The West Building and the Chinese tradition to respond to this fascinating story
Modernism in China
Edward Denison and Guang Yu Ren
Wiley, HB, 336pp, £ 45
4 / 5
While in the west are used for architecture revolutions - neo-Palladian movement that changed the face of London, for example - not in word "modernity" exists in the Chinese language before the 19th century. The tradition has been evaluated, and construction immutable type consists of three basic elements: an elevated platform, supporting column, and the roof. During a visit to Macau in the late 18th century, the commander Lin was surprised: "Foreigners who build their houses with one room over another ..."
This book, the second by the authors on the architecture in China after Shanghai building two years ago, tackles the complex story of modernity is finally developed, an issue that requires an understanding of the basic architecture and history of China since the Century 17.
In a sense, modernity has been forced to China from the west in a series of important historical events, and is summarized in the early chapters. The transfer of the ports Treaty in 1842, "science and technological superiority of the Western world in an anachronistic Chinese empire: the modernization is inevitable." Later "west of knowledge has become a slogan in China.
However, it took time to establish a professional architect, which emerged after two important events in the early decades of the 20th century. In the wake of the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901), the Boxer Protocol has forced China to pay compensation, some of which took the form of educational initiatives, including education, Chinese students overseas. Many were sent to the United States, especially at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received training in Fine Arts under Paul CRET, the captain Kahn. Then, after the First World War, foreign architects from Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States flocked to China to settle in an environment that is always infinite possibilities. They settled in Dalian and Harbin in Manchuria, in Nanjing, Guangzhou and other ports, and most numerously in Shanghai.
Foreign architects, who brought with them a surprising range of 20 century building styles, joined by Chinese architects often work in offices before setting up his own, or have become masters of new technical schools or academic departments. Chinese community, therefore, the architecture has become as diverse as around the world at the time.
One place is in terms of innovation and style: Shanghai, the "Manhattan of the East." The chapter, modernist heyday, which focuses on the development of modernism in Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities, is the best in the book, brilliantly well-studied photographs and historical images. It tells the story of the main architects and their works analyzed in detail, more surprisingly, still stands.
The most interesting practices have been the English firm, Palmer and Turner, who developed the concrete has helped to strike Shanghai buildings stand more than six storeys above the ground spongy, the French company and Leonard Veysseyre, and Hungarian Laszlo Hudec brilliant. Three architects from China for its innovation: Qian Shou Lu, chewing gum and Poy Lee Ting Yang Bao.
Lu Qian Shou is perhaps the only success during this period with the combination of modern construction techniques with traditional Chinese forms - in 1936 the Bank of China in Nanjing.
A theme running through the book is the attempt by Chinese architects to create a national style. Many were trained abroad and too often resort to the use of Chinese decorative patterns and distinctive Eastern roof or repetition of forms that had already been played in the west end of the 19th century with the National Council of Europe and that of Romanticism Arts and Crafts movement in Great Britain.
Modernism in China, which ends in 1949 with the arrival of communism, provides a valuable insight into the work of foreigners and Chinese architects who are not at all the books in the west. Reinforces the idea that the modernism of the 1920s and 1930s could take many forms, whose style has been only a small part. And despite the late start, Shanghai has become one of the most exciting cities in the world.
