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At first they came to learn about Modernism in the West, drawing on our expertise, aware of our alternative history and publications in that field. But we found it equally necessary to engage with their far eastern context, education, and assumptions, for better understanding both of its ancient traditions and of its current attitudes and methods.

Our first two architecture PhDs were both partially engaged with Chinese geomancy and its Daoist roots, bringing to light unfamiliar ways of thinking and representation. Their investigations also revealed something of the potential richness of the only ancient culture to rival the European base of Greece and Rome, and whose architecture has yet to see adequate recognition.

There followed other doctoral studies concerned with rationalism, craft, the vernacular architecture of the Chinese Dong minority, the oriental influences on Alvar Aalto, and the development of conservation in Malaysia.

The case study of Japanese architect Tetsuro Yoshida, pursued by Hyon-Sob Kim post-doc with the help of an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) grant, opened up the complex question of go-betweens, for besides being one of the leading Japanese exponents of the International Style around 1930, Yoshida also designed houses continuing the Japanese carpentry tradition.

It was these more traditional works that raised the enthusiasm of European Modernists like Häring, Hilberseimer and Asplund whom he visited, and they persuaded Yoshida to write his famous book on the Japanese house and garden.

Following Peter Blundell Jones’s sudden death in 2016, the work of the centre was continued by Jan Woudstra, and was re-joined by Xiang Ren in 2018, in order to revive the architecture and landscape dimension.

Current members

• Jan Woudstra (Landscape)
• Xiang Ren (Architecture)
• Xiaolu Wang (Architecture and Landscape), PhD project – Mountain, Monastery, Medieval China
• Najihah Ngaimin (Architecture), PhD project – Architecture and Urbanism in Putrajaya, Malaysia. 
• Xiaozhi Yang (Landscape), PhD project – The Garden Culture of Wuxi China
• Yang Yang (Architecture), Contemporary Architecture and Public Space in Tokyo
• Abhishek Bhutoria (Architecture), PhD project – Himalayan Villages in Nepal
• Omid Ebrahimbaysalami (Architecture), PhD project – Repositioning the contemporary and the vernacular in Iran

Research events (completed)

Peter Blundell Jones Memorial lecture series

• Haobo Wei, “Up-to-the-Mountains & Down-to-the-Villages”, 26 November 2018
• Nick Temple + Dr. Yun Gao, “The Temporality of Building”, 20 February 2019
• Ben Stringer, “Planetary Villagisation”, 20 March 2019
• Takeshi Hayatsu, “Community Architecture”, 2 April 2019
• Adrian Pitts + Hung Thanh Dang, “The Shop-House in Vietnam”, 8 May 2019
• Tang Hua, “Fragmented Architectural Discipline in the Digital Era”, 24 May 2019
• Sheng-Yuan Huang, “Living with Sky, Water and Mountain”, 18 October 2019
• Alfred B. Hwangbo, “British Presence in Korea 1883-1945: The modern Palace and Anglican Church”, 26 November 2019

Public exhibition 

“Form of Silence, TangHua Architects, 12 Built Projects”,  24 May-June 2019 

East-West seminar

• “Built Heritages of Tradition and Modernity”, 13 November 2020
• “Recent Research on Conservation” with visiting lecture by Dr. Fei Mo, The Shanghai Park System: Ecological versus historical considerations in the conservation of China's first greenspace network, 8 January 2020
• “Living with Sky, Water and Mountain” with visiting lecture by Arch. Sheng-Yuan Huang and Dr. Cho Chen-yu Chiu, 18 October 2019
• “Historic Landscapes in China and Vietnam”, 8 May 2019
• International conference: ‘New research on the history of Chinese gardens and landscapes’, Centre for East-West Studies in conjunction with the Gardens Trust, 26 & 27 October 2017
• Memorial Event – ‘A Celebration of the Life and Work of Peter Blundell Jones’, 16 November 2016
• Symposium - 'Habits, Beliefs, and Tacit Knowledge: Everyday ritual in East Asian villages', 30 June 2016
• 'Chinese Villages, Houses and Gardens',10 March 2016

Other events

• ��«Ӱҵ Authors Showcase, 2018
• Peter Blundell Jones Archive, 2020 ongoing
• Peter Blundell Jones Memorial Travel Grant, 2020 ongoing

Completed PhDs on East Asian topics

Supervised by late Professor Peter Blundell Jones

Selected recent research outputs 

Jan Woudstra is currently preparing a book on the landscape gardener, Robert Marnock (1800-1889), who regularly corresponded with his brother-in-law Benjamin Hobson (1816-1873), a medical missionary whose publications greatly influenced medical practice and anatomy in China and Japan.

• Youcao Ren and Jan Woudstra (2020): , Mortality
• Josepha Richard and Jan Woudstra (2018): ‘”Thoroughly Chinese”: Revealing the plants of the Hong merchants’ gardens through John Bradby Blake’s paintings’, Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 34/4, pp.475-497.

Other recent publications

• Jan Woudstra, ‘’, in Reinhard F. Hüttl, Karen David, Bernd Uwe Schneider, Historische Gärten und Klimawandel (Berlin/ Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2019), pp.337-348, 420-1. ISBN 978-3-11-060748-2.
• Jan Woudstra, ‘’, Garden History 47: suppl. 1 (2019), pp.85-106.
• Jan Woudstra, ‘””: Edward Kemp (1817-1891) in a nineteenth- century professional context’, Garden History 46: suppl. 1 (2018), pp.32- 50.  
• Jan Woudstra, ‘Obstanbau in den königlichen Gärten von Schloss Hampton Court (1530-1842)/ La frutticola nei Giardini reali del castello di Hampton Court a Londra (1530-1842)’, in Stefanie Krihning (ed.), Obstgärten, Produktionsstätten, Bedeutungsträger, Kulturdenkmale: Das Brixner ‘Pomarium” im geschichtlichen und gartenbaulichen Kontext/ Frutteti, Luoghi di produzione, ogetti simbolici, monumenti culturali: Il ‘Pomarium” di Bressanone nel contest storico dell’arte dei Giardini  (Görlitz: Gunter Oettel, 2018), pp. 154-167. ISBN 978-3-944560-44-1. 
• Jan Woudstra, Landscape and Urban Planning 178 (2018), pp.198-207.
• Xiang Ren (2020), ‘Thin Mask, Thick Mnemonic: the idea of the wall and genius loci in two contemporary buildings’, Architecture Research Quarterly, volume 24, issue 1, pp. 37-48.
• Xiang Ren (2020), ‘Towards Openness: the uncompleted project of Modernism and its living tradition in contemporary China’, Journal of Architecture, volume 25, issue 4, pp. 650-657
• Xiang Ren (2020), ‘Reading Grassroots Architecture in Beijing’s Conservation Area - Hutong Mushroom’, Architecture Research Quarterly, volume 24, issue 3, pp.295-298
• Xiang Ren (2019), ‘An Other Concinnitas, Temporality and Renewability in the Yuanlin Zhang Gallery’, Scroope: Cambridge Architecture Journal (28), pp. 60-73.