in the Chinese City - CitÃ© de l'architecture & du patrimoine

PRESS KIT 

in the 

Chinese 

City 

perspectives on 

the transmutations 

of an empire 

Exhibition June 18th - September 19th, 2008 

Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine - Palais de Chaillot 

www.citechaillot.fr

PRESS KIT 

in the 

Chinese City 

perspectives 

of the tr ansmutations 

of an Empire 

Exhibition June 18th 

September 19th, 2008 

Temporary Exhibition Galleries 

Exhibition co-produced by the Cité and the cCCb 

Positions 

PORTRAIT OF A NEW GENERATION 

OF CHINESE ARCHITECTS 

EXHIBITION JUNE 18TH 

SEPTEMBER 7TH, 2008 

Current events Galleries - level 1 

Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine 

Palais de Chaillot 

1 place du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris 

Information: 01 58 51 52 00 

www.citechaillot.fr 

Press Contacts 


Agostina Pinon 

Tél. 01 58 51 52 85 / 06 03 59 55 26 

apinon@citechaillot.fr 

Opus 64 

Valérie Samuel et Arnaud Pain 

Tél. 01 40 26 77 94 

a.pain@opus64.com

The exhibition, “In the chinese City: perspectives on the transmutations 

of an empire” is quite naturally infused with the enthusiasm and 

uncertainty surrounding the coming Beijing Olympic Games throughout 

the country, and more particularly in cities, where a constructive 

effervescence, unprecedented in modern human history by its size and 

swiftness, holds sway. 

On May 12th, 2008 a powerful magnitude 8 earthquake ravaged the 

center of the Sichuan region, near Chengdu, followed by several 

intense aftershocks. China’s frailty and vulnerability are, alongside its 

magnificence and beauty, at the heart of this exhibition. 

The human, social, economic, and cultural consequences of such a 

catastrophe, and the threat it continues to pose for the great river 

valleys, has become, inevitably, the canvas for our thoughts. 

For all the exhibition’s authors and participants, the dynamism carried 

by the Beijing Games has given way to sadness and a desire to be closer 

to our friends, over there.

In the chinese city 

“In the Chinese City:” the subject is not lacking in ambition. Exhibiting Chinese cities, 

subject to such rhythms for the past two decades that it is hard to know what to focus 

on: apprehension, jubilation in the face of the ability to transform, innovative quality, 

desolation in the face of the magnitude of destruction, pollution... In this, our ambition 

is akin to that of a stalker lying in wait. It is an exercise in watching: bringing into view 

the words and voices of multiple points of view, participating in that slow process of 

decoding things, and in the contradictory descriptions of situations, sifting out questions 

and analysis. Because in this, we are convinced, like all those we have led to China, 

beyond borders we share common questions: how do we conceive today’s living cities 

and for decades to come, what ability does architecture have to bring to life yesterday’s 

heritage and that which will make us proud tomorrow, and to this end, what tools, 

what techniques, what experiences should we share for ever more densely populated 

metropolises Does not the urbanity of relations begin, in Chinese, with the ideogram 

assembling the digit “2” (the plural) and the character “man” 

Mentioning plurality of lighting and impressions brings to mind movies and pictures. 

In this respect, we are particularly pleased to share this adventure with the Centre 

de cultura contemporània de Barcelona, intimately acquainted with cross-cutting 

multimedia subjects, with whom we express our joint desire to go beyond the borders of 

Europe and merge talents. 

For the first time in Europe, marvelous objects from China - a 100 square meter (1076 

sq. ft.) model of the city of Beijing from the end of the 20th century, antique models of 

traditional wooden architecture, historical blind stamping of the Suzhou (Pingjiang at 

the time) stele - are highlighted next to works held in our museums, next to models of 

ambitious contemporary projects. 

Presenting these images, models, and films of China would have been impossible 

without China. 

It is the fruit of a lengthy process led by Frédéric Edelmann, the exhibition’s General 

Curator, assisted by Françoise Ged, head of the Modern Chinese Architecture 

Observatory, created in 1997. May these signs of friendship and trust on behalf of all 

the Chinese designers, professionals, and institutions, special partners like Tongji 

University and today’s lenders, allow us to progress in our mutual needs for sharing and 

knowledge. 

François de Mazières 

Président de la Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine

The Great Transformation 

One day, economists and historians will be able to explain the brutal transformation 

China is currently undergoing. It is a country where almost everything, if you don’t look 

more closely, seems to be less than ten years old. Opinions differ between those who see 

the Chinese process as a large-scale repetition of past processes in the development of 

capitalism and those who believe a different model, whose deployment obeys laws we 

do not yet fully understand, could be incubating. However, no one dares declare the fate 

of this model that has changed the face of the country in the last fifteen years, applying 

the creative destruction principle at a break-neck pace, exceeding Marx’s most visionary 

predictions. 

In the beginning there were ... demographics. One billion, three hundred million people 

make up an incommensurable force, particularly if they are ready for anything, trained 

in a secular culture of submission and respect for hierarchy. An unprecedented internal 

migration: hundreds of millions of people have already left the countryside looking for a 

job in the cities. Millions of people remain, constituting a reserve army, who, when they 

move, become migrants in their own country, ready to go anywhere to find work. Subject 

to incredible political, economic, and social pressure, the urban landscape is changing at a 

prodigious rate. All that is old is falling to bulldozers and excavators. 

Chinese cities have become unrecognizable for those who knew them fifteen or twenty 

years ago. While this unstoppable transformation continues, we thought it would be 

interesting to take a look at Chinese urban culture. Riffling through the cultural and 

historical roots of the Chinese city forming an archeological base for the current city. 

Displaying the current Chinese city to better understand the level of the great fracture 

taking place, while pointing out the tenuous continuity between the two. Therefore we 

examine some of the myths of Chinese urban culture, attempting to see how they continue 

into the future. 

From Chongqing (the largest city in China), which feels like another planet, to Beijing, 

bearing the signs and badges of power, passing through Shanghai, which still feels like 

a bourgeois city, samples taken from the Chinese urban world bring visitors closer to 

this apparently unlimited emerging power the Western world finds both fascinating and 

worrisome. 

The urban vocation of both organizing institutions - the Cité de l’architecture & du 

patrimoine and the Centre de cultura contemporània de Barcelona - fully justifies this 

joint wager. Today, China remains largely unfamiliar in the West, where it is viewed with 

pre-conceived ideas, both favorable and unfavorable, that do not help understanding. The 

fascination that China incites in the corporate world leads one to think that their rejection 

of the Soviet Union was not because of communism, but because it was inefficient at 

exploiting its workers. Western political leaders view it with fear and hesitation. Whatever 

the case, discourse changes depending on what is highlighted: macroeconomic data, 

its treatment of its own citizens, or the claims of a major neo-imperialist power. In the 

face of such confusion, this exhibition only hopes to present a series of icons, historical 

references, and current realities. A grain of sand to help Europe’s citizens start penetrating 

this particular phenomenon of great urban transformation in China. 

Josep Ramoneda 

Directeur du Centre de cultura contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB)

Large-Scale Fascination 

Megalopolises, metropolises, satellite towns, theme towns, gated communities, “green cities,” 

lane houses, hútòngs ... Where cities are concerned, the plural is required. That is why there are 

so many “Perspectives on the transmutations of an Empire” offered by the “In the chinese City” 

exhibition designed by Frédéric Edelmann. 

The frame is wide. Very wide. Exhibiting contemporary cities involves immersion in the 

immensity of Chinese landscape and its history. With no pre-conceived notions, off the beaten 

track and far from the ready-made images of Chinese modernization, the exhibition subtly 

interweaves the links between Chinese culture and the modern city. Very hierarchical in days of 

yore, hyper-globalized today. Let’s take a moment to examine the word chéngshì , meaning city 

in Chinese, the synthesis of two words, chéng, castle, shi, market. While there are hardly any 

castles left, shopping centers are innumerable... 

Five city portraits, specially filmed for the exhibition by young Chinese directors, supervised by 

Jia Zhangke, the author of Still Life, testify to the disruptions that fascinate so many people. 

Yes, in a country where rural life is still very present, the Chinese city is undergoing a profound 

mutation. It is exploding as much as it is being reconstituted. Density is at the heart of this 

great urban adventure. Mobility is an important question for integration in the contemporary 

landscape. 

The move from bikes to cars has also contributed to changing the face of the city. Giving rise to 

the proliferation of urban highways creating a new level, 7 meters (23 feet) high, where all the 

traffic jams take place, just like all the travelling shots on the city. 

Economic growth and increasing urbanization go hand in hand. Over fifty years, China’s 

transformation is measured by urban demographics. Already in 2003, more than 40% of 

Chinese people (523.7 million inhabitants) lived in cities, compared to only 13.6% in 1954. 

China currently has 37 metropolises with more than a million inhabitants, as well as several 

megalopolises including Shanghai, boomtown with more than 15 million inhabitants, Beijing, 

the size of the Paris region, and Chongqing, a megalopolis covering the same area as the 

Benelux countries. 

As nowhere else on Earth, a certain “museumification” accompanies this great multi-faceted 

mutation. Proud of its development, each major city has created its own “City Planning 

Museum” free of any nostalgia (the destruction of old neighborhoods is hardly mentioned), 

resolutely facing the future. 

In Shanghai, for example, the building sits enthroned next to the town hall, as counterpoint to 

the Opera, facing the Beaux-Arts museum. Should this be interpreted as meaning city planning 

is a Beaux Art “Urbanism” is a new term for the Middle Kingdom; it was first used in 1930 

foreshadowing a “Great Shanghai.” Questions about the amplitude of these urban phenomena, 

like new typologies for neighborhoods 

and city sectors, are the issues of this exhibition, the first ever dedicated to Chinese cities. 

We remember Rem Koolhass who, with his Harvard researchers, 

pioneered the study of the Pearl River delta’s rapid development. Also of note, the sustained 

interest 

French schools of architecture (in particular the Nantes-Malaquais-Versailles triptych) have 

shown in this Chinese urban laboratory. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, with their imported 

icons and other major buildings, the coming Shanghai Universal Exhibition in 2010, both 

accelerating factors in urban transformation, are not going to satisfy the hunger for this urban 

substance. 

Francis Rambert 

Directeur de l’Institut français d’architecture

Cities of Shadow, Cities of Light 

In the city, in China, everyone, whether Chinese or foreigner, worker, businessman, 

or tourist, sees and understands what he wants, what pleases him. China, and more 

especially its megalopolises, has as many faces as there are lights and shadows in our 

own imagination - sinologists speak of Chinese Yin and Yang culture: two complementary 

faces of the same reality. 

The strength of Chinese propaganda, as it began under Mao Zedong, is to have inculcated 

a view of China as submissive, fearful, and distorted. Finally, today, we can approach, 

view, and analyze China, although still with some difficulty (first of which is the language). 

It is also possible to appreciate, with the ambiguous pleasure of discovery, this China 

pulling ahead when we thought we were first, from within the protective shadow of Europe 

or the United States. 

We can see it as it is. We will not attempt to answer the immense questions it is asking 

itself and us: ecology, water, energy, food, demographics, climate... These questions are 

simply asked, through what we have seen, heard, and exchanged. 

The Olympic deal and the revival of the Tibet issue have changed the ways this exhibition 

may be viewed, awakening fears and mistrust that the coming necessary resolution of 

global problems should render sterile. What is important for Westerners is to see better 

in order to better understand, and, if possible, better react. 

What is important for China, beyond the rhetoric, is to accept to be seen and questioned 

for what it is, and not based on an image it struggles to maintain. 

Only Chinese cities are visible here, and only a very small part of them, whose destiny 

is linked to an infinitely more ancient culture, always present in texts and writing, but 

almost completely destroyed in urban shapes and continuity. How did such a destructive 

phenomenon come into being Was it inevitable What are the long-term consequences 

Everyone must find their own answers to this catalogue of questions. 

Frédéric Edelmann 

Commissioner

In the chinese city 

“CLOSE YOUR EYES AND SEE 

THE WORLD ARISE ANEW” 

Peter Handke (1983, Der Chinese des Schmerzes 

[The Chinaman of Pain]) 

In August the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will take place, followed by the 

Shanghai Universal Exhibition in 2010. These two cities have undergone 

an architectural and urban metamorphosis unprecedented in world 

history in its amplitude and speed. A new movement has touched all of 

China and deeply changed the lives of hundreds of millions of inhabitants. 

It is to this urban China that the Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine 

dedicates the “In the chinese city: Perspectives on the transmutations of 

an Empire” exhibition. The first of its kind, its ambition is to provide keys 

for understanding a phenomenon often hidden by a tourist’s view, a sort 

of economic disquiet, a sort of innocence before the mechanisms at work 

in the Middle Kingdom (Zhōngguó). 

It is a living China, abounding and surprising, presented from June to 

September 2008 on about 2000 m² (21,500 sq. feet), in temporary exhibition 

galleries and in one of the current affairs galleries in the City at the 

Chaillot Palace. The City has entrusted the exhibition’s commissionership 

to Frédéric Edelman, a journalist at Le Monde, assisted by Françoise Ged, 

head of the Contemporary Chinese Architecture Observatory (CCAO). 

Frédéric Edelmann has worked with the Observatory for ten years in its 

research on cities, architecture, and heritage, in conjunction with the 

largest universities in the country. The scene design was developed by 

Enric Massip, a Catalan architect. 

The exhibition, based on a general project suggested by Frédéric 

Edelmann, is inspired by a phrase from Der Chinese des Schmerzes [The 

Chinaman of Pain] by the Austrian writer Peter Handke: “Close your eyes 

and see the world arise anew.” It is broadly divided in three sets. 

The first illustrates the history of urban China and its acceleration in the 

20th century up to the metamorphosis of the last ten years. 

The second set explores 6 cities, 6 megalopolises, known, like Shanghai 

and Beijing, famous, like Suzhou and Xi’an, or unknown, like the 

conurbation stretching from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, in the Pearl River 

Delta. Lastly, the vertiginous city, Chongqing, near the gigantic Three 

Gorges Dam. 

A third set, called “Positions: Portrait of a New Generation of Chinese 

Architects,” profiles the new generation of Chinese architects through 

around forty remarkable productions, filmed from 2003 to 2008. It is 

freely accessible on level 1 in the City’s current affairs galleries.

Co-produced with the Centre de cultura contemporània de Barcelona 

(CCCB), the exhibition presents a number of major works. Some have 

been loaned by Chinese institutions, in particular a relief map from 

the Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design, which has 

never left China before, as well as construction models on loan from 

Tongji University in Shanghai and Tianjin University. Others come 

from French public collections, such as the Guimet and Cernuschi 

museums in Paris, the Albert Kahn Departmental Museum in Boulogne- 

Billancourt, or private collections (Dautresme, Fava ...). A large majority 

of the photographs illustrating the subject of this urban saga come from 

Chinese photographers and are works largely unknown to the public 

at large. Finally, the close collaboration with the CCCB has added a 

significant cinematographic dimension to the set. Cinematographer Jia 

Zhangke, winner of the Gold Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival for Still 

Life, orchestrated the work of four of his colleagues covering as many 

cities symbolizing the contemporary metamorphosis. The CCCB teams 

have also provided their expertise in photography angles and audiovisual 

editing. 

The exhibition “In the chinese city: Perspectives on the transmutations of 

an Empire” will be presented from November 4th, 2008 to February 22nd, 

2009 at the Centre de cultura contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB). 

The “Positions” exhibition will be on display at the Catalonia Architecture 

College (CAC) from November 4th, 2008.

Perspectives on the 

transmutations of an Empire 

OBJECTS, DOCUMENTS, & WORKS PRESENTED 

The exhibition is organized around the presentation of archeological 

items (objects, books, and clothing), recent objects and models, archive 

images, and contemporary creations. Antique and contemporary works 

come from public and private collections. Their purpose is to show the 

culture in which the urban universe developed. 

The documentary work, integrating graphic works, archive images, 

and contemporary photographs, is often presented in multimedia and 

audiovisual format. For this purpose, the CCCB has created a number 

of montages whose educational purpose does not exclude an esthetic, 

or even playful, dimension. 

For the contemporary period, the specific contribution of the plastic 

arts (photographs) and independent films is also a major component 

of the exhibition. For the greatest part, the photos have been taken 

by Chinese photographers, and are presented for their documentary 

value. Jia Zhangke, the famous director of the film, Still Life (Sanjia Lao 

ren), portrait of life around the Three Georges Dam, has coordinated 

the filming of 5 short subjects about 5 cities for the exhibition, including 

one he filmed himself: 

Suzhou - Cry Me a River, by Jia Zhangke 

Xi’an - Outside Xi’an by Chen Tao 

Chongqing - Wait by Peng Tao 

Canton - New Year by Li Hongqi. 

Shanghai - Being and Nothingless by Han Jie. 

10

CIRCUIT 

The circuit, unified by the notion of change (huá, 化 , biànhuà 变化 , yì 易 )is 

broken down into fifteen differently sized, autonomous spaces or modules 

corresponding to the exhibition’s chapters. The thematic modules are 

linked to a Chinese word or concept; other cities are presented through 

one of their significant characteristics. 

GENERAL AMBIANCE 

The general ambiance created by Enric Massip, an architect from 

Catalonia, is somber and frugal. The layout of each room contributes 

to leading the audience through a highly charged atmosphere that does 

not seek, however, to imitate or paraphrase the Chinese universe. 

Here, the symbolic meaning of thresholds, in the break down Chinese 

of spaces, corresponds to visual fractures. Moreover, the scene design 

differentiates each module, each theme, with an original, singular 

system. The exhibition’s graphics, created by the Catalan workshop 

“mm !!, Monica Mestanza” also splits up the circuit by emphasizing the 

importance of projected Chinese characters announcing and highlighting 

each theme. 

The spaces are independent of each other and follow their own chronology. 

They focus on a Chinese character, or two or more characters in parallel, 

opposition, or resonance. These characters display a multifaceted view in 

the permanence or development of each notion. For example, in the space 

about territory, 地 dì (Earth) 人 rén (population) serve as introduction. 

The thematic spaces have their own scene design adapted to the rich 

content they present. Some spaces have a spectacular, dynamic setup 

using various audiovisual mechanisms: the garden, Qingming Shanghetu, 

water, destruction. 

The five cities are thought of as spatial markers: five boxes where short 

subjects by Chinese film makers are projected. This urban circuit ends in 

the final space where a relief map of Beijing is presented, on loan from 

the city’s City Planning Institute and which has never left the country 

before. 

The exposition is deeply marked by its cross-cutting nature, broaching 

major themes like writing, art history, history of science, religion, 

hydrological and land development problems, daily life, etc., in so far 

as they facilitate understanding the various dimensions of heritage, 

architecture, and urbanism. 

At the end of the exhibition, a series of isolated “theaters” where visitors 

watch documentaries examining in depth social and cultural themes that 

complement the urban dimensions forming the main theme. 

11

THE SPACES 

ONE THEME, ONE SPACE 

Each space includes: 

1) a general definition 

2) objects and documents. 

Prologue 

Suzhou (Jiangsu province) Steles 

These are reproductions of six large steles, historically quite important, 

whose originals may be found in Confucius’ former temple and in the 

Chenghuang Temple in “China’s Venice,” the imperial city famous for 

its gardens and canals. These six emblematic elements synthesize the 

birth and development of cities under the old empire. 

Stele 1 

Map of Pingjiang, city map engraved in 1229. Lightly retouched in 1917. 

There is at least one original in the United States. 

Stele 2 

Geographic map of China engraved in 1247. 

Stele 3 

Celestial chart, engraved in 1247 (Song dynasty) depicting a 1193 survey. 

Stele 4 

Imperial family tree engraved in 1247. 

Stele 5 

Map of Gusu (former name of Suzhou) engraved in 1783. 

Stele 6 

Canal water circuit. This is a technical “document” essential to the history 

of hydrography, engraved in 1797. 

Espace 1 

THE ZITHER AND THE KITE 

yuan 园 (garden) 

The idea is to remove visitors from their Western, Parisian ambience 

and immediately immerse them in a Chinese ambience. In this respect, 

the garden symbolizes Chinese culture. The traditional Chinese garden 

from the Yangzi River Delta region is a garden for the literati, suitable for 

poetry, philosophy, meeting with friends, and calligraphy. Today, these 

gardens are also large city parks where inhabitants participate in a large 

number of sports: kiting, dance, tai-chi... 

This room is place of preparation. It lays out the characteristics of a Chinese 

garden with sets of frames / openings / screen walls / promenades, 

and four windows in the form of videos representing a musician playing 

a zither in a Chinese garden; a city park in Shenzhen where crowds play 

with kites (“zither of the wind” in Chinese); perform tai-chi, and dance. 

The images are brought together through sound. 

12

SPACE 2 

L’empire des signes 

Zi 字 (character) 

Wen 文 (writing, culture) 

General Principle 

This first chapter on urban culture and history is the explanation of Peter 

Handke’s epigraph “Close your eyes and see the world arise anew” (Der 

Chinese des Schmerzes [The Chinaman of Pain], 1983) 

It connects writing (culture, calligraphy, poetry) and space (the city, the 

street, architecture, gardens) 

It has several goals: highlight the omnipresence of writing in the architectural 

universe, bring about the institutive discovery of the relationship between 

the spatial conception and text creation and the characters composing 

those texts; memorization mechanisms that (partially) condition spatial 

perception; highlight writing and the music of the language (sounds, tones, 

...) ; present a short series of characters (12 to 20) key to each room, and 

through them, the exhibition’s organizing principle. 

Documents and Objects 

Theme 1 

Link between spatial perception and writing 

Xi’an engraved stele (Guimet Museum). 

Terra cotta funeral bricks (Cernuschi Museum). 

Seals (Dautresme Collection). 

Writing machine (Arts & Industry) 

Vidéo n°3 : Encounters between writing space and urban space. 

Theme 2 

Writing’s dynamic and ephemeral nature 

Video no. 4: Learning Chinese characters seems to involve different areas 

of the brain than learning the Latin alphabet. 

Vidéo n°5 : Video no. 5: Ephemeral calligraphy, Beihai Park (Beijing). 

Theme 3 

Exhibition Map Presentation 

Video no. 6: Getting lost in the exhibition. Finding your way around the 

exhibition. 

13

SPACE 3 

SUZHOU 苏州 

RECONSTRUCTED PAST 

The first of six spaces dedicated to the cities. The set dedicated to Suzhou 

is also, by its structure, a reference area. Here the historical specificity of 

China’s major cities is precisely summarized. 

Contrasting with Suzhou, the imperial city, at the end of the circuit is 

Beijing, the capital city. Indeed, only Xi’an could have been chosen for 

the same emblematic role. The “Venice of the East” offers a remarkable 

continuity in historical data, mainly from the Song Dynasty (10th-13th 

centuries) even though its origins go back to the 6th century before the 

common era when it was the capital of the Wu Dynasty. 

The six large steles from Confucius’ Temple and from Chenghuang, 

replicas of which are presented at the exhibition entrance like so 

many heralds, also decline several major issues presented throughout 

the exhibition. The map of the city and its canals, celestial chart, 

current organization for canal maintenance, and lastly administrative 

organization, are echoed throughout the space, mainly through a series 

of photos, referring to four periods: 19th century Suzhou, practically 

unchanged since the 13th century; Suzhou of the first modernization 

that led to an astonishing modification of the stele map in 1917 (whose 

rubbing is held by the Library of Congress); Maoist Suzhou during which 

industry invaded this literary city; and, lastly renovated Suzhou since the 

end of the 1990s and the creation of two economic zones to the east and 

west. 


Local monographs (Graduate Institute for Chinese Studies) Pingjiang 

map stamp (Tongji University). 

Photographies aériennes, photographies anciennes retraçant l’histoire 

de la ville . 

Video no. 7: The Rooster of Nanxun (Zhejiang). 

Video no. 8: Weidaoguan Taoist Temple in Suzhou. 

Video no. 9: Cry Me a River, film about Suzhou by Jia Zhangke. 

14

SPACE 4 

Qingming Shanghetu 

Video no. 11: continuous projection on a curved structure of the silk scroll 

“Life Along the River at Qingming” (Qingming Shanghetu). This version 

comes from the Palace National Museum in Taipei. It was created by 

court painters in the 18th century, modeled on the famous painting by 

Zhang Zeduan (12th century). 

SPACE 5 

XI’AN 西安 

THE ARCHEOLOGY INDUSTRY 

Former capital under the name Chang’an, the old Xi’an had remained 

relatively protected in spite of rapid growth and industrialization as 

massive as it is polluting. The city’s urban and architectural reality has 

changed paradoxically since being listed by Unesco. In less than 10 

years, almost the entire city inside the walls (rebuilt rather than restored 

on the old foundations) was destroyed. Almost the only survivor, 

the Muslim neighborhood, is soon to be modernized in turn. Only a few 

monuments remain: the bell tower alone in the middle of a crossroads, 

the stele garden (Confucius’ Temple), the great and little mosques... 


Local monographs (Graduate Institute for Chinese Studies) Aerial photographs, 

old photographs of monuments, the current tourist industry. 

Video no. 10: Outside Xi’an, a film about Xi’an by Chen Tao. 

SPACE 6 

EARTH, SKY, AND MAN 

Di 地 (earth) 

Tian 天 (sky) 

Ren 人 (man) 

This room evokes the notion of earth (dì) and the Chinese way of 

perceiving, representing, and measuring territory from the beginnings 

of the Empire to the current Popular Republic. It shows the evolution 

in territorial magnitude for comprehending its development from the 

past until today. Lastly, physical and human geography prompts the 

realization of the country’s natural and demographic imbalances. 


These ideas are presented through the creation of a big book of old 

and recent Chinese maps of the Earth and its representation, and 

photographs by Chinese photographers on territorial structuring from 

yesterday and today, infrastructures, the weight of man, work, and 

population movements ... 

15

SPACE 7 

BENEVOLENT WATER, ANGRY WATER 

Shui 水 (water) 

This space presents the importance of water in Chinese civilization, 

daily life, territory, and cities in its two contradictory aspects: 

The water that, on older maps, seems to isolate China, the ocean where 

junks were lost, the water that must be fought (towing boats on rivers), 

devastating floodwaters, the lack of water and droughts, polluted 

water... Contrasting with water as a vital, integral principle of urban 

spaces (southern water cities) for commerce and human relations 

(bridges), water as the primordial element for transportation, water 

as energy producer. 

These two aspects, inevitably, combined with the country’s size and 

geography, shape the countryside, organize life, and define major political 

issues. Water becomes the means for territorial development and 

inventions: canals and their derivations, underground water networks 

in the north-east (Turfan), urban water reservoirs, dams, network of 

bridges in the Pearl River Delta. 

Video no. 12: The Three Gorges Dam: Reality and Propaganda 

This space has been built symmetrically: two opposing screen walls bring 

the double nature of water face to face presenting two films of clips. 

Video no. 13: Water: shore of death, shore of life 

Espace 8 

chongqing 重庆 

WITH STRENGTH OF BODY 

No doubt, currently the most impressive city by its growth, location, and 

the number of problems it faces. A geographically hostile and ungrateful 

city, Chongqing is one of the largest economic centers in China. This 

space is organized around the bangbang figure, omnipresent porters 

(there are three to four hundred thousand in the city). 


Local monographs (Graduate Institute for Chinese Studies) Old 

photographs and aerial photographs. Interview with a porter and 

contemporary photographs. 

Video no. 14: Wait, a film by Peng Tao. 

16

SPACE 9 

Fengshui, THE POTENCY OF TRADITION 

Fengshui 风水 (wind and water; traditional geomancy) 

The impact of fengshui on construction, orientation of tombs, houses, 

cities. From concrete examples, we show how historical construction 

and town planning observe a set of codes and standards, whereas 

today’s fengshui has left symbolism and common sense, to become an 

agglomeration of superstitions disconnected from the past. 


Theme 1: death 

Funeral brick (Saint Denis Museum of History). 

Watch tower (Guimet Museum) 

Theme 2 : fengshui ritual objects 

Luban Jing, book of Luban, Luban’s rules, and Luban’s statuettes. 

Hexagonal diagram, wands, muban. 

Geomancy compass ( 罗盘 , luōpán) and other measuring instruments 

(Guimet Museum, Private Collections). 

Photographs of buildings, tombs, villages, cities build according to 

fengshui rules. 

Video no. 16: Film about an old fengshui master. 

Theme 3 : Fengshui today 

New fengshui objects. 

SPACE 10 

GUaNGZHoU 广州 

THE WORLD’S FACTORY 

The idea developed in this space is that of big numbers and big sizes: 

immense cemeteries and trashcans, geographic density, mass production 

and its consequences (industrial areas and housing). 


Local monographs (Graduate Institute for Chinese Studies) 

Old photographs, aerial photographs, and contemporary photographs 

on the theme of numbers and production. 

Aerial photographs. 

Video no. 17: New Year, a film by Li Hongqi. 

17

SPACE 11 

THE ART OF BUILDING 

Jian 建 (construction) 

Zhu 筑 (build) 

Jian zhu 建筑 (architecture) 

This space celebrates of one part the genius of the traditional Chinese 

construction, along with a presentation of the Chinese city in the early 

20th century and its modernization. 

It starts with the framework presenting its main types and elements 

through traditional construction variations or “homotheties.” 

The arrival of Western models caused a significant, visible break in 

architectural elements, processes used, and construction types. 


Framework and traditional building models (Tongji University, 

Shanghai, and Tianjin University). 

Video no. 18: Traditional framework assembly in 3D. 

Video no. 19: Slideshow on traditional construction, 

traditional “sìhéyuàn” (Chinese quadrangles), 

and urban centers (large residences, palaces, pagodas, and temples). 

Chinese urbanism in the 20th century: 

Video no. 20: Symphony of Changes 

SPACE 12 

Shanghai 上海 

THE YANGZI SIREN 

The dominant theme in this space is seduction: Shanghai’s cultural and 

architectural refinement. How the myth of the city of the 1920s and 1930s 

- when both clothing and architecture were elegant and refined - joins 

up with the 2000s. In the background, this desire to be representative 

includes social as well as international commerce and business 

realities. 


Local monographs (Graduate Institute for Chinese Studies) Old 

photographs of buildings in the 1920s and 1930s: 

art deco, Wàitan (The Bund), and international concessions. 

Aerial photographs. 

Contemporary artists’ photographs. 

Clothing: 

Silk from the 1930s, Maoist suit (Dautresme Collection). 

Video no. 21: Being and Nothingness, a film by Han Jie. 

18

space 13 

FROM SOLIDARITY TO INDIVIDUALITY 

Jia 家 (home, family) 

This space presents family structure and its evolution in China broaching, 

above all, the question of historical lifestyles. In the contemporary 

period, society’s transformations have led to radical changes in spatial 

hierarchy at the family and group level. The appearance of these changes 

often makes certain traditional habits obsolete. This space evokes the 

household and its evolution, an inversion of the family structure: from 

ancestors to the single child. 

Three periods are visible in this room through an ancestral portrait, 

archive photographs, and contemporary artists’ photographs: the early 

20th century, the communist period and the recent period where highly 

varied lifestyles and habitations rub shoulders. 

Face to face, the ancestral portrait and a photomontage on the theme 

of the single child created by photographer Wang Jingsong depict the 

family’s structural inversion during the 20th century. 

The photographs are suspended like clothing from the windows of 

buildings in China. 

This is a calm space, away from the rest of the exhibition. 

Espace 14 

MODERNIZATION, DESTRUCTION 

Chai 拆 (destruction) 

Through an audiovisual installation, this “destruction” space deals with 

the modern destruction of cities in 4 phases: notification, the destruction 

itself, the calm after destruction, and property developer advertisements. 

Changes in major cities and the Chinese authorities’ desire for 

modernization imply the destruction of all traces of the past. This space 

is dedicated to contemporary destructions orchestrated by Chinese 

authorities for reasons that are sometimes difficult to understand. 

19

Espace 15 

Beijing ( 北京 ) 

The Beijing space is organized around the 1999 model. In spite of its 

recent date, it evokes the capital’s past through the Beijing described 

by the writer Lao She (1899-1966). Indeed, urban structure has 

changed little since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. It is a narrative 

space where man is fully present, as in the author’s works. 

The model also presents Beijing’s new dimension in the early 

21st century and the city’s current shape using illuminations and 

projections. The exhibition ends on a more strictly architectural 

vision of the city and the 2008 Olympic Games. They have catalyzed 

the transformations begun in the 1990s then accelerated formidably 

around the turn of the 3rd millennium. The theme of the Olympic 

Games is central; other elements mark the new capital, which now 

has its 7th ring road. The importance of actors like the SOHO China 

promoter group is offset by analysis from occidental architects (Rem 

Koolhaas, Herzog and de Meuron) called upon by the Chinese to design 

several major elements in the new city. 


Video no. 23: The Beijing of Lao She (1898-1966). Based on Lao She’s 

book, Four Generations Under One Roof, the film presents the city of 

Beijing in the first half of the 20th century. 

Beijing 1999 model (Beijing City Planning Institute), accompanied by an 

interactive audiovisual installation for discovering the city of Beijing, and 

the major changes it is undergoing as the Olympic Games are about to 

start. 

Photos of television headquarters (CCTV), Koolhaas; the new airport, 

Norman Foster, and Olympic facilities (stadium - Herzog and de Meuron, 

pool - PTW Architects, “Beijing Digital” information center - Zhu Pei), 

models and photos of several SOHO China operations. 

20

INDEPENDENT FILMS 

Cry me a River 

Director: Jia Zhangke - 2008 

Duration: 19’ 

© Xstream Pictures / CCCB / Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine 

An ancestral city; through its delicious botanical garden and its 

branched canals, we observe the clues and traces of its ancient 

culture Two couples of men and women, former lovers, meet again one 

year later. The yesterday’s breath of youth is still perceptible in their 

conversations. 

Is it still possible for us to love Does youth really have an end Like 

the networks linking the old city, what type of ecological existence does 

their culture require 

Jia Zhangke 

outside Xi’an 

Director: Chen Tao - 2008 



Xi’an is a relatively closed industrial city, but its inhabitants are 

starting to change under the force of China’s economic growth. This 

film presents a young man bogged down in love, family, and work, 

highlighting his most secret sentiments, reactions, and choices in the 

face of the changes in the outside world. 

Chen Tao 

Wait 

Director: Peng Tao - 2008 



Under the grey Chongqing sky, there is noise and disorganized crowds 

throughout the city. Two billboards for China Mobile and China Unicom 

mobile phones; posters for all kinds of banks; stunning, seductive 

women decked out in entirely new outfits impart a desire for material 

goods and an oppressive sense of suffocation. 

On this site, which has the largest labor exports in China and houses 

the economic capital of the upper Yangzi basin, people are constantly 

moving from one place to another. These people are moved from 

Chongqing 

to anywhere else in China, to become silent workers of urban 

construction. 

They gather in unknown cities, surviving in every corner of the 

reinforced concrete buildings in this time of vicissitudes, prey to 

contradictions, astonishment, and impotence. 

Where have they come from and will they go next No one is 

interested... The only thing left to them is their faith and hope. 

Peng Tao 

21

New Year 

Director: Li Hongqi – 2008 



Located in the subtropical region, Guangzhou has greater vitality 

than northern cities. Mass phenomena develop rapidly and rot just as 

quickly, as if the city were a large fermenting machine. Choosing the 

theme “Happy New Year” in this aspect, accompanied by the narration, 

is very appropriate. 

Li Hongqi 

In this scene, Li Hongqi describe a world between two eras, that of the 

Maoist “camaraderie” and that of modern capitalism’s “altruism.” 

Being & Nothingness 

Realization: Han Jie - 2008 



Shanghai, desires in excess become the veritable living body of this 

megalopolis. Too many young people live here, away from home, 

attracted by its charms, attempting to discover their desires in this 

expensive and sexy metropolis. 

The city becomes the dreamy effervescence of these people. Beds are 

practical, essential items in our lives. 

Beds accompany people, witnessing a multitude of worldly options. 

Are beds alive If we believe we are alive, beds do too. 

Han Jie 

22

In the chinese city: Perspectives on 

the transmutations of an Empire 

This exhibition has been designed and produced by the Cité de 

l’architecture & du patrimoine co-produced with the Centre de 

cultura contemporània de Barcelona 

Under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and 

Communication, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and with the 

support of the Cultural Service at the French Embassy in China 

and the Chinese Embassy in France. 

In collaboration with Tongji University (Shanghai), the Beijing 

Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design (BICP), and 

with the help of the Hauts-de-Seine Department / Albert Kahn 

Museum. 


François de Mazières, président 

Anne-Marie Le Guével, directrice générale déléguée 

Francis Rambert, directeur de l’Institut français d’architecture (Ifa) 

Centre de cultura contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) 

Antoni Fogué, président 

Jordi Hereu, Vice President 

Josep Ramoneda, General Manager 

Commissioner 


With the help of Françoise Ged, head of the Contemporary 

Chinese Architecture Observatory (IFA) 

Assistant Commissioner and Iconography 

Lucie Haguenauer-Caceres, Chung Chih-Chia, Amala Marx, IFA 

Yves Kirchner 

In China: Jérémie Descamps (8th Ring Road) 

Alain Jullien for contemporary Chinese photography 

Production and General Coordination: 

Jordi Ballo, exhibition director; Susana Garcia, exhibition 

coordinator 

French Architecture Institute: 

Myriam Feuchot, Chung Chih-Chia, Delphine Dollfus, Lucie 

Haguenauer-Caceres, Amala Marx, Marion Zirk, avec Jonathan 

Deledicq, Caroline Alexandre et Victoria Pélissier 

En Chine : Jérémie Descamps (8th Ring Road) 

Documentary Research 

Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine : 

Élodie Brosseau, Ségolène Dubernet, Lucie Haguenauer- 

Caceres, Amala Marx, IFA; 

Marielle Blanc, Jean-Marc Hofman, Aude Mathé, French 

Monuments Museum 

In China: Jérémie Descamps (8th Ring Road) 

Cartography 

Serge Barto 

Documentary Films and Fictions 

Production, coordination, and directing: Centre de cultura 

contemporània de Barcelona 

Angela Martinez, audiovisual and multimedia department head 

Adriana Todo, assisted by Veronica Zerpa, documentary research 

Coordination in China: Jérémie Descamps (8th Ring Road) 

Beijing Model - Multimedia 

Design and Creation: Clémentine Eurieult, Head of Web and 

Multimedia Projects, City 

Creation: Warmgrey 

Translation 

Chinese / French: Liu Ning, Emmanuelle Péchenart, Wang 

Wenyan and Discobole Serveis Lingüistics French / English: 

John Crisp 

23 

EXHIBITION PRODUCTION 

Scene Design 

Enric Masip, EMBA_Estudi Massip-Bosch Arquitectes 

with Inma Rodriguez Sanchez and Natàlia Valldeperas Belmonte 

Graphics Creation 

Monica Mestanza, Estudi mm !, with Gaëlle Alemany and Alicia 

Sanchez 

Scene Design System Creation 

Construction: Pyrrhus Conception 

Printing: Créations du Val-d’Oise (CVO) Audiovisual: Cinéparts 

Communication, Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine 

Jean-Marie Guinebert, Communications and Partnerships 

Director 

Guillaume Lebigre, graphic artist Agostina Pinon, press 

relations 

Valérie Samuel and Arnaud Pain, press relations, Opus 64 

Development and Patronage, Cité de l’architecture & du 

patrimoine 

Development and sponsorship, Cité de l’architecture & 

du patrimoine 

Guillaume de la Broïse, Development Director 

The exhibition has benefited from partnerships 

with Alcan composites and ThyssenKrupp Cadillac Plastic and 

support for iGuzzini and Osram 

CBS Outdoor, Métro, Connaissance des Arts, Elle Décoration, 

France 2 and France Info, exhibition media partners 

CATALOGUE 

A Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine, Paris, & Centre de 

cultura contemporània de Barcelona, Actar editions, Barcelona 

joint publication 

Catalogue Editor 


Scientific Advisor 

Françoise Ged, head of the Contemporary Chinese Architecture 

Observatory 

Editorial Coordination 

Yves Kirchner 

Iconography 

Chung Chih-Chia, Lucie Haguenauer-Caceres and Amala Marx, 

IFA 

Authors: 

Jordi Balló, Catherine Bourzat, Dora Chesnes, Chiu Che Bing, 

Patrick Doan, Lily Eclimont, Frédéric Edelmann, Danièle 

Elisseeff, Patrice Fava, Christophe Gaudier, Pierre Haski, 

Geneviève Imbot-Bichet, Yves Kirchner, Arnaud Laffage, 

Liu Yanjun, Amélie Manon, Brice Pedroletti, Jean-Louis Rocca, 

Ruan Yisan, Delphine Spicq, Wang Jun 

Cartography 

Serge Barto 

Actar Editions 

Ramon Prat, manager 

Anna Tetas, editorial coordinator

The exhibition and the catalogue enjoyed access to the 

documentary resources and contributions from the personnel 

of the following institutions: 

Lending Institutions 

National Arts and Industry Conservatory; German Architecture 

Museum; National Contemporary Art Fund; Graduate Institute 

for Chinese Studies - College of France; 

Cernuschi Museum; National Asian Arts Museum-Guimet; Saint- 

Denis Museum of Art and History 

Individual Collections: The Remembering China Association 

/ The Friends of François Dautresme / François Poucelet’s 

Dautresme Collection; Qiao Bianyun and Patrick Doan; 

Frédéric Edelmann; Alain Jullien; Jérémie Descamps; Patrice 

Fava. 

In China: School of Architecture / Tainjin University, Beijing 

Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design, Soho China, 

Studio Pei-Zhu, Dongnan University (Nankin), Tongji University 

(Shanghai). 

Institutional Photographic Resources: 

Mission 21 Archives: Basel Mission; National Library of France; 

British Library; French School for the Far East; Fondren Library/ 

Rice University (Houston); Harvard College Library, Cambridge; 

The Library of Congress, Washington DC; Albert Kahn 

Departmental Museum; National Asian Arts Museum-Guimet; 

National Palace Museum, Taipei 

The Reunion of National Museums; Yale Divinity School Library 

In China: Municipal Committee Compiling Suzhou Local Annals 

(Xu Gangyi); China Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station/ 

Academy of Sciences; Tianjin University Publishing House; 

Suzhou-Wenwuju City Cultural Heritage Office 

Chinese Photographers 

Da Shi, Geng Yunsheng, Hu Yang, Jiang Zhenqing, Jin Yongquan, 

Liang Longxing, Lily Yang, Li Haibing, Li Lang, Li Zhensheng, Lü 

Guangwei, Luo Yongjin, Ren Xihai, Shao Yinong & Mu Chen, Tang 

Haowu, Wang Fan, Wang Jingsong, Wang Minxi, Wang Shilong, 

Wang Tianlong, Wang Wenlan, Wei Lai, Wei Dezhong, Wen 

Min, Weng Naiqiang, Xiao Zhuang, Xing Danwen, Xu Yong, Yan 

Changjiang, Yu Haibo, Zhang Xinmin, Zhou Ming, Zhou Zhenhua, 

Zhu Xianmin 

Frédéric Edelmann, the Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine, the 

Centre de cultura contemporània de Barcelona and Contemporary 

Chinese Architecture Observatory would like to give special thanks 

to: 

For their generous help with the exhibition: 

Herzog and de Meuron, OMA (Rem Koolhaas) architectural firms. 

For providing access to German works and documents: 

Christina Grawe; 

United States: Paul Rascoe, Richard Smith; 

Spain: The Catalonia Film Archive; 

France: Sandrine Aucante, Gilles Baud-Berthier, Gilles Beguin, 

Marianne Bujard, Jean-Paul Desroches, Marie-Pierre Duhamel- 

Muller, Luca Gabbiani, François Pourcelet, Delphine Spicq, 

Victoire Surio; United Kingdom: Susan Whitfield; 

Japan: Kazuko Natsume; 

Taiwan: National Palace Museum (Taipei), Hsin-Yin Shih 

In China 

Chongqing: Chunlan and Liu Yanjun; Nankin: Dong Wei, Chen 

Wei; 

Beijing: National Cultural Heritage Office, Beijing City Planning 

Commission, Du Liqun, Chinese Cultural Heritage Institute, 

Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design, Fu 

Hongxing, Fu Shuang, Li Na, Li Xiang, Liu Dong, Liu Xin, Lu 

Zhou, Olivier Meys & Zhang Yaxuan, Ministry of Construction, 

Shi Weiliang, SOHO China, Wang Jinghui, Zhang Lan, Sou Huan, 

Zhang Lan, Zhu Pei; 

Shanghai: Lu Wei, Ruan Yisan, Shao Yong, Zhou Jian; Suzhou: 

Chen Rong, Ruan Yongsan Wang Hao, Yang Zhenpin; Shenzhen: 

Yao Zhiyan, Lily Yang; Tianjin: Wang Qiheng, Zhang Chunyan, Wu 

Congo 

For their advice and presence: 

Association Shadows, Marine Buissonière, Chiu Che Bing, 

Augustin Cornet, Catherine Despeux, Vera Dorofeeva- 

Lichtmann, Marc Gonzatez, Romain Graziani, Jie Jun, Arnauld 

Laffage, Nathalie Monnet, Thinkings Hands, Isabelle Thireau, 

Sophie Labrousse, Thomas Sauvin. 

Other Photographic Resources 

AREP (Didier Boy de la Tour, ImagineChina, Tristan Chapuis); 

Contemporary Chinese Architecture Observatory / IFA; Zhong 

Hoi-Yi (agence Vu); Rue des Archives; L: lllustration; AKG Images; 

Sipa Press; Corbis; Eyedea Presse; Artedia; Thinking Hands 

Private Collections: Paul Bady; Caroline Bodolec; Solange Brand; 

Aurélien Chen; Chiu Che Bing; Patrick Chavannes; Dominique 

Delaunay; Sandrine Aucante; Françoise Descamps; Bruno 

Fayolle-Lussac; Foster + Partners; Arnaud Laffage; Jim Gourley; 

Dominique Lelong; Alain Marinos; Laïla Nady; Benny Shadmy; 

Jose-Antonio Soria; Ruan Yisan; Caroline Venencie; Wang Hao; 

Wang Qiheng 

Audiovisual Resources 

Album Archivo Fotografico, Barcelona; AP Archive, London; 

French Film Archives, Bois-d’Arcy; British Film Institute, 

London; British Movietonews Ltd., Denham; CNRS Images, 

Meudon; Discovery Channel, Chicago; E.D. Distribution, Paris; 

eFootage LIe, Pasadena; Footage Farm Limited, London; 

Framepool Stock Footage, Munich; Gaia Films, Madrid; Gaumont 

Pathé Archives, Saint-Ouen; Global Image Works, Haworth; 

Harvard Yenching Library, Cambridge; ITN Source/Reuters, 

Paris; Marc Riboud; MrFootage Limited, Bristol; Albert-Kahn 

Departmental Museum, Boulogne-Billancourt; RAI Trade, Rome; 

Taschen Espaiia, Madrid; The Library of Congress, Washington 

DC 

In China: China Film Archive; 

Liu Zenchen; Olivier Meys & Zhang Yaxuan; Yan Yu; Li Yifan 

24

POSITIONS: PORTRAIT OF A 

NEW GENERATION OF CHINESE 

ARCHITECTS 

Freely accessible in the City’s Current Events Galleries, a third set, called 

“Positions: Portrait of a New Generation of Chinese Architects” for 

which Frédéric Edelmann and Françoise Ged serve as commissioners, 

portrays the new generation of Chinese architects through about forty 

remarkable productions, filmed from 2003 to 2008. They appear as 

a counterpoint to the major creations of modern Beijing, generally 

entrusted to big international names (Koolhaas, Herzog and de Meuron, 

Foster, Andreu...). 

25

The Cultural Revolution closed universities, including architecture 

schools for twelve year - the time to train a two generations. Re-opening 

them involved restoring the extensively weakened teaching staff, while 

the same restoration was needed for engineers, technicians, and 

businesses, all just as poorly off. Under these conditions, it was not 

before the middle of the 1990s that a new generation of high-level of 

Chinese architects began to reappear, with most construction remaining 

in the hands of “Project Institutions” associated with, for some projects, 

Western firms, mainly Australian, American, and German. 

Today, of several hundred thousand, only a few dozen have successfully 

emerged and imposed their talent. 

The creations of a new generation of Chinese architects will be presented 

using models, drawings, photographs, and films accompanied by short 

texts presenting their originality and an introduction covering the context 

in which this new thinking about society and its constructed environment 

emerged. The set forms an outline of the contemporary Chinese 

“architectural scene” highlighting the new and emerging “forces” that 

bring a fresh look to architectural creation and urban questions. Largerscale 

projects concerning heritage and city planning are also presented. 

26

ARCHITECTS PRESENTED: 

CHINA ARCHITECTURE DESIGN & RESEARCH GROUP 

1 Desheng Shangcheng office building 

2 Yinxu Archeology Museum 

JIAKUN ARCHITECTS 

3 Luyeyuan Sculpture Museum 

4 “Red Age” (Maoist Period) Museum, Fan Jianchuan Museums 

5 Qingpu Exhibition and Town Planning Center 

DESHAUS 

6 Xiayu Playground 

7 Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, Qingpu subsidiary 

8 Dongguan Technology Institute, Electronics, Computing, and Human 

Sciences Departments 

9 Renhengyunjie Clubhouse 

MADA S.P.A.M. 

10 Qiao Zi Wan Shopping Center Businesses, offices, and promenade 

along the canal 

11 “Thumb Island” Puyang house on Xiayang lake 

12 Jade Valley Hotel-Village 

AGENCY MAD 

13 Lake Hongluo Clubhouse 

TM STUDIO 

14 Pingjiang Kezhan hotel-restaurant and Dong tea room extension 

15 Suquan Yuan Reception Building 

URBANUS ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN 

16 Shenzhen Town Planning Office 

17 OCT Loft factory conversion, Huaqiao Cheng 

18 “Public Art Plaza” 

19 Digital Beijing (Urbanus & Studio Zhu Pei) 

STUDIO PEI-ZHU 

20 Hotel Blur or Hotel Mumianhua 

21 Beijing Public Publishing House library and offices 

27

AGENCE Z+ 

22 Tongji University, France-China Exchange Center 

23 Tongji University, Architecture and City Planning School, Building 3 

FAKE DESIGN 

24 Yiwu river bank development 

STANDARD ARCHITECTURE 

25 Yangshuo shopping center 

26 Wuhan French & Chinese Art Center (Phoenix Art Center) 

27 Backyard Bookstore 

QI XIN ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS 

28 Siheyuan, promenade and shop area, Olympic village 

29 Yuniaoliusu, Liangzhu Cultural Village 

workshop ZHANGLEI 

30 Poetry House 

31 Dongguan Technology Institute, teachers’ residence 

32 Slit House 

AMATEUR ARCHITECTURE STUDIO 

33 China Beaux Arts Graduate School Xiangshan Campus 

34 Ningbo Beaux Arts Museum 

35 Apartment buildings 

workshop FEICHANG JIANZHU 

36 UFIDA Research and Development Center 

37 Jishou University, classroom and research buildings and Huang 

Yongyu Museum 

38 Shizilin Villa 

28

POSITIONS: PORTRAIT OF A NEW 

GENERATION OF CHINESE ARCHITECTS 

A new exhibition designed and produced by the Cité de 

l’architecture & du patrimoine/ Institut Français d’architecture 

(IFA) 

Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine François de Mazières, 

President Francis Ramber, IFA Director 

Commissioner 

Frédéric Edelmann, Commissioner 

Françoise Ged, head of the Chinese Contemporary Architecture 

Observatory, IFA 

Assistant Commissioner and Iconography 

Chung Chih-Chia, Delphine Dollfus, Lucie Haguenauer-Caceres, 

IFA 

With Jérémie Descamps in Chine (8th Ring Road) 

Valérie Samuel and Arnaud Pain, press relations, Opus 64 

Catalogue 

A joint-publication of the City of Architecture & Heritage, Paris 

and Actar Editions, Barcelona / New York 

Editor 


Authors 

Frédéric Edelmann and Jérémie Descamps 

Editorial Management 

Yves Kirchner 

Editorial Coordination 

Chung Chih-Chia, Martine Colombet, IFA 

Éditions Actar (www.actar.com) Ramon Prat, manager 

Anna Tetas, editorial coordinator 

Production and General Coordination 

Myriam Feuchot, Chung Chih-Chia, Delphine Dollfus, Lucie 

Haguenauer-Caceres, Marion Zirk, IFA Production Service 

Tien-Hung Hwang, Ségolène Dubernet, Émilie Rousseau, 

Contemporary Chinese Architecture Observatory, IFA In China, 

Jérémie Descamps (8th Ring Road) 

Texts 

Authors: Frédéric Edelmann and Jérémie Descamps, with the 

help of Marie-Françoise Georges 

Translation: Chung Chih-Chia, Liu Ning, Emmanuelle Péchenart, 

Wang Wenyan, Discobole Serveis Lingüistics (Chinese/French) 

and John Crisp, Manners traductions (French /English) 

Review: Martine Colombet, IFA 

Scene Design: 

Myriam Feuchot, IFA Production Service, with Serge Barto, 

designer 

Graphics Creation 

Serge Barto 

Design 

Reinhard Steger 

The exhibition commissioners, the Cité de l’architecture & 

du patrimoine and the Contemporary Chinese Architecture 

Observatory would like to thank the Chinese architecture firms 

for the contribution to the exhibition: 

Amateur Architecture Studio; Atelier Deshaus; Atelier Feichang 

Jianzhu; Atelier Z+; Atelier Zhanglei; Aube Conception; China 

Architecture Design & Research Group (Cui Kai); Fake Design; 

Jiakun Architects; Mada s.p.a.m.; MAD; Qi Xin Architects & 

Engineers; Standardarchitecture; Studio Pei-Zhu; TM Studio and 

Urbanus Architecture & Design 

As well as photographers Tristan Chapuis, Philippe Ruault and 

Gilles Sabrie; 

SOHO China; 

Tongji University in Shanghai, Tsinghua University in Beijing; 

Chongqing University in Guangzhou, Tianjing University, and 

Nankin University; Augustin Cornet, Zhou Jian, Feng Yueqiang, Qi 

Xin and Diana Chan Chieng. 

Interviews 

Direction and Editing: José-Antonio Soria and Cristina Brossa, 

CCCB 

Director (Qi Xin interview): Jean-Sébastien Lallemand Editing: 

Charles Gallois, City 

Credits 

Exhibition panoramic photography by Aurélien Chen 

Unless specified otherwise, all illustrations come from the 

architecture firms. 

Scene Management 

Eric Michaux, IFA Production Service 

Scene Design System Creation 

in partnership with ThyssenKrupp Cadiallac Plastic Impression: 

Studio 3B 

Communication 

Jean-Marie Guinebert, Communications and Partnerships 

Manager, City 

Guillaume Lebigre, Graphics, City Agostina Pinon, Press 

Relations, City 

29

Practical Information 

EXHIBITIONS 

In the chinese city: Perspectives on the transmutations of an Empire 

June 18th - September 19th 2008 

Temporary Exhibition Galleries 

Entrance Fee (Full Rate: 8 € / Reduced Rate: 5 €) children under 12 

years of age free 

1 place du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris 

Open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

Thursday evening until 9 p.m. 

Closed on Tuesday 

Positions: Portrait of a New Generation of Chinese Architects 

June 18th - September 7th 2008 

Current Events Galleries - Level 1 Free of Charge 

1 place du Trocadéro or 7 avenue Albert de Mun, Paris 16th Open from 

11 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

Thursday evening until 9 p.m. 

Closed on Tuesday 

Information: www. citechaillot.fr 

30

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION 

Information and detailed program at www. chitechaillot.fr 

AUDIOVISUAL PROGRAM 

Auditorium ot the Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine, 7 avenue 

Albert de Mun - Paris 16th Flat Rate: 4 € /screening, 

Free with current day In the chinese city exhibition ticket. 

ARCHITECTURAL SEQUENCES 

Information and detailed program at www. chitechaillot.fr 

Saturday June 28th, at 5 p.m 

Still Life – Jia Zhangke. 

Fiction, color, 35mm - China, 2006. Duration: 1:48, French subtitles. 

Gold Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival 

Filmed in the Three Georges Valley, on the construction site of the 

largest dam in the world, the film is an allegory to the upheaval 

currently underway in China. Jia Zhangke also orchestrated the work 

of four colleagues about cities that symbolize China’s contemporary 

metamorphosis, while producing a new film himself. All of which are 

viewable at the “In the chinese city” exhibition. 

Saturday July 26th, at 5 p.m. 

Beijing Bicycle – Wang Xiaoshuai. 


Contemporary portrait of the city of Beijing. Now a classic of new 

Chinese cinema. 

Thursday and Friday, September 18th and 19th, 2008 

Screenings organized for the exhibition closing, in partnership with City 

Image (architecture and urban film festival, taking place every year in 

November in Aix-en-Provence and whose 2008 theme is Beijing: www. 

imagedeville.org). 

Thursday, September 18th 

2 p.m. - Platform - Jia Zhangke 


Golden Camera Special Mention at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival 

Winter 1979, in Fenyang. A theater company is presenting its play 

glorifying Mao Zedong. The life of Minliang and friends revolves around 

rehearsals and burgeoning love affairs. Spring 1980: small changes 

slowly change the theater company’s life: pop music, permanents, 

cigarettes... In the middle of the 1980s, the government’s policy changes 

and state subsidies are eliminated. The company becomes uncertain, 

like the relations between its members. 

31

5 p.m. - For Fun (aka Looking for Fun) - Ning Ying 


Old Han, caretaker at the Beijing Opera, retires even though he thinks 

the company will have trouble without him. He quickly realizes how 

inane his retired life is. 

He feels lonely and lost until he meets, in a public garden, a group 

of old people singing opera as amateurs, for the fun of it. Crabby but 

generous, he secures premises and creates the Beijing Opera Club 

where they retirees will be more comfortable to come and sing, play... 

and contest his irresistible need for authority. 

7 p.m. - In the Rubble - Olivier Meys 

Documentary, color, video - Belgium-France, 2008. Duration: 1:26, 

French subtitles 

SCAM International Prize at the 2008 International Documentary Film 

Festival. Quinmen is a working-class neighborhood next to Tian’anmen 

Square at the heart of Beijing. With the prospect of the 2008 Olympic 

Games, it was decided to renovate the neighborhood. Six hundred years 

old, Qianmen is now in the sights of property developers; the 80,000 

people living in the neighborhood must face drastic and often dramatic 

changes. The film follows this long process, from one reality to the next, 

until the end, sequence by sequence, like pieces in a puzzle, drawing 

the portrait of this neighborhood; the history of China today. 

9 p.m. - Passages - Yang Chao 

Fiction, color, 35mm - China, 2004. Duration: 1 h52, French subtitles. 

Golden Camera Special Mention at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival 

Two provincial students, Si Xu and his girlfriend, decide to escape the 

dreary future awaiting them and head for the capital. They invest their 

school money to buy mushroom spores that are supposed to lead to 

fortune. However, their road is treacherous... 

Friday, September 19th 

2 p.m. - Shanghai Dreams - Wang Xiaoshuai 


Jury Prize, 2005 Cannes Film Festival 

In the early 1980s, China is starting to open up and reform. Qing Hong, 

aged 19, comes from a family that left Shanghai in the middle 1960s to 

go live in the Guizhou province. Her father wants to return to Shanghai 

but things aren’t so simple for Qing Hong, who has just met Hong Gen, a 

young man from a local peasant family. 

16 heures 30 – Chine, la 2e révolution – Guo Xiaolu 

Documentaire, couleur, vidéoprojection – Chine, 2004. Durée : 1h02, 

VOSTF. 

Grand Prix du Festival International des droits de l’Homme Paris 2005. 

Prix spécial du Jury du Festival International du film documentaire de 

Séoul 2005. 

À la fois documentaire et essai, le film décrit la transformation de 

Pékin, où les immeubles neufs et resplendissants sont bâtis à toute 

vitesse, afin de présenter au monde un visage lisse et moderne. Les 

difficultés du peuple qui construit cette ville nouvelle sont aussi celles 

d’un monde et d’une culture traditionnelle en voie d’extinction. 

32

18 heures 30 – Un taxi à Pékin – Ning Ying 

Film de fiction, couleur, 35mm – Chine, 2001. Durée : 1h20, VOSTF. 

Dezi est un jeune chauffeur de taxi amoureux des femmes. Grâce à son 

métier il croise des gens dont les vies dépassent de loin son horizon. 

Mais lorsqu’il s’agit des femmes, son horizon ne connaît aucune limite. 

Suivre le taxi de Dezi, c’est une véritable ballade à travers Pékin. Se 

déplaçant sans cesse, les gens comme les lieux passent furtivement 

dans sa vie. L’errance du héros entre femmes et lieux ressemble 

étrangement à la quête d’identité de la ville, elle même partagée entre 

valeurs traditionnelles d’un monde en voie de disparition et futur d’une 

Chine post-maoïste. De cet avenir prometteur mais incertain vient 

l’illusion d’aimer un monde qui ne vous aime pas. 

20 heures 30 – Bird’s nest – Herzog & De Meuron in China – Christoph 

Schaub et Michael Schindhelm 

Documentaire, vidéoprojection – Suisse, 2008. Durée : 1h27, VOSTF. 

Construire au croisement de deux cultures, de deux traditions 

architecturales, de deux systèmes politiques. Jacques Herzog et 

Pierre de Meuron, les célèbres architectes bâlois, construisent dans 

un cas pour la vitrine internationale de la Chine, dans l’autre, pour les 

besoins quotidiens de la population. Le film suit deux projets : le Stade 

national, destiné aux jeux Olympiques de 2008 et un nouveau quartier 

de la ville – préfecture de Jinhua. 

33

CONFERENCES AND DEBATES 

Wednesday, June 18th, 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. 

Encounters with the New Generation of Chinese Architects 

A day of conferences and debates with the Chinese architects 

exhibited in Positions. 

Morning - Architectural and Urban Renewal, Renovated Urban 

Society 

Moderator: Pierre Haski, former correspondent for Libération in 

China and founder of Rue 89. 

Afternoon - Architectural Quality Control, from Ordering to 

Execution. 

Moderators: Bruno Hubert, Djamel Klouche and Pierre Vincent, 

architects and professors (National Graduate Schools of 

Architecture at Paris-Malaquais and Versailles). 

French - Chinese simultaneous interpretation. 

City Auditorium, 7, avenue Albert de Mun - Paris 16th Free of 

charge while space available. 

Monday September 15th, at 7 p.m., Chaillot Interview 

with Wang Shu (Amateur Architecture Studio, Hangzhou 

(Xiangshan) 

He represented China at the Venice Biennial in 2006, and he is 

the architect of the Ningbo (Zhejiang) Beaux Arts Museum; the 

Hangzhou Beaux Arts Campus and the Suzhou University Library. 

His projects, created with his wife Lu Wenyu, show great mastery 

of urban landscape and composition. In his creations he makes use 

of brick, stone, concrete, and steel; deeply rooted in nature, they 

ally tradition and modernity. 



Tuesday and Wednesday, September 16th and 17th, 2008 

Seminar on the following themes: 

- the city, urban density, way of life, and surroundings; 

- architecture in relation to the city, questions of urban scale; 

- small cities and landscape, preservation, and durable 

development... 

With the participation of town planners, architects, decisionmakers, 

professors, and researchers from Shanghai, Nankin, 

Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Suhzou... 

Organized with the University of Tongji in Shanghai, Architecture 

and Heritage General Inspectorate / Architecture and Heritage 

Department 

with support from the French Embassy in China. 

French - Chinese simultaneous interpretation. 



34

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES 

Guided Visits 

Wednesday June 25th / July 2nd / September 10th / September 17th 

Duration: 1:30; ticket 7 €. 

Group Visits 

Reservations at groupes@citechaillot.fr 

Duration: 1:30. 

Flat rate including tickets to the exhibitions: 

Group of 10 to 14 people: 160 € 



 

 

 

Parcours -jeux 

7-12 ans 

carnet réalisé dans le cadre de l’exPosition 

dans la ville chinoise, regards sur les mutations d’un emPire 

du 18 juin au 21 sePtembre 2008 

à la cité de l’architecture & du Patrimoine 

A visitor’s booklet, The Tortoise and the Apprentice Carpenter 

A visitor’s booklet, The Tortoise and the Apprentice Carpenter, for 

children aged 7 and up, is available for visits alone or with families. 

Specially designed for this exhibition, it allows children to compose 

a custom circuit. 

Through games, it is an initiation in Chinese culture and provides 

tools for keener viewing. Like an apprentice carpenter, guided by 

Gui the tortoise (Chinese symbol of universal stability) children 

experience an approach to cities and architecture in stages. 

Booklet price: 1.50 €, available at the cash registers. 

Animated Visit Discover the country of Luban, Patron of Carpenters! 

Wednesday and Sunday at 3:30 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. 

Last animated visit on Wednesday July 30th. 

Duration: 1:30; ticket 8 €. 

Accompanied by a guide, the children visit the exhibition using 

the booklet, The Tortoise and the Apprentice Carpenter. Playing 

observation games, writing ideograms, resolving enigmas, and 

making drawings the children come to know the Chinese city and its 

traditional and contemporary architectures. 

Wednesday September 24th, 2008 at 3 p.m. 

A Little Architecture Talk* Wednesday September 24th, at 3 p.m. 

Daily Life of a Child in China 

with Geneviève Clastres, author of the book Aujourd’hui la Chine- 

Lanhua Shanghai, [China Today-Lanhua Shanghai] illustrated 

by Maurice Pommier, Journal d’un enfant Collection, Gallimard 

jeunesse. With book signing. 

Entrance 3 €. 

“At the age of twelve, whether in China, Africa, or elsewhere, we are 

building our identities. The neighborhood is a little of everything we 

have ever known: friends and especially our best friend, neighbors, 

merchants, the little shoe shiner, and Mrs. Fen, the noodle 

merchant (...) ” G.C. 

*Quarterly children’s architecture meeting, offered by the 

Audiences Service in the Auditorium. 

35

Catalogues 

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication of two catalogues 

available separately in French, English, Spanish, and Catalan. Available 

as a boxed set or individually. 

In the chinese city, Perspectives on the transmutations of an Empire 

Published jointly by the Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine, Paris, 

and the Centre de cultura contemporània de Barcelona, 

Actar Editions, Barcelona 

format 17 x 24/ color and black and white illus. / 350 pages 

Price: 42 € 

Positions, portrait of a new generation of chines architecte 

Published jointly by the Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine 

Actar Editions, Barcelona 

format 17 x 24 / color and black and white illus. /224 pages Price: 32 € 

Boxed set: 66 € 

COPYRIGHT 

Cover - © Artedia / © Mission 21 : BMA A-30.17.021 

p. 8 - © OACC / © Aurélien Chen 

p. 10 - © OACC / © Agostina Pinon 

p. 12 - © Wang Hao / © OACC / © OACC 

p. 13 - © Castañeda Library / © Wang Jingsong 

p. 14 - © Suzhou Municipal Committee Compiling Local Annals 

p. 15 - © Taipei National Museum 

p. 16 © Wang Shilong / © Suzhou Municipal Committee Compiling Local 

Annals / © OACC 

p. 17 © Jin Yongquan 

p. 18 © Zhang Xinmin / © OACC /© Suzhou Municipal Committee 

Compiling Local Annals 

p. 19 - © DR / © Wag Jingsong 

pp. 21, 22 © Xstream Pictures / CCCB / Cité de l’architecture & du 

patrimoine 

pp. 31, 32 © DR 

pp. 7, 18, 21, 22 © OACC 

36

CONTEMPORARY CHINESE 

ARCHITECTURE OBSERVATORY 

AT THE Cité de l’architecture 

& du patrimoine 

Under the Institut français d’architecture - the City department in 

charge of contemporary architecture - and headed by the architect 

and sinologist Françoise Ged, the Observatory’s vocation is to promote 

exchanges between France and China in architecture, town planning, 

heritage, and landscape. 

A platform for exchange and distribution, the Observatory provides, 

since its creation in 1997, better understanding of contemporary 

Chinese architecture and architects as well as innovative enlightenment 

about 21st century urban China. 

The Presidential Program “150 Chinese Architects and City Planners 

in France 1998 - 2005” and the cooperation program dedicated to the 

urban heritage of historical Chinese cities were the Observatory’s first 

long-term support activities. Working off the basis of these programs’ 

extended network, this activity has broadened to other domains such 

as teaching architecture, supporting research, helping with projects. 

The Observatory organizes or is a partner in events dealing with 

architecture, city planning, and Chinese cities. 

Often in partnership, the Observatory also organizes conferences, 

symposiums, exhibitions, and participates in publishing specialized 

works. It has specialized resources in Chinese and French dedicated to 

Chinese architecture and city planning, available by appointment. 

Opening the doors to the world of architecture and city planning in 

France to young Chinese architects and professionals, the Observatory 

hopes to incite a strong interest in Chine from its French partners. 

It participates in continuing education for architects concerning China 

and provides assistance for projects by students, researchers, and 

architects who want to work on China. 

37

CENTRE DE CULTURA 

CONTEMPORÀNIA DE BARCELONA 

The CCCB (Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture) is a 

multidisciplinary municipal public institution that organizes and hosts 

various activities: exhibitions, dance shows and musical performances. 

It is also a place for classes, debates, conferences... 

The CCCB’s team supports artistic creation and experimentation, is open 

to all new languages, and searches for new exhibition formats. 

This Center, located in the heart of Barcelona, is above all urban. It is 

dedicated to the city and the phenomena it generates, which have become 

the social, urban, and cultural catalysts of our time. 

The CCCB was founded by a consortium composed of the Barcelona City 

Council and the Provincial Assembly. 

Located in the Casa de la Caritat, an old building in the central Raval 

neighborhood, the CCCB opened its doors in 1994. Its director is Josep 

Ramoneda. 

For more information: www.cccb.org 

38

in the Chinese City - CitÃ© de l'architecture & du patrimoine

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