2024-12-31T00:20:10-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/142982682/touring-china-s-past-present-and-future-an-examination-of-architectural-guide-china Julia Ingalls 2015-12-09T18:02:00-05:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/hk/hkk1bs4yd6kjzqn6.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>If architecture is the ultimate fourth dimensional experience, then &ldquo;Architectural Guide China&rdquo; by Evan Chakroff, Addison Godel and Jacqueline Gargus is a remarkable fourth dimensional tour guide. It encapsulates not only the physical attributes and detailed locations of architecture in China, but its complex journey through time in a way that's compact enough to be useful, yet thorough enough to be thought-provoking.</p><p><img title="" alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/650x/la/labowx5dheu2d6m5.jpg"></p><p>The guide begins with three introductory essays, each of which attempts to make sense of the thousands of years of history, philosophy, and socio-economic realities that have informed both classical and contemporary Chinese architecture (all in less than fifty pages). This is of course a daunting if not impossible task, but each essay wisely chooses a specific aspect of this overwhelming scope to make a particular point. For his part, <a href="http://archinect.com/evanchakroff" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Evan Chakroff</a> chooses to tackle what he describes as the centuries-old notion of &lsquo;scalelessness&rsquo; in conjunction with rigidly defined diag...</p>