CONCEPTUAL AND PRAGMATIC

The Dual Approach in Architectural Design, and Contemporary Chinese Resonances

Xi Ye is an academic at the Faculty of Humanities and Arts at Macau University of Scienceand Technology. Her research focuses on architectural and cultural criticism. Her recentpublications include 'Reviving a sense of poetry: assessing Wang Shu's contemporarydesign practice' (Architectural Research Quarterly, 2022). Xi Ye holds a Master of Artsin Urban Design from Cardiff University, UK and a PhD in architecture from NewcastleUniversity, UK.

Conceptual and Pragmatic explores the tension between architects' intellectual idealsand expressions and the everyday experience of architecture and its practice. The bookalternates between the subjectivity and sensory experiences of the user, including itsrelationship to popular culture, tectonics, and vernacular architecture. Reflecting on theprocesses of concept-making and the cultural meaning of architecture, and their impacton architectural design, Xi Ye evaluates the influence of Western architecture on Chinesearchitectural practice and the tension of the former with Chinese cultural traditions andsocial conditions.