Pu Miao
www.pumiao.net
As a registered architect, Pu Miao established Miao Design Studio in the early 1990s, exploring innovations in architectural, urban, landscape and interior designs. Its design experiments focus on the localization of Modernist architecture in today's China. His built designs have been published in international journals such as Architectural Review, Domus, Detail, A+, Urban Design (Quarterly), Architecture Asia, and Architectural Review Asia Pacific, as well as Chinese periodicals such as Architectural Journal, Time+Architecture, New Architecture, and Architect. Miao was invited to exhibit his work at CIVA in Brussels (2008) and at Aedes in Berlin (2011). His designs received several awards, including one from the 2007 Far Eastern Architectural Awards (Taiwan) and the Award of Excellence in the First Architectural Design Awards organized by the Architectural Society of China (ASC), Shanghai Chapter in 2006. His designs are reviewed by books on contemporary Chinese architecture, such as Charlie Q.L. Xue's Building A Revolution: Chinese Architecture Since 1980 (Hong Kong University Press, 2006).
Dr. Miao has also engaged in scholarly research. He edited and co-wrote the book Public Places in Asia Pacific Cities: Current Issues and Strategies, which was published by Kluwer Academic Publishers of the Netherlands in 2001. The book received good reviews internationally and was translated into Chinese. He was a member of the Expert Group Meeting on public space convened by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) and the Italian National Planning Institute (INU) in 2014. Miao also published numerous papers in international and Chinese journals on urban design, garden theory, phenomenology, architectural education, design criticism and other topics. His paper on gated communities in China has been cited widely by international scholars. His research on the structure of Chinese traditional architectural form has been adopted as reading material for graduate seminars in China.
Dr. Miao is a Professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture, University of Hawaii at Manoa, teaching architectural design studios and theoretical seminars (topics include architectural and urban design theories, design patterns of the garden and films and architecture). A native of Shanghai, he received his B.S. degree from Tongji University, Shanghai, a Master of Architecture and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
As a registered architect, Pu Miao established Miao Design Studio in the early 1990s, exploring innovations in architectural, urban, landscape and interior designs. Its design experiments focus on the localization of Modernist architecture in today's China. His built designs have been published in international journals such as Architectural Review, Domus, Detail, A+, Urban Design (Quarterly), Architecture Asia, and Architectural Review Asia Pacific, as well as Chinese periodicals such as Architectural Journal, Time+Architecture, New Architecture, and Architect. Miao was invited to exhibit his work at CIVA in Brussels (2008) and at Aedes in Berlin (2011). His designs received several awards, including one from the 2007 Far Eastern Architectural Awards (Taiwan) and the Award of Excellence in the First Architectural Design Awards organized by the Architectural Society of China (ASC), Shanghai Chapter in 2006. His designs are reviewed by books on contemporary Chinese architecture, such as Charlie Q.L. Xue's Building A Revolution: Chinese Architecture Since 1980 (Hong Kong University Press, 2006).
Dr. Miao has also engaged in scholarly research. He edited and co-wrote the book Public Places in Asia Pacific Cities: Current Issues and Strategies, which was published by Kluwer Academic Publishers of the Netherlands in 2001. The book received good reviews internationally and was translated into Chinese. He was a member of the Expert Group Meeting on public space convened by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) and the Italian National Planning Institute (INU) in 2014. Miao also published numerous papers in international and Chinese journals on urban design, garden theory, phenomenology, architectural education, design criticism and other topics. His paper on gated communities in China has been cited widely by international scholars. His research on the structure of Chinese traditional architectural form has been adopted as reading material for graduate seminars in China.
Dr. Miao is a Professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture, University of Hawaii at Manoa, teaching architectural design studios and theoretical seminars (topics include architectural and urban design theories, design patterns of the garden and films and architecture). A native of Shanghai, he received his B.S. degree from Tongji University, Shanghai, a Master of Architecture and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
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These proceedings document the work of a wide range of researchers, academics and experts from across the world, each presenting at the Masterplanning the Future international conference held in China on October 18th and 19th 2012.
These proceedings of the conference outline a variety of intellectual explorations relating to historical and contemporary situations, discussions and case studies, in China and around the world. As a body of work, and as a contribution to open enquiry, this is less an examination of how direct "conclusions" or "lessons" can be learned from different historical periods and social circumstances, but hopefully helpfully, the exchange of ideas and experiences facilitated by the Masterplanning the Future conference may help to stimulate a better understanding of architecture, contemporary and traditional urbanism; fostering critical awareness and challenging perceptions. Within a rapidly urbanizing world, the contributors look variously at whether advocacy for, criticism of, or rejection of modern design – as well as Modernist idealism - can go some way to help us understand the global urban condition.
Let’s take the West, Africa and China as historico-cultural points on the compass. The West: In early 20th century Europe,
modernist Charles Jencks considers talk of a zeitgeist to be pernicious
the appeal of Modernism was that it caught the zeitgeist of
a social liberationist tendency. It divided opinion then, and continues to do so today. Post-
and academic Westfall suggests that the impact of Modernist historicism to be tyrannous
. But whether in agreement or otherwise, Modernism operated within an era of social
transformation: it was widely noted that it reflected an experimental age, in which
. In the course of the early years of the new century, risk-taking
avant-gardism in the West seems to have been replaced - for better or worse - by risk-aversion.
Does this current attitude reflect a maturation from the age of innocence shown by early
Modernists
contemporary
2011)
the self-assurance to try and to fail
(Westfall:
; or is it a sign of a loss of nerve in the  period.
Africa: As it usurps Asia as the most rapidly urbanising region in the world, many commentators, such as Mike Davis, use the African continent as a cypher for their disillusion with the modern world. The vision of the African city as innocent and about to be ravaged by modernity, recalls the view of Oswald Spengler who linked the decline of Western civilization with the rise of the new. In contemporary critiques, modernism in Africa reflects a cultural colonialism rather than a progressive developmental model (Avermate et al: 2010), with opponents advocating against direct planned improvements in living standards; Koolhaas, for example, celebrates his observation that
” (Koolhaas: 2002). Many in Africa are striving for a new way modernity, but is there just cause to kick against the Eurocentric model of development just because of its colonial past? (Araeen: 2003) When writers problematize "when modernism... transplanted to Africa, being not endogenous, it grafted poorly to existing life structures" (Agwuele: 2012), there is an implicit reverence for the economic and developmental gap. Modern life did not transplant into the relative poverty of Africa, they say, because Africa wasn't sufficiently developed to accept it. So how are we - or they - to square this underdevelopment circle?
China: Continuity and change have long been the hallmarks of Chinese development throughout the centuries. As such, a synergy between contemporary and traditional needs is conjured up in the abstract notion of "Modernity with Chinese characteristics" (Esherick: 2000). Conversely, the Masterplanning the Future keynote speaker, Professor Wang Yun, director of Atelier Fronti bemoans Modernism's “erasure” from China’s collective memory. Is there really a harmonious way to balance the needs and desires of the past and the future? Or does China’s current epoch exemplify the somewhat antagonistic rise of progress, sometimes codified as social modernity.
These abovementioned vignettes are simply placed here as illustrative models, however, the contributions within these proceedings are much more detailed, specific - and engaging - and are chosen as papers that will stimulate contention, discussion and argument.
(Jencks: 2002) designers had
“in Lagos there is no choice, but there are countless ways to articulate the condition of no
choice
4
We believe that these proceedings, initiated by Masterplanning the Future's "Modernism: East,
West & Across The World" conference, are an excellent opportunity to take a lead in a debate that will change the way that architecture and urbanism is understood and discussed in China... and further afield.
As the conference convenor, I, together with co-organiser, Theodoros Dounas, are delighted to have published these works which I hope will get the fullest credit and critique. As presenters and contributors to the academic conference, I believe that you have opened a window on the modern condition.
Austin Williams
XJTLU
These proceedings document the work of a wide range of researchers, academics and experts from across the world, each presenting at the Masterplanning the Future international conference held in China on October 18th and 19th 2012.
These proceedings of the conference outline a variety of intellectual explorations relating to historical and contemporary situations, discussions and case studies, in China and around the world. As a body of work, and as a contribution to open enquiry, this is less an examination of how direct "conclusions" or "lessons" can be learned from different historical periods and social circumstances, but hopefully helpfully, the exchange of ideas and experiences facilitated by the Masterplanning the Future conference may help to stimulate a better understanding of architecture, contemporary and traditional urbanism; fostering critical awareness and challenging perceptions. Within a rapidly urbanizing world, the contributors look variously at whether advocacy for, criticism of, or rejection of modern design – as well as Modernist idealism - can go some way to help us understand the global urban condition.
Let’s take the West, Africa and China as historico-cultural points on the compass. The West: In early 20th century Europe,
modernist Charles Jencks considers talk of a zeitgeist to be pernicious
the appeal of Modernism was that it caught the zeitgeist of
a social liberationist tendency. It divided opinion then, and continues to do so today. Post-
and academic Westfall suggests that the impact of Modernist historicism to be tyrannous
. But whether in agreement or otherwise, Modernism operated within an era of social
transformation: it was widely noted that it reflected an experimental age, in which
. In the course of the early years of the new century, risk-taking
avant-gardism in the West seems to have been replaced - for better or worse - by risk-aversion.
Does this current attitude reflect a maturation from the age of innocence shown by early
Modernists
contemporary
2011)
the self-assurance to try and to fail
(Westfall:
; or is it a sign of a loss of nerve in the  period.
Africa: As it usurps Asia as the most rapidly urbanising region in the world, many commentators, such as Mike Davis, use the African continent as a cypher for their disillusion with the modern world. The vision of the African city as innocent and about to be ravaged by modernity, recalls the view of Oswald Spengler who linked the decline of Western civilization with the rise of the new. In contemporary critiques, modernism in Africa reflects a cultural colonialism rather than a progressive developmental model (Avermate et al: 2010), with opponents advocating against direct planned improvements in living standards; Koolhaas, for example, celebrates his observation that
” (Koolhaas: 2002). Many in Africa are striving for a new way modernity, but is there just cause to kick against the Eurocentric model of development just because of its colonial past? (Araeen: 2003) When writers problematize "when modernism... transplanted to Africa, being not endogenous, it grafted poorly to existing life structures" (Agwuele: 2012), there is an implicit reverence for the economic and developmental gap. Modern life did not transplant into the relative poverty of Africa, they say, because Africa wasn't sufficiently developed to accept it. So how are we - or they - to square this underdevelopment circle?
China: Continuity and change have long been the hallmarks of Chinese development throughout the centuries. As such, a synergy between contemporary and traditional needs is conjured up in the abstract notion of "Modernity with Chinese characteristics" (Esherick: 2000). Conversely, the Masterplanning the Future keynote speaker, Professor Wang Yun, director of Atelier Fronti bemoans Modernism's “erasure” from China’s collective memory. Is there really a harmonious way to balance the needs and desires of the past and the future? Or does China’s current epoch exemplify the somewhat antagonistic rise of progress, sometimes codified as social modernity.
These abovementioned vignettes are simply placed here as illustrative models, however, the contributions within these proceedings are much more detailed, specific - and engaging - and are chosen as papers that will stimulate contention, discussion and argument.
(Jencks: 2002) designers had
“in Lagos there is no choice, but there are countless ways to articulate the condition of no
choice
4
We believe that these proceedings, initiated by Masterplanning the Future's "Modernism: East,
West & Across The World" conference, are an excellent opportunity to take a lead in a debate that will change the way that architecture and urbanism is understood and discussed in China... and further afield.
As the conference convenor, I, together with co-organiser, Theodoros Dounas, are delighted to have published these works which I hope will get the fullest credit and critique. As presenters and contributors to the academic conference, I believe that you have opened a window on the modern condition.
Austin Williams
XJTLU