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Lecture

Architectural Theory and History I：

Traditional Chinese Architecture



The Voices and Echoes of 

Traditional Garden-Houses: 

The Japanese Exhibition House at MoMA and Astor Court at Metropolitan Museum of Art


图片

Zhou Yi 

Zhou Yi is an Architect and Associate Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture at the Beijing University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Professor Zhou’s practices include architecture and interior design, with a major focus on “garden as architecture,” namely how to translate the tradition of Chinese garden into modern architectural design. She has broad research interests including theory of Chinese painting and garden-making, history of timber structures and gardens in China and Japan, arts of everyday life, and history of interior decoration and furniture of East Asia. She is particularly interested in transmissions of artistic lifestyle and the accordant built environment and material culture during medieval period of China and Japan, as well as the divergent paths of China and Japan’s architectural modernization.


Both as gifts symbolizing the recovery of bilateral friendly relations after the international historical nodes, Japanese Exhibition House and Astor Court were both traditional garden-house from East Asian countries that were presented at the important exhibition spaces of America in the second half of the 20th century. They were both designed by local designers, manufactured by traditional craftsmen, and installed overseas, making resounding voices to the world for their countries’ architectural tradition. However, the motives for presenting these two garden houses, the selection and the redesign of the models, and the echoes from the world architecture society greatly differed and thereupon exerted significant influences on the courses of the two countries’ architectural traditions having been involved in forming the notion of modern architecture. By comparing the two projects, this lecture aims to provide some experiences from the early endeavors of translating East Asian architectural tradition into modern design for contemporary practices.



May 17, 2023 (Wednesday), 19:00–20:35 

Room B314

Tencent Meeting ID: 293-800-929

Password: 8591



Reference

[1] Alfreda Murck and Wen Fong. A Chinese Garden Court- The Astor Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art [J]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, 1980, 38(3): 2-64.


[2] Arthur Drexler (Museum of Modern Art, New York). The Architecture of Japan [M]. Distributed by Simon and Schuster, 1955：262-286.

[3] Lewis Mumford. Windows and Gardens [N]. The New Yorker, Oct 02, 1954.

Sources

[1] Japanese Exhibition House. 

Source: Official website of MoMA (https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2711?installation_image_index=2https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2711?installation_image_index=2https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2711?installation_image_index=2)


[2] Interior of the Main Hall of Astor Court. 

Source: Alfreda Murck and Wen Fong. A Chinese Garden Court- The Astor Court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art [J]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, 1980, 38(3):  49


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