This article come from :http://www.cagroup.cn/au3d/au-news1.html
It was the afternoon of Feb. 29th, Shanghai, the lecture hall of Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning was packed by the Chinese students and architects attending one of A+U’s China serial lectures, given by two Japanese architects, Tsukamoto Yoshiharu of Atelier Bow-Wow and Oki Sato of NENDO. A+U’s earlier China lectures, by Toyo Ito, Ole Scheeren and Alberto Campo Baeza, shared the same case.

In the 1980s and the early 1990s, China’s open policy helped bring to Chinese architectural profession information about architecture outside this vast land. International architectural magazines and monographs of foreign architects widened Chinese architects’ eyes. Buildings by foreign architects like Richard Meier were warmly welcomed, widely imitated and awkwardly duplicated throughout China. Limited access to international information and language obstacles prevented Chinese architects from getting first hand architectural information. Articles published in major Chinese architectural magazines, such as World Architecture and Time + Architecture, became the main sources of architectural information. Second hand information was transmitted in forms of written experiences and commentaries by a small number of professional and academic writers who had the chance to travel abroad, visit the buildings or read the original texts about them.

Almost a decade later, when China’s growth has created a myth of rapid urbanization and Chinese architects have stepped onto the international architectural stage, A+U starts, as one of the first international architectural magazines marching into China’s architectural media market, to publish its Chinese edition. With this strategic disposal, it begins to act as one of the key players of transmitting architecture in China, not only by introducing international architects and their practices to China, but also by helping Chinese architects publicize their works worldwide. This also gives Chinese architects the chances to look at the international mirror and the reflection of their own works in it. Therefore A+U provides different perspectives that local architectural media are not able to do.

At the cocktail reception on the same evening, CA Group, the outpost of A+U in China, announced its plan of publishing a special column on Chinese architects’ works in each coming issue of A+U’s Chinese Edition. It marked closer reading and fuller understanding of China’s social milieu as backdrop of Chinese architectural practices. As we know, discussion of contemporary Chinese architecture typically involves complaints about limits and restrictions, and much of the construction activity in China is described negatively as shortsighted operations impelled by expedient value judgments. What will be the chance for Chinese architecture in the near future? Is there an opportunity for a better Chinese architecture as a whole, rather than just a matter of exemplary but dispersed works identified by foreign eyes? Will there be an approach to Chinese architecture that positively represents an urban transformation that could not be fitted into any of the social-urban paradigms that the West has experienced? By the publication of its Chinese edition and related activities, A+U witnesses and gets deeply involved in this part of history and the transformation of China’s architectural society.

2月29日的下午，上海。同济大学建筑与城市规划学院的钟庭报告厅被前来参加A+U中国系列演讲的学生和建筑师挤得水泄不通。演讲的是两位来自日本的建筑师：东京工业大学的副教授、犬吠工作室的塚本由晴和Nendo设计事务所的佐藤大。A+U中国系列演讲的前几讲，场面也同样火爆。演讲人分别是日本建筑师伊东丰雄、OMA的合伙人奥雷·舍人和西班牙建筑师坎坡·彼埃萨。

上世纪八十年代和九十年代初，中国的改革开放政策给中国建筑师重新带来了久违了的西方建筑资讯。国际建筑杂志和书店开始出现的国外建筑师的作品专辑让中国建筑师大开眼界。少数西方建筑师的作品，比如理查德·迈耶和KPF的作品在全中国范围内被广泛地模仿甚至复制，他们的作品集也出现了一本难求的状况。然而对于大多数中国建筑师而言，由于缺乏出国亲历建筑的机会和语言的障碍，很难获得第一手的国际建筑资讯。而像《世界建筑》和《时代建筑》这样的中国建筑媒体在建筑资讯传播方面发挥了重大的作用，成为中国建筑师的主要资讯来源。少数有幸出国考察并能够阅读西方文献的专业和学术作者写下他们的体验和评论，这种形式的文章为中国建筑师提供了虽然是第二手但仍然十分宝贵的信息。

这段时期之后的差不多十年，A+U杂志作为最早进入中国市场的国际建筑杂志之一，开始出版其中文版，并由文筑国际负责中文版的出版和发行。在这一战略指导下，A+U杂志开始在中国的建筑传播领域发挥重要的作用，不仅将国际建筑潮流介绍到中国，同时也将中国当代建筑推向世界，并提供了一个与中国本土建筑杂志不同的视角来看待中国当代建筑。

在当天晚间外滩的庆祝酒会上，负责A+U杂志中文版的文筑国际宣布了其新的出版计划：今后的每一期A+U杂志中文版都将有一组中国当代建筑师作品的介绍。这标志着对中国当代建筑实践更切近的阅读和更全面的理解，并将中国的社会和文化环境作为解读中国建筑师作品的参照系。早些国际建筑媒体对于中国建筑的报导，往往会抱怨中国建筑的种种局限，而将大部分中国建筑的实践视为为利益所驱动的目光短浅的权益之计。中国建筑的批评如何发展针对中国社会现实的独特的评价标准？中国当代建筑的批评如何反映中国城市化的急剧发展，而这种城市化进程完全是西方经验所无法涵盖的？中国建筑如何作为一个整体出现在国际建筑界，而不是西方的标准挑选出来的几个建筑个案？也许A+U杂志中文版的新计划有助于推进这种探索，而A+U杂志也将通过这种方式参与和见证中国当代建筑发展的一段历史。

Xiangning Li received his Ph.D. from Tongji University in 2004. He is currently Associate Professor of Architectural History and Theory, and Assistant Dean of the Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He has published widely on contemporary Chinese architecture and urbanism. He also serves as a guest editor of Time+Architecture.

李翔宁2004年在同济大学获得博士学位。现任同济大学建筑与城市规划学院院长助理，副教授，讲授历史和理论课程。发表了大量关于中国当代建筑和城市的文章，担任《时代建筑》杂志客座编辑。

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