Over the past decade, China’s new generation of young female architects have proven themselves to be talented, confident, innovative and successful on the world stage. Engaging with traditions and international trends, as well as posing entirely new architectural ideas, their projects reveal China to be a place brimming with energy and creative possibility.

This survey of twenty of China’s latest generation features detailed profiles of each architect, exploring their routes to success, their inspirations and the challenges posed for those working and designing in this diverse and rapidly evolving region. Each profile includes works from small-scale conceptual plans to country houses, schools, offices and large-scale urban development projects. From exploring new ways to build with radical, sustainable materials to sensitively honouring the vernacular traditions of the country’s long and complex history, each architect brings her unique vision to the question of what architecture means in China today. Zhang Xin, one of the country’s most successful women entrepreneurs, puts these achievements in context.

The most densely populated country on earth, China is metamorphosizing from a mainly rural to an urbanized economy faster than any nation has done so before. Responding to real social and political changes, the architects featured here will define China’s skylines for many years to come.