New Blueprints for China's Skyline

New Blueprints for Chinas Skyline
In the frenzy of China's current building boom, it's easy to forget that 12 years ago, no private architectural firms even existed in the country.

In 1993, Yung Ho Chang opened the first: Atelier FCJZ.

The initials stand for Feichang Jianzhu, or "unusual architecture."

Today, he splits his time between his office in Beijing and MIT, where he was named head of the architecture department in 2005.

His bi-continental professional life is reflected in much of his work, which blends traditional Chinese forms like the courtyard house (a home with an outdoor living space bordered on all sides by walls) and boxy, streamlined structures that recall the modernist designs of American architects like Philip Johnson and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Chang has steadily contributed to the development of the new 21st-century Chinese landscape, with buildings like the sprawling residential project Villa Shizilin located outside of Beijing and the corporate headquarters for Chinese software company Ufida, also in Beijing.

Recently, Chang spoke with BusinessWeek Online reporter Reena Jana about fresh directions in contemporary Chinese architecture, the wave of buildings -- now under construction -- by famous Western architects in China, and how the training of both American and Chinese architects can improve.