Rujivacharakul investigates architecture in China and Australia

This past spring and summer Professor Vimalin Rujivacharakul led teams of international scholars from Australia, China, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States as well as coordinated UNESCO representatives to visit sites of UNESCO heritage at Mount Wutai. In collaboration with Tsinghua University, the team also visited vernacular villages in the Mount Wutai area. This is part of a long series of investigations of the interconnection between monumental architecture and vernacular landscape in China.

In April, Professor Rujivacharakul co-chaired and co-organized with Professor Luo Deyin two major conferences and symposia in China (Tsinghua University, Beijing, and Xihe Village, Henan). The conference in Beijing attracted 160 attendees and was opened by HRH Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, who was received by the President of Tsinghua University and representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. At Xihe, the conference drew a capacity crowd of 700 people, with participants coming from across the world. News about the both conferences have been featured on CCTV of China and other TV channels.

In August, Professor Rujivacharakul gave a talk at the University of Melbourne's School of Architecture in Australia. The talk's title was "The Absence and Presence of Australia in Sir Banister Fletcher's History of Architecture." Rujivacharakul discussed how the disconnect and integration of Australia contributed to ways the discourse of world architectural history has been formed in the 20th century.