You Cant Change China, China Changes You

Young, enthusiastic and ambitious - that was how the Dutch architect John van de Water made his way to rapidly modernizing China in 2004. His ambition was to put the internationally appreciated body of ideas produced by the NEXT Architects office, of which he is a partner, into practice in that country. Hectic years followed, with more than a million square metres of realized projects on Chinese soil. The boundaries of his Western frame of reference had to be continually reviewed in the light of the Chinese context. A wide range of situations and clashes between Western and Chinese thinking occurred: incomprehension, confrontation, misunderstandings, acceptation, realization, sympathy and ultimately added value. You Can't Change China, China Changes You is Van de Water's personal, disarming and occasionally hilarious account of this fascinating and confrontative quest for authentic architecture. How durable is Western design capacity in a totally different cultural context such as the Chinese?