Global Studio: Shanghai

Architecture engages a culture’s deepest social values and expresses them in material, aesthetic form. This course will teach you how to understand architecture as both cultural expression and technical achievement. Vivid analyses of exemplary buildings, and hands-on exercises in drawing and modeling, will bring you closer to the work of architects and historians in Shanghai.
This course looks into a wide range of issues, including, but not limited to Shanghai, China’s developments in urban areas in the last two decades, economic reforms and the urbanisation of regions, built landmarks, individuals and the community, public space, new typologies, global integration and urban consumerism. It allows students to appreciate the design and structure of buildings in Shanghai and other regions in China, including both the binaries of old and new architecture. Field trips in this course provide students with new design insights through involving themselves in exploring and appreciating the aesthetic creations.