You Can't Change China, China Changes You

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Young, eager and ambitious, architect John van de Water set off in 2004 to a China that was modernizing at a furious pace. His intention was to take the conceptual thinking of NEXT architects, highly rated as this is in Europe, and put it into practice. Five turbulent years ensued, with upward of a million square metres of projects being built on Chinese soil. This meant constantly placing the borders of Western architecture|s frame of reference in the light of the Chinese context. A whole range of emotions sprang up in the space between Western and Chinese architectural thinking: incomprehension, confrontation, misunderstanding, acceptance, awareness, understanding and, eventually, advantage.