The evolution of Liang Sicheng’s construction of Chinese architectural traditions in his drawings(1920se1930s)

This article investigates one of the earliest attempts to systematically construct a building tradition and incorporate it into modern Chinese architectural design.These efforts were put forth by Liang Sicheng(1901e1972),one of the most distinguished Chinese architects and architectural historians,in the 1920s and 1930s in China,informed by the strong collective intention to honour the Chinese past.This article provides a historical and critical reflection on this collective intention that is still shared nowadays by architects and architectural theorists.This article examines in depth the evolution of the different ways Liang used the building past and constructed the Chinese architectural traditions in different crucial stages of his architectural career in the 1920s and 1930s.It uses architectural drawing as both the research subject and the research method.Three of Liang’s representative drawings from these crucial professional stages are juxtaposed and investigated to reveal this evolution using the iconography and iconology method.

Where Did the Wood Go？ Rethinking the Problematic Role of Wood in Wood-Like Mimicry

This paper explores fangmugou （＂imitating the mode of building with wood＂）, a comprehensive and longstanding architectural leitmotif reflective of the socio-cultural environment of China. Whether carved in stone, molded in clay, or cast in metal fangmugou continuously serves to visually confn＇m and ratify the significance of wood as the primary building material in Chinese architectural history. By peeling offthe successive layers of distortion between model and replica, this paper uncovers the traces of wood embedded infangmugou, and deciphers the visual and symbolic language that evolved out of the physical properties of wood, even as the final product transcends materiality by adapting to new media.