Learning from Heritage Practice in China: Tourism, Authenticity and Deep History

A reconstructed city wall, a bronze age mine, a festival marketplace, fan making … Chinese heritage practice is multifaceted, complex, and often bold. What can we learn about our own heritage and preservation practice through an examination of current projects and trends in China?

Andrew Johnston is an Associate Professor and Director of the Program in Historic Preservation in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. He is a licensed architect with a PhD in architectural history and extensive experience both in practice and in academia. He has served as a supervising architect for the Historic American Engineering Record and as an environmental planner for the California State Department of Transportation (Caltrans), working with a wide range of experts and stakeholders on the preservation and interpretation of historic cultural landscapes. He was the founding director of both the Master of Architecture degree program and the Urban Design degree program at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China. In China he joined with UNESCO affiliates as one of a team of experts working on historical gardens, intermediate cities, and urban cultural landscapes.