Building Technology and Culture in the Asia-Pacific Region

This chapter outlines a critical approach and describes the principles of architectural design applied by Kengo Kuma in the Damochang 220 project in Beijing, focusing on aspects of Kuma’s architectural philosophy, the priority of heritage conservation, the use of transformative design and the ‘redefinition of boundaries’ in the redevelopment, regeneration, and reinvention of the area’s hutongs (alleys) and siheyuan (courtyard houses). The text describes Kuma’s use of geometric patterns as part of the tradition of its use, ‘dissolved boundaries,’ and connections between nature and people in the final design and realization of this building.

This essay aims to investigate the design reasons behind the use of vaulted systems in avant-garde architecture built in China in the past ten years. Such use is normally made for compositional and formal purposes, often beyond a structural or construction logic, and with the purpose of achieving a monumental character in terms of space definition. Iconic buildings conceived with substantially different vaulted systems, such as the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum (made of reinforced masonry), the UCCA Dune Art Museum (made of reinforced concrete), or the covered area of Shangcun village (made of bamboo), thus allow a systemization of particular theoretical fundamentals within the context of the contemporary architectural design, analysed in terms of the tectonics/built space relationship, and in the light of a design culture and practice founded on construction brought to the table by Chinese avant-garde architects in recent years. This analysis is also finalized to better understand and interpret the design process that leads to avant-garde architecture within the complex Chinese professional sphere, questioning and broadening the debate around the Western concept of monumentality in contemporary architecture.

Mud brick is one of the most widely used residential construction materials in India. Exposed brick construction is an art that requires acquired proficiency and a keen eye for the nuances of detailing. Laurie Baker (1917–2007), the British-born, Indian architect, found bricks to be like human faces, each with their color and feature, rendering them their unique character. Baker’s innovative brick use engages the oft-forgotten, vernacular ideas of construction in response to local conditions. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, Baker’s building culture translated to simple living, economic prudence, and equitable architectural services and products for all. These aspects underscore a socially responsible, environmentally just, and ethically materialized culture of building, mostly concentrated in his documented works in the southern state of Kerala in the Indian subcontinent. This paper contextualizes and historicizes Baker’s architecture, seen through Semper’s Stoffwechsel, as being alchemistic, i.e., turning worthless stone into gold. This is a material transformation that happens through a process of human intervention, technology, or techne. This research analyzes the footprint of Baker's work through the lens of the German architect and theorist Gottfried Semper’s metamorphic lens of Stoffwechsel, both in its effect on the physical built form and effect on the socio-cultural manifestations. Semper’s concept of Stoffwechsel, which transfers an original form of making something from one material to another, is observed as the metamorphic act in brickwork witnessed in Laurie Baker’s architecture. Stoffwechsel represents a continuity of state and a state change, revealing a new story in every condition.

The following research examines the development of one of the prevalent architectural construction materials, plywood, with regard to its relevance in craft and industry. The early production and implementation of plywood as an industrial material coincided with the emergence of early craft movements and ideologies in early 19th-century Europe, followed by the United States, and subsequently in 20th-century Japan. The objective is to pursue the reciprocal development of craft and industry through the lens of plywood as material and as product. Wood had been a prominent craft material for centuries and required expertise in assessment and manipulation. The development of plywood, which was the first industrialization of wood, represented the transition of materiality from the craft realm to one of science and engineering, with variations extending into the realm of synthetic and composite materials. Through plywood, wood transformed into homogeneous, easily manipulatable and accessible material. Its historical development, technical aspects and correlation to crafts and industries are examined through the perspective of sociotechnical changes. While preceding research on the topic can be generally categorized into two types, industry-based and design based, this research uses both categories of sources related to key developments in plywood in parallel, as an attempt to draw associations to craft in its wide spectrum. Spanning both industry-based and design-based documents, this research observes the impact this material has had, from its early phase to its prevalence in prototyping and the DIY movement.

The work of Japanese architect Toyo Ito has taken a decided shift following the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and the Tsunami. Ito has, over the past decades, critiqued the “rigidity and sterility” of modern architecture made of steel, concrete, and glass. The triple disasters of 2011 prompted him to reexamine why, how, and for and with whom we design architecture. As an alternative to modern architecture driven by efficiency and economy, he demonstrates his reimagination of wood—adaptable, varied, and flexible like nature—in two recent works, both located in rural Japan: the Home-for-All of 2012, a post-disaster community building located at the ground zero of the tsunami, and the Gifu Media Cosmos of 2015, a public library and community center located in the mountainous, rural prefecture of Gifu. In the 2012 Venice Biennale Japanese Pavilion exhibit provocatively titled “Architecture. Possible here?”, the group of architects led by Ito challenges the modernist ideology that had been the foundation of their careers’ work. Is architecture, not simply buildings, possible in an underserved area that suffers from not only a natural disaster but also persistent economic decline and depopulation? This chapter examines the ways in which both the Home-for-All and the Gifu Media Cosmos respond critically to this provocation, specifically through wood, a material with a particular cultural significance in these regions.

This study aims to share an application of one sheeted hyperboloid structure, particularly in bamboo architecture. A combination of interviews and case study analysis of seven iconic bamboo structures built over a span of 15 years are used to investigate the role of this type of combination between shells and space frame structures in the Bali region. Initial investigation shows that as a main structural system, it is an efficient structural element which is mostly used as a central column. Mostly they are used to substitute a column in a bamboo context, and there is potential in terms of scalability and flexible use in multiple story structures in mainstream construction.

Modern Chinese treaty port cities were influenced by Western culture, particularly European culture, and their modern architecture witnessed cross-border communication. Considering the technology and construction of the Jardine Matheson Company’s warehouse in the modern treaty port of Tianjin as an example, this paper aims to clarify the process of communication, mutual cultural learning and the localization of modern architecture from the perspectives of architectural technology and construction innovation. It aims to demonstrate a close cross-border interaction between treaty port cities and Europe during the nineteenth-twentieth century. Through the analyses of original archives in both China and the UK, this paper firstly explores the history and building technology of its warehouse of the Jardine Matheson in Tianjin, and traces the origin of flat slab floors in Europe and their transfer to East Asia. Secondly, it analyzes the cross-border spread and modernization of building technology in treaty port cities. The history of this technological transformation and evolution concludes the unique development route and driving force behind architectural technology and culture of modern treaty port cities in East Asia with Tianjin as a case study. Further, it argues that during East Asia's modernization, the factors of imperialism, capitalism, and nationalism played different roles and showed different degrees of interrelation, promotion, and balance. They are the driving forces of modernization and their influence spread from treaty port cities to a broader range of inland cities, which had a long-term and far-reaching influence on East Asia's urban development and construction.

The construction activities conducted by the Christian missionaries in China at the beginning of the twentieth century served as a catalyst for the emergence of the modern Chinese architecture movement, which is characterized by the cultural exchange between China and the West. The architecture of certain Christian universities in China was designed by missionary architects and executed by local craftsmen, demonstrating not only significant processes of technological import but also the outcomes of “Sinicization” that emerged from intercultural perceptions. This chapter explores the impact of Christianity missionaries on modern Chinese architecture through the case study of the University of Nanking, which was sponsored by American Churches. The chapter examines how various stakeholders from different cultural backgrounds tried to incorporate traditional Chinese architectural features, represented by the curved roof, into the design for a Christian university campus, where modern technologies and Western construction principles were applied. This chapter begins by discussing the paradigms of traditional Chinese roof appearance and structure, comparing them to Western trussed roofs. Through historical drawings, photographs, on-site surveys, and three-dimensional models, the paper analyzes how missionary architects misunderstood the features of Chinese architecture and struggled to control the curve of the roof. Moreover, the paper also identifies instances of “positive misinterpretations” during the construction activities that led to new tectonic innovations and the development of the modern construction industry system in China. Overall, this chapter sheds light on the interactions between building technology and cultural perception in modern Chinese architecture history, as well as highlights the importance of understanding the role of missionary architecture in Chinese modern heritage.

The paper aims to deepen the situatedness of the mega-event as an accelerator and rhetorical incubator of architectural practice, in particular translating the reactivation of an industrial site into a national manifesto for industrial heritage reuse. The observation revolves around the renovation of the Main Workshop of the Oxygen Factory Complex in the Shougang Steel Factory. Shougang is a former danwei in Beijing that in the early 2000s was gradually dismantled to limit pollution for the XXIX Olympic Games (2008); a few years later, when Beijing was the first city hosting both the Summer and Winter Olympics, it was selected to host the Big Air discipline for 2022 Winter Games becoming as well the first Olympic venue within an industrial site. Although much of its heritage has been demolished, Shougang still embeds the cultural, social, and economic legacy of Chinese industrial history. The authors—as part of the Politecnico di Torino/Department of Architecture and Design/China Room—developed the refurbishment of the Main Workshop in collaboration with Atelier TeamMinus and Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tsinghua University—in charge of the entire transformation of the Olympic site. The case is deployed as a privileged observation stance for a retrospective reflection in action grasped through the unpacking of three main design issues. Such issues are used to depict the relapse of transcultural socio-technical patterns. The three observed nodes hence test the operative margins ascertained from the perspective of both the contingent environment, or trends and techniques deployed, and revealing how much the design choices have been influenced from an aesthetic and technological point of view.