How to examine an architect in the context of historical and global relationships?How to outline and define architecture of modern and current China in such a context?And how do these two situations-individual architects and China's architectural design culture-get entangled and in what ways?What are the relationships between an architect's own statement and actual developments judged in a larger context?Given the weight of publications and a profusion of coverage on Yung Ho Chang,what can we add for a new and critical perspective?This article aims to explore these methodological issues.Adopting telescopic and microscopic lenses,this article proposes and articulates these themes as important for a study on Yung Ho Chang:biographic trajectories across a global and historical map;critical moments on the trajectory;the breakthrough and its importance in Yung Ho Chang's proposal of a'Basic Architecture'in the late 1990s;internal and logical relationships between'Narrative Architecture'and'Basic Architecture';an opening expansion of the vocabulary of Basic Architecture over the last three decades;Yung Ho Chang's practice as a speaking'discourse'in multiple forms;the crucial roles architectural culture and media have played;and the significance of international relations in our understanding on individual architects and an overall design culture in China.
BiographyCritical momentsInternational relationsA geo-political mapNarrative ArchitectureBa-sic ArchitectureSigurd LewerentzPoetics of the brickArchitectural practice as discourseArchitectural cultureArchitectural exhibitionsA forum on East Asia