Singapore Design Festival 2007

Synopsis:

"There is nothing quite like Asian Alterity for its comprehensive and insightful perspective on Australasian urbanism, its creative recomposition of stubborn modernist binaries, its sensitive handling of difference and otherness, its effectively politicized interdisciplinary, and its challenging ethical agenda for the city building professions and city dwellers everywhere."

Edward W, Soja
Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA and visiting Centennial Professor of Sociology, at the London School of Economics

Written by William S. W. Lim, Asian Alterity with Special Reference to Architecture and Urbanism through the Lens of Cultural Studies, completes a trilogy of foundational books on Asian urbanism and architecture over a period of ten years. The challenges of Asian rapid urban growth were first raised in Asian New Urbanism (1998) and Asian Ethical Urbanism (2004) subsequently

This book, Asian Alterity is an interdisciplinary theoretical analysis of Asia’s rapid urban growth and contemporary culture. It vigorously contests the homogeneity of the mainstream Eurocentric values and argues for the need for an alternate perspective to understand the diversity of Asian cultural differences at their varied development stages and the complex challenges of the explosive urban expansion and disruptive changes in traditional cultures and lifestyles.

Part II of the book consists of nine case studies of Asian major urban cities by well-established academic writers and urban theorists. Diverse aspects of urban dynamism in different Asian cultures and traditions are presented. Collectively, these case-studies demonstrate a broad understanding of the essentiality of the interdisciplinary mode of Cultural Studies as an important lens towards meeting the challenges in Asian architecture and urbanism.

World Scientific Publishing Co. and Asian Urban Lab cordially invite you to the book launch and exhibition highlighting extracts of the book on 5th December, Old City Hall (venue to be confirmed). Professor Leon van Schaik, well-known architectural and urban theorist, will be the keynote speaker, introducing the book.