jailcd2022003: An Introduction to the Heritage and Expression of Traditional Cultural Genes by the Fifth Generation of Chinese Architects

Abstract

Under the current trends of modernization and globalization, China provides a unique socio-economic and political context for the preservation and revival of traditional culture, and the fifth generation of architects born from the 1970s onward constitute the core strength of most design houses and academic institutions, and their architectural practices most directly reflect the attitudes of contemporary Chinese architects toward traditional cultural genes. This paper investigates four architectural projects related to traditional cultural genes undertaken by four fifth-generation Chinese architects in China, and examines how traditional architectural elements are transmitted and expressed in these projects in order to understand the attitudes as well as the approaches of contemporary Chinese architects in facing traditional culture. This paper holds that sustainable regeneration of traditional culture in urban environments would have to create places for natives, rather than retaining certain traditional forms as cultural symbols.