After studying modern architectural designs during my one-andone-half year residence in the United States, I have deepened my intellectual consciousness for Modern Chinese Architecture, a subject which I had previously researched through my studies in China. As a multi-national country, the United States has absorbed various foreign cultural systems, including the Chinese culture and its architecture. This has revealed itself in part through many unique "China-towns" such as those in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and other major metropolitan areas.Restricted by city planning and highway systems in the in the United States, the Chinese-like buildings in these American Chinatowns can not perfectly show the principles, philosophy and spirit of authentic Chinese architectural concepts. Rather, they are similar only on their facades by incorporating superficially reproduced symbols, responding to a pragmatic commercial need. This problem brings me to an unanswered question of how to present the Chinese concepts of space in modern architecture, and addresses the significant issues I have studied with my colleagues at the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design. After having worked both for S.O.M. in Chicago and at Ball State University I have made a new attempt to understand the philosophy and built forms of my homeland, based on this oneand-one-half year of study and new experience within western architectural design. Combining this older quest with my new experience became the focus of my thesis. / Department of Architecture