Our documentation of China’s current design and architectural landscape: Follow along @chinamoderne

In Chongqing's Huguang Guild Hall complex, @yiji_collection's team completed a striking restoration and renovation of two historic buildings for the Canopée Café. The two independent buildings, at No. 40 and No. 42 Xiahongxue Lane, we
Architecture as Sculpture: Artist Shi Jinsong created this Floating Pavilion entirely from metal wire in Kaifeng, Henan’s Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City. Completed in November 2025, the piece translated traditional Song Dynasty techniques fo
The plum blossom still shares its fragrance in the frost: one reason why the 梅花 has endured in Chinese art throughout history. Photos captured by 江河与明月, Leo_冲, and 瘦东湖 on 小红书. Paintings by 陈洪绶, 董寿平, 王雪涛, and 梅叟. #chinamoderne #newchina
Lessons from Chinese design to start the new year right. #chinamoderne #newchina
Introducing #chinamodernemuse, our new series spotlighting the women shaping China’s design future, by preserving and evolving its living traditions. From her workshop in Guizhou, Yunan Wang’s (@yunanwang) practice preserves traditional
Within Chongqing’s historic French Charity Hall, Sunyata has crafted its newest property, Ren’ai Hall 既象·仁爱堂, as a study in adaptive reuse and architectural continuity. Constructed 120 years ago, the building has served charitable,
Creativity, Sustainability, Befriending Time. These are YIJI COLLECTION’s three tenets for curating objects that integrate art and life. @yiji_collection’s art galleries, furniture boutiques, and hybrid creative spaces showcase modern C
Today is Dōngzhì 冬至, the winter solstice, and one of the 24 Chinese solar terms. After the shortest day and longest night of the year passes, yin energy wanes and yang energy grows, marking the beginning of a period of renewal and growth. Tw
Chongqing is a sprawling megacity of 32 million shaped fundamentally by its dramatic mountainous terrain. In response to geographic constraints, an innovative vertical urbanism evolved — from hillside-stacked buildings to iconic cable car syste
Beijing’s first snow of the season, the ephemeral falling softly against the ancient and steadfast. #chinamoderne #newchina
LVWA Bookstore: In 2019, and Studio Nor and Studio Yuda completed this bookstore design with a central concept of ”mountains of books.“ The book mountains, scattered across the space, function as bookshelves, cabinets, seats, bars, and po
Cast-in-situ concrete forms thin layers of a paper mountain, inviting visitors to step into an architectural painting at the China Xuan Paper Museum. The museum, completed in 2015, honors the 1000-year tradition of xuan paper-making, a time- and labo
Colors and textures from Gemo Monastery, a Gelug Tibetan Buddhist temple in Aba County (རྔ་བ་རྫོང་།), northwestern Sichuan. Inside its richly saturated walls, find one of the tallest Maitreya Buddha statues in China. Captured by Erin Chan, @erinchan
In Shanghai, you can use the constellation of Blue Bottle locations as a caffeinated guide to the city’s walkable neighborhoods, as well as its design heritage. The coffee brand famously tailors each of its cafes to its environs, reflecting the
Shanghai is a city defined by contrasts, futuristic skylines rising above centuries-old neighborhoods. It’s cosmopolitan, fast-moving, and endlessly creative — yet grounded in traditions and rituals that give the city its unmistakable sou
Meet a China Moderne Muse: Guanyuan Ji 观园吉(@guanyuanji_ ) , founder of her eponymous lifestyle brand GUANYUANJI. In her product designs for the modern home, she reinterprets classical Chinese aesthetics for our current age, refreshing the traditional
Aesop’s Beijing and Suzhou stores (@aesop) show how global retail can be reinterpreted through a distinctly Chinese architectural lens. In Beijing, disciplined hutong geometries inform the timber grids, giving the space the composure of a conte
The future of architecture in China is actually a return, to nature and all her teachings. Some projects employ circular design, others explore biomimicry, and still others create buildings that weave greenery into the built structures themselves. 10
East meets West: In this Qing Dynasty meiren hua (“painting of a beautiful woman”), Chinese subjects and artistic techniques mix freely with European-style architecture and linear perspective. Throughout China’s history, western aes