Are we architects? - Yanze Wang

The Faculty of Architecture of the Brno University of Technology invites you to a lecture by architect Yanze Wang titled "Evolution and Revolution in Architectural Education in China (1920–1990)," which is part of the lecture series "Are We Architects? On Education, the Architectural Profession, and Institutional Critique." The event will take place on Tuesday, December 10, 2019, at 6:00 PM in lecture room A118 at the Faculty of Architecture, Poříčí 5, Brno. The lecture will be in English.
The history of architectural education in China is a significant part of the modernization of the architectural discipline in the country. The development scheme, which is based on the truth and logic of history, will be an important reference to the challenges of contemporary architectural education.
Architectural education in China is rooted in academicism, the classical educational model of the Paris School of Fine Arts [École des Beaux-Arts]. This model was combined with the university educational system and shaped into a systematic and efficient paradigm for training architects in the United States and later in China. However, under the influence of social reform, this model of architectural education was considered synonymous with conservatism and was gradually replaced by modernism. It was believed that this model hindered the modernization of architectural education. The aim of the research was to restore confidence in historical facts without prejudice and to show the positive contribution of academicism to architectural education in China. It also addresses the transformations of the institutional system and the knowledge framework and Chinese schools of architecture with the growing significance of the concept of Chinese architecture.

Yanze Wang is an architect and researcher, who completed her doctoral studies at the School of Architecture at Southeast University in Nanjing, China. She focuses on architectural education and pedagogy, particularly on the development of architectural education in China. She received a scholarship at GSAPP at Columbia University in New York and at the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She was a research assistant at the School of Architecture at Chinese University in Hong Kong. Among her articles and publications are Pure Design: A Transitional Case of American Architectural Education in the Early 20th Century (2019), Beaux-Arts Composition and Its Evolution in China's Architectural Education (2018), Essence of the Beaux-Arts: A Critical Interpretation of Its Modernity (2018), Study on the Revival of Beaux-Arts Research in the 1970s of the United States (2017) and many others. She was the assistant curator of the exhibition The Rise of Modernity: The First Generation of Chinese Architects at the University of Pennsylvania at the Jiangsu Museum (2017) and Power Station of Art in Shanghai (2018). She has been involved in numerous architectural projects and in 2017 co-founded the Trim Architecture Group (TAG), which has realized several projects in China.