Given the unprecedented opportunities that architects have been given to build in China since the turn of the century, it is surprising that we should focus on a modest middle school in the suburbs of Beijing Yet, as Austin Williams explains, the Chinese firm Atelier Fronti have tried with Baiziwan Middle School to make architecture relevant in a process which has very little regard for it.
World / Building is a series of essays exploring how contemporary architecture informs the world. And how the world informs it. It is also a platform for architectural critics to explore in depth their craft through a building that explores this conundrum. It asks the obvious question, "what should architecture do?" and the less obvious one: “how should it be judged?”
Given the unprecedented opportunities that architects have been given to build in China since the turn of the century, it is surprising that we should focus on a modest middle school in the suburbs of Beijing Yet, as Austin Williams explains, the Chinese firm Atelier Fronti have tried with Baiziw...