This project examines the concept of world architecture in early-twentieth-century Japan, with a focus on Ito Chuta (1867–1954), professor of architecture at the Imperial University of Tokyo.  In 1902, Ito launched a three-year fieldtrip to explore architecture around the world. Upon his return, he began promoting the study of world architecture in conjunction with Oriental architecture. Close examinations of Ito's works, especially the pictorial diaries he completed during his trip, reveal that Ito endeavored to draw a new map of world architecture by removing Europe from the center and redefining Eurasia.  This project thus proposes perceptions of world architecture from East Asia, while introducing a major Japanese intellectual figure to the field at large. Furthermore, by juxtaposing Ito's writings with his drawings in order to examine his thinking, The Orient of the East and the West of the Ocean also calls for a reexamination of the role of visual narrative in architectural history and intellectual history.

Vimalin Rujivacharakul is assistant professor of the history of art and architecture at the University of Delaware.  She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley (2006), where she was trained in architectural history, intellectual history, and cultural anthropology. Her works are situated at the crossroads of architectural history and intellectual history, with emphases on cultural constructs and forms of knowledge. She has also published on Sino-European architectural and intellectual history, the production of knowledge, history of collecting, and theories of things and material culture. Her current research examines the construction of world architectural discourse in visual and textual representations. Her scholarship has been recognized with grants and fellowships from the Institute for Advanced Study, the Getty Research Institute, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Needham Research Institute, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and most recently, the Graham Foundation.  She is on leave at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 2011–12.