Southeast University established Center for Asian Architecture in Nanjing on January 19th, 2016. Over 20 architects from countries such as China, U.S., Britain, Japan and India held a symposium together and were devoted to researching the culture and history of countries along “one belt, one road” and discovering the feature and connotation of oriental architecture, making great contributions to world architecture.
“During the past century, world architecture is mainly dominated by the west.” said Li Shiqiao, professor of Virginia University, in a speech. Now that we have ushered in the 21st century, the world is not satisfied with western culture only. With the development of Asian economy, it is necessary for Asian architecture to draw from the quintessence of traditional culture and find a better way to have mutual communication with the world.
Chen Wei, Professor of Architecture School in SEU told the journalist that the Center for Asian Architecture was depended on several projects such as Key Laboratory of Urban and Architectural Heritage Conservation of Ministry of Education, and absorbed experts from different countries so that the research could be operated fluently. “On the basis of inheriting the learning of predecessors, we will expand the research concerning Asian and world architecture and push the interaction between eastern and western architectural culture, leading to mutual improvement.”
“Center for Asian Architecture is an academic community. With the help of the opening platform, scholars from different countries could each give full play to his strong point.” Professor Wang Jianguo, academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering commented. In recent years, Asian architecture including Chinese architecture gradually become the center of world architecture. Architectural practices are developing fast, on the contrary, related researches are relatively backward.
“The communication between architectural culture should not be one way,” said academician Wang. Asian architecture ought to find out more characteristics and make more contributions to the world.
Architectural communication is an important part of world culture communication. Professor Ge Ming, Deputy Dean of Architecture School in SEU thought that, with the actualization of “One Road, One Belt” strategy, Center for Asian Architecture would help countries along the road to operate architectural culture research and cultural heritage preservation, helping to propagate Asian architectural culture.
