This workshop will focus on the role of architecture and urbanism in the production of ideology within contemporary China. Over the past 15 years Chinese cities have grown at unprecedented speeds. This change has been a substantial driver of the contemporary Chinese economy, but at the same time it has been an important indicator to all Chinese citizens that the country is being remade. Since the early 1990s urban development has acted as a foundation for a broader cultural turn within Chinese society, from a simple focus on low cost commodity production and high technology development, towards creative and cultural industries. Nowhere was this imbrication more evident than at the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where the incredible cultural and historical spectacle designed by filmmaker Zhang Yimou, was played out within the new national stadium, designed by Swiss architects Herzog and DeMeuron.

The Olympic stadium and its twin, the National Aquatic Center, by China State Construction Engineering Corporation, PTW Architects and Ove Arup Pty Ltd, are just two of a growing number of mega-projects that are being used to mark the important spaces of contemporary Chinese culture. Museums, concert halls, media complexes and government buildings are all being produced for their value as image. However the workshop will not only focus on landmark architecture in major Chinese cities, already under the media spotlight, it will also examine a broad range of architectural and urban phenomena, including public space (eg. the new central axis superimposed on the old imperial central axis in Beijing by German architect Albert Speer), commercial skyscrapers, heritage buildings, amusement parks, conference centers and industrial parks. It will also examine affluent gated residential developments such as Anting “German” Town (also designed by Speer), Thames Town, Italian Town, and Canadian Town in the suburbs of Shanghai, using exotic national or heritage themes.

The workshop will also emphasize the importance of the historical roots of the contemporary architectural spectacle. Just as we will investigate how historical space and heritage buildings from the imperial, colonial, and revolutionary eras are being refashioned into modern spectacles, we will also examine the degree to which the architectural forms of the utopian communes of the revolutionary era and the local surveillance network from the imperial past are being appropriated for the design of the new middle-class gated communities in the post-socialist era.

Finally, the workshop will use the Chinese architectural phenomena to address recent debates within North American architectural discourse over the usefulness of critical theory in discussions of contemporary architecture, debates which have recently been taken up with great vigor within China itself. As well, by examining the underlying political and economic conditions that gave rise to these architectural spectacles, and how they are in turn producing new social relationship and political order in China today, this project will address an important aspect of China that has been overlooked by China scholars.