dynasty China, and then highlight the traces and transformations that condition the form and operation of current modes of institutional and corporate practice.

Alan J. Plattus is Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the Yale University School of Architecture, where he teaches courses on architectural history and theory, urban history, and design, and for fifteen years directed the School’s China Studio in collaboration with Tongji University, Hong Kong University, and Tsinghua University.  He founded and co-directs the Yale Urban Design Workshop, a community design center that has undertaken award-winning urban design and building projects throughout New England and around the world, including a cross-border Peace Park along the Jordan River and post-industrial waterfront development and coastal adaptation in Bridgeport, Connecticut and Gothenburg, Sweden.  He has lectured and published widely on the history of cities and civic pageantry, as well as on modern architecture, urbanism, and theory.