Eastern Promises. Contemporary Architecture and Spatial Practices in East Asia

The catalogue is devoted to contemporary architecture and spatial practices in East Asian. Pioneering architectural projects are currently originating in the East Asian countries of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan. Not only do local conditions and traditions play a role that is just as important as knowledge of global media technologies, social awareness, ecological strategies, as well as artistic practices are also being combined in a new way. This architecture is less interested in iconic objects and spectacular forms, but rather more in a structural rearrangement of society in its spatial dimensions. A social aesthetic is being ushered in whose strategies are more mindful of the world’s diminishing resources.The volume introduces more than sixty architectural projects in East Asia. It includes essays on the various relationship between architecture and everyday spatial practice in the individual countries, and is supplemented by graphic and photographic mapping of uniquely Asian phenomena. The catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition “Eastern Promises. Contemporary Architecture and Spatial Practices in East Asia” which was was held at MAK Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (June 5 — October 6, 2013).