An Architecture of Belonging

As the placeless globalization is accelerating around the world and especially in China, places that have strong ties to the particularities of a locale are desirable destinations to escape the generic monotony of placeless urbanization. The thesis here stipulates that even in a placeless globalization, opportunities exist to understand, interpret and celebrate local cultural phenomena. While many formal architectural artifacts may have outgrown their purpose and no longer have direct relevance today, a number of desires, customs and rituals persist as desirable conditions to be supported by architectural space. The thesis proposes to seek out an architecture, that embraces and reinterprets targeted aspects of the built form of traditional elements with modern means.