ESTONIAN ACADEMY
PUBLISHERS
eesti teaduste
akadeemia kirjastus
PUBLISHED
SINCE 1997
 
TRAMES cover
TRAMES. A Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences
ISSN 1736-7514 (Electronic)
ISSN 1406-0922 (Print)
Impact Factor (2022): 0.2
Research article
AN EXPERIMENT FOR THE MARKET: THE INTERTWINED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARCHITECTURAL AUTONOMY AND THE MARKET FORCE IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA; pp. 127–158
PDF | https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2023.2.03

Author
Kunzhe Kang
Abstract

In contemporary China, ‘experimental architecture’ depicts the rise of independent architectural explorations offered by a group of young Chinese architects in the mid-1990s. These young Chinese architects claimed to have established an autonomous architecture, distant from commercial interventions. This research examines the credibility of architectural autonomy stated by these architects in light of the field theory put forward by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Through this interdisciplinary perspective, the paper focuses on the often overlooked interpersonal networks of critics, architects, and publishers. Through analysing their roles in promoting these experimental architects on the basis of professional publications, this research argues that the notion of architectural autonomy is constituted by a symbiotic collaboration among these actors through a discursive approach and architectural autonomy, despite indicating an architectural resistance against commercial forces, serves a commodity sold in the cultural market.

References

Anderson, Stanford (2002) “Quasi-autonomy in architecture: the search for an in-between”. Perspecta 33, 30–37. 
https://doi.org/10.2307/1567294

Botz-Bornstein, Thorsten (2015) “Wang Shu and the possibilities of critical regionalism in China”. In Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, ed. Transcultural Architecture the Limits and Opportunities of Critical Regionalism, 107–117. Burlington, VT: Routledge.

Bourdieu, Pierre (1977) Outline of a theory of practice. Reprint ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812507

Bourdieu, Pierre (1984) Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre (1986) “The forms of capital”. In John Richardson, ed. Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood.

Bourdieu, Pierre (1990) In other words: essays toward a reflexive sociology. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503621558

Bourdieu, Pierre (1992) The logic of practice. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre (1993) The field of cultural production: essays on art and literature. Cambridge: Polity.

Bourdieu, Pierre and Loïc Wacquant (1992) An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: Polity.

Bourdieu, Pierre and Loïc Wacquant (2013) “Symbolic capital and social classes”. Journal of Classical Sociology 13, 2, 292–302. 
https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795X12468736

Chang, Yung Ho and Zhang Lufeng (2002) “Xiang gongye jianzhu xuexi”. [Learning from industrial buildings.] In Chang Yung Ho, ed. For a basic architecture, 26–32. (Beisen Library Architectural Series.) Beijing: China Architecture and Building Press.

Coleman, Nathaniel (2015) “The myth of autonomy”. Architecture Philosophy 1, 2, 157–178.

Deamer, Peggy, ed. (2014) Architecture and capitalism: 1845 to the present. New York: Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203499023

Ding, Guanghui (2014) “Experimental architecture in China”. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 73, 1, 28–37. 
https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2014.73.1.28

Eisenman, Peter, Rosalind Krauss, and Manfredo Tafuri (1987) Houses of cards. New York: Oxford University Press.

Flick, Uwe (2014) An introduction to qualitative research. 5th ed. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

Fogle, Nikolaus (2011) The spatial logic of social struggle: a Bourdieuian topology. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Gong, Yisu (2004) “Xiangqian zou, xianghou kan, cong ba ren zhan kan dangdai zhongguo qingnian jianzhushi de zhuangtai”. [Moving forwards, looking backwards: brief notes of the Zhuangtai exhibition of eight young architects in contemporary China.] Zhongguo Dichan Shichang 6, 19–27.

Jones, Paul (2009) “Putting architecture in its social place: a cultural political economy of architecture”. Urban Studies 46, 12, 2519–2536. 
https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009344230

Kaminer, Tahl (2007) “Autonomy and commerce: the integration of architectural autonomy”. Arq: Architectural Research Quarterly 11, 1, 63–70. 
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135507000504

Kaminer, Tahl (2021) “Autonomy, criticality and the Avant-Garde”. In D. Lu, ed. The Routledge companion to contemporary architecture, 162–172. London and New York: Routledge.

Kaufmann, Emil, Hubert Damisch, Daniel Rabreau, and Meyer Schapiro (2016) De Ledoux à le Corbusier, origine et développement de l’architecture autonome. Paris: Villette.

Kvan, Thomas, Liu Bingku, and Jia Yunyan (2008) “The emergence of a profession: development of the profession of architecture in China”. Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 25, 3, 203–220.

Li Xianting (2001) “Tujie shizi lukou zhanlan zuopin”. [Photographic illustrations of the Crossroad exhibition.] Next Wave Magazine 4, 24–33.

Liu, Jiakun (2001) “Shizi lukou buzhan gongzuo geren zongjie”. [A personal summary of curating the crossroad exhibition.], Next Wave Magazine, 4, 20–23.

Liu Jiakun, ed. (2002) “Qianjin dao qiyuan”. [Moving forward to the origin.] In Now and then, 15–18. (Beisen Library Architectural Series.) Beijing: China Architecture and Building Press.

Magali Sarfatti Larson (2004) “Grounding the postmodern: a story of empirical research on fuzzy concepts”. In Roger Friedland and John Mohr, eds. Matters of culture: cultural sociology in practice, 318–340. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Man, Joyce Yanyun, Siqi Zheng, and Rongrong Ren (2011) China’s housing reform and outcomes. Cambridge, Mass.: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Nesbit, Kate (1996) “Introduction to Manfredo Tafuri, ‘Problems in the form of a conclusion’”. In Kate Nesbit, ed. Theorizing a new agenda for architecture: an anthology of architectural theory, 1965–1995, 361. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Rossi, Aldo and Peter Eisenman (1984) The architecture of the city. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.

Rowe, Peter G. and Seng Kuan (2004) Architectural encounters with essence and form in modern China. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.

Scolari, Massimo (2000) “The new architecture and the Avant-Garde”. In K. Michael Hays, ed. Architecture Theory since 1968, 131. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.
https://doi.org/10.2307/991611

Stevens, Garry (2002) The favored circle: the social foundations of architectural distinction. Cambridge, Mass., and London: The MIT Press.

Tafuri, Manfredo (1979) Architecture and Utopia: design and capitalist development. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.

Wang, Mingxian and Zeng Li (2001) “Zuo yige you shiyan xingzhi de jianzhu zhan”. [Making an experimental exhibition.] Next Wave Magazine 1, 24–26.

Wang, Mingxian (2000) “Kongjian lishi de pianduan”. [A fraction of the history of space.] In Wang Mingxian, ed. Avant-Garde Today, 1–8. Tianjin: Shehui kexue yuan Chubanshe.

Wang, Mingxian (2001) “Zaitan zhongguo qingnian jianzhushi shiyan zuopin zhan: da xiao mo”. [Talking about the exhibition of experimental architecture by young Chinese architects again: a response to Xiao Mo.] Next Wave Magazine 4, 35–37.

Wu, Fulong, Jiang Xu, and Anthony Gar-On Yeh (2006) Urban development in post-reform China: state, market, and space. London and New York: Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203962985

Zhu, Jianfei (1998) “Constructing a Chinese modernity: theoretical agenda for a new architectural practice”. Architectural Theory Review 3, 2, 69–87. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/13264829809478346

Zhu, Jianfei (2005) “Criticality in between China and the West”. The Journal of Architecture 10, 5, 479–498. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/13602360500460541

Zhu, Jianfei (2008) Architecture of modern China: a historical critique. London and New York: Routledge.

Back to Issue