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The widespread use of Western classical forms in China’s recent building boom demonstrates that the process of formalizing and ennobling a locally and spontaneously created building form can also be inverted, wherein a high architecture is appropriated and vernacularized into a mainstream architecture in a different cultural setting. In this article, I examined the recent popularity of Western classical architecture in China and its historical, social, and cultural conditions. Focusing on the ideological implications of the style, I also investigated the dynamic application of the classical forms and their iconographical effects on China’s constructed landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research, built work and design seminar entitled “The Politics of the Object: Transformative Public and Cultural Landscapes” examined the critical history of a 150-year old open air market in a dense urban area of Hong Kong. This culminated in a series of built installations that used light as a critical design medium to engage the public on urban renewal issues and questions of rapid development in Hong Kong. This ongoing educational initiative aimed to encourage debate about the issues of planned development and the neighborhood’s preservation of cultural values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]