This bachelor’s dissertation explores the political, economic, social and cultural conditions in which new architects with private practices began to gain ground in China in the late 1990s, and what they wanted to achieve with their alternative approach to architectural design. These so-called experimental architects defied the long-standing tradition of beaux-arts that prevailed in Mao's time, while simultaneously rejecting mass construction under the auspices of capitalism that emerged in the late 1980s and during the 1990s, when the Chinese government implemented economic reforms to modernise the country, promoting progress at all costs and resulting in reckless reproductive construction. This new generation of architects wanted to offer the Chinese nation a different architectural practice that would benefit man, society and nature, and would not serve as means of endorsing the ruling class’ ideology, nor would it be its primary objective to profit substantially. With such notions and principles, experimental architects commenced designing architecture never before seen in China, with an emphasis on autonomy, critical regionalism, and the formal operations of architecture. This practice sparked an intellectual discussion amongst other architects and architectural experts, academics and artists alike regarding the criticality of architectural practice and its possibilities or, more likely, limitations under the political and social conditions of contemporary China.
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