Designing reform : architecture in the Peoples Republic of China 1970 1992 In the years following Chinas Cultural Revolution architecture played an active role in the countrys reintegration into the global economy and capitalist world. Looking at the ways in which political and social reform transformed Chinese architecture and how in turn architecture gave structure to the reforms Cole Roskam underlines architectures unique ability to shape space as well as behavior. Roskam traces how foreign influences like postmodernism began to permeate Chinese architectural discourse in the 1970s and 1980s and how figures such as Kevin Lynch I. M. Pei and John Portman became key forces in the introduction of Western educational ideologies and new modes of production. Offering important insights into architectures relationship to the politics economics and diplomacy of post Mao China this unprecedented interdisciplinary study examines architectures multivalent status as an art science and physical manifestation of cultural identity