28 March 2014
In recent years, books on Chinese architecture have helped to feed the myth of a country suffering from urban gigantism. Homecoming is a move in the opposite direction: China appears in all its unbounded and barbaric beauty. Desert landscapes, rural areas and houses built of rammed earth become the subjects of investigation by a group of young Chinese architects. The title alludes to the possibility of going back to the origins of dwelling. The volume, stemming from a symposium on landscape architecture held at the University of Hong Kong in 2012, is a concentrate of design challenges. The stakes are high here: involving rural communities in the processes of urbanization. A dream of architecture from the bottom up that takes the delicate balance between humanity and nature into account. Published by Gestalten.
