The Spread of Chinese Architecture and Garden Culture: William Chambers' far East Story

This study examines the 18th-century British architect Sir William Chambers from a cross-cultural transmission perspective, exploring how he transformed Chinese architectural and garden culture into the aesthetic language of the European Anglo-Chinese Garden. The research reconstructs Chambers’ three voyages to China (1740-1749) with the Swedish East India Company, identifying his fieldwork locations in Guangzhou through a comparison of his writings and local gazetteers. These locations include Huangpu Port, Hai Zhuang Temple, Pazhou Pagoda, and Merchant Gardens. The findings reveal that Chambers’ publications and designs played a pivotal role in driving the transition from Formal Gardens to Irregular Gardens across Britain, France, Sweden, and other European countries in the 18th and 19th centuries. Meanwhile, the European adaptation of Chinese architectural elements incorporated localized innovations, primarily in five aspects: the Westernization of cultural symbols and ornamentation, structural and functional innovation, material and craftsmanship integration, spatial and layout synthesis, and transformations in scale and proportion. William Chambers functioned as both a cultural intermediary and a collaborator in power structures, selectively appropriating Chinese elements to challenge European classicism. This duality of cross-cultural practice offers insights for contemporary design: genuine cultural integration requires moving beyond symbolic transplantation toward deeper negotiations of meaning. Ultimately, the study reveals that architectural transmission within a global historical framework has never been a neutral exchange of knowledge but rather a process in which the receiving culture actively filters and reshapes “the Other” to serve its own needs.