The International Conference on East Asian Architectural Culture (EAAC) 2017, hosted by the School of Architecture of Tianjin University, was held in Tianjin recently.

The conference included a range of events that addressed historical and theoretical research, conservation technology, adaptive reuse, and community design. Twenty-five experts from home and abroad and dozens of scholars were invited to convene at Tianjin University to discuss the values, inheritance and dissemination of the EAAC in globalization.

The International Conference on East Asian Architectural Culture (EAAC) is an academic conference which provides an international platform for scholars who focus on the architectural history of East Asia to exchange research experience. Hosted in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong over the last decade, the biennial event returned to China in 2017. This year, the conference committee was formed by researchers from the Institute of Architectural History and the School of Theoretical Architecture, Tianjin University, and some international scholars. A total of 133 papers from domestic and international researchers were received.

The opening ceremony was co-chaired by Professor Xu Subin of Tianjin University, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of EAAC2017 and Prof. Feng Shida, professor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The conference is expected to provide an opportunity for participants to share opinions and experience, according to Hu Wenping, vice president of Tianjin University, who extended a warm welcome to all the scholars at the beginning.

Song Kun, the deputy dean of the School of Architecture, Tianjin University briefed the conference schedule. He also said that the conference has facilitated the international exchanges of East Asian architectural history and culture and wished the conference great success.

“’Values’, ‘inheritance’ and ‘dissemination’ are three key words we focus on in the conference 2017,” stated Professor Zhu Guangya of Southeast University, representative of the EAAC Originators after he reviewed the development of the International Conference on East Asian Architecture and introduced the background of the conference.

Then, other researchers including Prof. Wu Jiang, managing vice president of Tongji University, Prof. FUJII Keisuke, president of the Society of Architectural Historians in Japan, Prof. LEE Ho-Yeol, president of the Korean Association of Architectural Historians gave their speeches on the topic.

In the end, Professor Wu Cong of Tianjin University, secretary general of the EAAC 2017 Organizing Committee concluded the opening ceremony with some details about the conference.

The event touched on a broad array of relevant topics in the following days such as Hong Kong Architecture: Main Streams after WWI, Authenticity and Integrity in East Asian Architectural Culture and so on.

During the conference, participants also visited historical sites such as the Dulesi Temple of Jizhou District, Tianjin, the Eastern Qing tombs of Hebei Province and the former concession areas of Tianjin.

With the theme of “East Asian Architecture: Values, Inheritance and Dissemination”, the 2017 conference emphasizes how to protect and inherit the values of East Asian Architectural Culture in today’s society and its significance in social development. It has greatly promoted the international exchanges of East Asian architectural history and culture.

By: Zhao Han

Editors: Qin Mian and Keith Harrington