Chinese Architecture and the Transformation of Chinese Society

Modern Chinese architecture is largely unknown in the West. In this lecture, Dr. Kögel provides an introduction to the evolution of Chinese architecture from the late 19^th to the 21^st centuries, focusing on the ways in which major events, and social and political upheavals in particular, impacted the design and construction of the urban landscape. From the demise and fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 to the war with Japan (1937-1945), Chinese civil war and accession to power of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and the reform and opening policy of the post-Mao era, specific social constellations emerged which directly impacted the form and function of Chinese buildings. Furthermore, Dr. Kögel demonstrates that in all these facets, the West had an important role to play.

Dr. Eduard Kögel trained at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban and Landscape Planning at the University of Kassel in Germany and worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Non-European Architecture and Urban Development at the Technical University in Darmstadt, 1999-2004. He completed his PhD at Bauhaus University in Weimar in 2007 and between 2009-2011 he directed a DFG-funded research project on architecture and urban form in China at the Habitat Unit, Berlin Institute of Technology, where he still lectures regularly.

Dr. Kögel’s research chiefly concerns the development of architecture and urban planning in non-European countries. He is especially interested in the topic of transformation in architecture and urban form and has a particular expertise in the analysis of urban structures. He is a member of the scientific committee for the open access, peer-reviewed journal Architecture beyond Europe and is a member of the advisory board of The Journal of Chinese Architectural History published by Qinghua University, Beijing.

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