Pink Floyd's song “Another brick in the wall” criticizes an alienating and demotivating educational system. People, or children, are portrayed as bricks due to their homogeneity, whether in the way of living or thinking in a society that is not very fond of opposition. Bricks work very well in this comparison, having changed very little throughout history and around the world in their rectangular shapes. But that's not true of their colors. Although we tend to think of red when we talk about bricks, there are infinite possibilities of shades, depending on the composition and manufacturing process of the pieces.

A new kind of architecture distinguished by unique regional characteristics emerged in the mid-1990s when in China, architects started practicing independently from government-run design institutes. The leading Chinese architects of this time succeeded collectively in producing a unique architectural body of work when so many buildings built around the world were no longer rooted in their place and culture.

In China Dialogues, Vladimir Belogolovsky charts a panorama of Chinese architecture through the words of its main participants, lifting the veil on a prolific new generation of designers, each sharing a highly intellectualized and conceptual understanding of architecture. Following the course of 21 interviews accompanied by over 120 photographs and drawings of beautifully executed projects uprooted throughout the country since the early 2000s, China Dialogues opens up the thinking process of the country's top architects, providing an insight into their ideas, intentions, and visions in unusually revealing and candid ways.

+ 7

Bruce Jilk in his essay ‘Place Making and Change in learning environments” showcases a radical view of contemporary education which, he argues, is outdated and does not meet the needs of the modern world. Instead of providing for a world of individuals operating within a wider urban environment, schools have become internalized ghettos of childhood, cutting off from communities they are supposed to serve, centrally administered in a “one size fits all” ethos. Designers and architects around the world have always been seeking a more flexible architectural model which will allow much more creativity within the learning process and the environments which serve it.

Ever since the period of the Renaissance in Europe, the indivisible relationship between art and architecture has long been heatedly discussed and vividly reflected in numerous classical books and buildings. With the deep connection that unites art and architecture together, designers, artists, and architects have been actively collaborating and came up with solutions on how we can house and exhibit art in the form of changing spaces.