Landmarks: Architecture in Asia for the 21st Century is the first exhibition to showcase twenty-first-century architecture across Asia. Presenting fifty projects built since the turn of the millennium, the exhibition reconsiders the concept of ‘landmarks’ through four thematic lenses: Defining Identities, Embracing Nature, Building Communities, and Regenerating Heritage. The featured projects demonstrate how architectural design embodies the ambitions of institutions, cities, and nations while restoring and engaging with the natural environment. Furthermore, they reveal architecture’s capacity to foster social bonds, sustain livelihoods, and preserve and activate our shared past.
From urban icons in megacities to humanitarian projects in the countryside, the projects include a wide variety of building types in seventeen countries across the continent. Together, they reveal the cultural, social, economic, and environmental forces driving urban, rural, and architectural transformation in Asia, the region that has experienced arguably the most radical and rapid change in recent decades. More importantly, the exhibition offers an expanded view of what constitutes significant ‘markers’ of our land at a time when built environments have become increasingly critical to advancing socio-economic parity and ecological repair.
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