round 01 Jewels --- Selected Writings on Modern Architecture from Asia edited by Yasushi ZENNO and Jagan SHAH About the Editors and Authors Changmo AHN is associate professor at the School of Architecture of Kyonggi University (GSAK) in Seoul, South Korea. He received his PhD in 1997 from Seoul National University. In 1998-99, he was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York, sponsored by the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation. He is the author of Korean Contemporary Architecture, 1945-1995 (1996) and numerous articles and book chapters on Korean architecture and urbanism. Miyuki AOKI GIRALDELLI is an art and architectural historian with special interest in 19th century Ottoman-French and Ottoman-Japanese relations. She taught a course entitled "Istanbul-Paris-Tokyo: Encounters and Influences Across Eurasia" at Bogaziçi University in Istanbul. Her PhD thesis shed light on Léon Parvillée's previously unknown activities during his stay in Istanbul. In 2003-05 she was a postdoctoral fellow of The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at Istanbul Technical University and at MIT. Cheng Che CHEN is the head of the Graduate Institute of Environment and Art, Nanhua University, in Taiwan. His PhD thesis deals with the urban landscape in terms of architectural technique, economic activity, and lifestyle in Taiwan. He is also the co-manager of Community Empowering Center in Tainan City and the executive of the Taiwan Field School. Lately he has become interested in doing some experimental works and surveys to develop his "primeval culture" theory. Gregory CLANCEY is associate professor of history and assistant dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He received his PhD in 1998 from the Science, Technology, and Society Program at MIT, and has been a Fulbright Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo. He is the author of Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868-1930 (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2006) and numerous articles and book chapters on architecture, urbanism, technology, and emergency. Marie-Hélène FABRE is an architect and a researcher in urban planning. She is currently finishing her PhD dissertation on the evolution of Seoul's urban structures from the 1960s to the present, from the point of view of urban policies and development projects. She teaches at the Institut Français d'Urbanisme (Paris University 8), is a member of the CNRS (French National Science Research Center) research laboratory Théorie des Mutations Urbaines, and an associate member of the CNRS research laboratory Etudes Coréennes. Izumi KUROISHI is professor of liberal arts at the Aoyamagakuin Women's Junior College. She received her PhD in 1998 from the Architectural Department of the Graduate School of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Kenchiku-gai no shiko: Kon Wajiro ron (Tokyo: Domesu Publication, 2000) and numerous articles on domestic material culture, architecture, urbanism, technology, and the ideas of ornament. She is currently working on the idea of homeland and lifestyle modernization projects in Japan as a research fellow of the Toyota Foundation. Norihito NAKATANI is an architectural historian and assistant professor at Osaka City University. He received his PhD in 1998 from Waseda University in Tokyo. His interests cover a wide range, from technical to ideologic aspects of architecture. While producing historical studies and critical texts as a scholar, he also sometimes works on house-renovation projects as a designer. In order to promulgate so-far unknown fine texts written by others, he has created a small editing and publishing organization named "acetate," from which this particular volume is issued. Shoichi OTA is teaching and researching at the Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Japan. His PhD thesis dealt with the modern history of architecture and city planning in Vietnam. He once served as assistant lecturer at Hanoi University of Civil engineering. His research interests are in architectural history, heritage studies, and urban studies in Asia. Jagan SHAH is an independent researcher, historian and writer. He is presently a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi, where he has been working on urban development policy, and is also completing a coffee-table book on contemporary Indian architecture, to be published in March 2007. While his research interests are in the areas of labor and architecture, Indian urbanism and the formative forces in modern architecture in India, he is increasingly drawn towards multi-disciplinary and creative projects that examine architecture as lived experience. TAN Zhengzhen received her bachelor's degree in urban planning at Tong Ji University, Shanghai, in 2003. She graduated with a master of arts degree in architecture from National University of Singapore in 2005. Her master's research topics are about Chinese architecture in the 1950s. Currently she is working as a practicing urban designer in London. Bobby Chong-thai WONG is an architect and associate professor and deputy head (Research), Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore. He is a co-editor of Postcolonial Spaces (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996) and has contributed articles on modern architecture in and around Singapore and the East Asian region. He graduated with a diploma in architecture from the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture, Aberdeen, in 1974 and a master's in design studies, Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1989. Yasushi ZENNO studied at Columbia University, where he taught courses on modern Japanese architectural history. He contributed a chapter to Charlotte Perriand: An Art of Living (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003), and also published books and articles in Japanese on various architectural and urban topics. Currently, he is enrolled in the doctoral program at the University of Tokyo and is pursuing further research on Perriand.