What can a western architectural education do in a developing country? The legacy of one of the leading design colleges in America is being examined as such in a new exhibition called Building in China: A Century of Dialogues on Modern Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design in Philadelphia. 

The exhibition is presented in unison with Southeast University School of Architecture and the Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning and features a two-part format that looks first at the historical impacts the university has had on the development of architecture in the country after 1920.

Penn educated a number of prominent Chinese architects during those years, and many went on to successful architectural careers that were heavily influenced by the proximity to the international movement of modernism which began at the university. The first half of the exhibition charts the progression of those influences through examples of early works by graduates like Yang Tingbao and Liang Sicheng. The next half focuses on a selection of projects from Atelier FCJZ co-founder Yung Ho Chang as well as 2012 Pritzker laureate and Amateur Architecture Studio co-founder Wang Shu as examples of designers incorporating different classical Chinese and modern western elements to create modern vernacular architecture. 

The exhibition is curated by Weitzman professor Dr. Zhongjie Lin, Dr. Ming Tong of Southeast University School of Architecture, and Tongji’s College of  Architecture and Urban Planning dean Dr. Xiangning Li and will open with a special lecture from Yung Ho Chang. 

All students are required to show a PennOpen Campus pass for entry. Building in China opens on January 28th and will remain on view in the Fisher Fine Art Library and in Penn’s Architectural Archives until May 16th and April 22nd respectively.