In 1857, Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux won the design competition for New York’s iconic Central Park with their “Greensward Plan”. This design carried a pastoral vision and the stated intent to “supply to the hundreds of thousands of tired workers,who have no opportunity to spend their summers in the country, a specimen of […]
British Concession The Former British Consulate-General Building in Shanghai, China is an example of colonial architecture that represented the Empire’s control over the city during Concession. As one of the first developed foreign buildings, it laid the foundation for other international investments and values, bringing their own architectural expressions along the Bund.1 The Opium […]
The Fall of the Tokugawa Era and the Rise of Imperial Japan The tail-end of 19th century Japan saw a major transition of authoritative power that sparked a new era of rule throughout the nation. In 1868, Emperor Mutsuhito, later known by his reign name Meiji, and his Imperial forces recognized the fragile rule of […]
1543 – 1796 The constant adaptation of a living urban heritage site In the town of Galle on the southernmost shores of Sri Lanka sits the “Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications”, or Galle Fort colloquially, extending over 52 hectares in area. Originally built as a garrison town in the 1500’s and designated a UNESCO […]
The Garden of Perfect Brightness Much like the collections of colonial trophies in the Crystal Palace in London or the grounds of Versailles, the Yuanmingyuan in Beijing was a complex which housed an array of foreign objects, artwork, pleasure gardens and architecture expressing the Qianlong emperor’s political power.¹ The resulting collection of foreign treasures were […]