In the latest issue of the Journal of Architecture, AA alumna Jingru (Cyan) Cheng has published two articles based on works that received commendations from the RIBA President’s Awards for Research in 2018 and 2020 respectively.

Both articles are open access: ‘Rippling: Towards Untamed Domesticity’ and ‘Collectivisation, Paradox and Resistance: The Architecture of People’s Commune in China’. The online version of ‘Rippling’ also includes excerpts from the short documentary film On the Margins (2022), co-directed by Jingru (Cyan) Cheng and Chen Zhan.

These two works provide the research foundation for Cyan’s ongoing collaborative experiment RIPPLE RIPPLE RIPPLING, a transdisciplinary framework that recognises, articulates and communicates the non-discursive, bodily knowledge embedded in the everyday practice of the dissolved household in contemporary rural China. The latest phase of the project is in collaboration with architect and anthropologist Chen Zhan and chorographer and theatre director Mengfan Wang, and is supported by the Graham Foundation.

Image caption: Granny’s Pumpkins, a scenario in RIPPLE RIPPLE RIPPLING, 2022. Photographed by Chen Zhan.