Modernist architecture in China
The People's Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949. From the perspective of political history, everything in China, from its social system to the domestic and international political, economic, and cultural environment, underwent tremendous changes in 1949. In the 1920s and 1930s, China's first generation of architects began to put modernist architecture techniques into practice. The growth of modernist architecture ideology, as well as China's objective requirements for it, together formed the basis for the self-renewal of Chinese modernist architecture after 1949. The development of Chinese modernist architecture displayed a seamless historical continuity before and after the founding of the new China. In the first half of the 20th century, the course of China's modernist architecture traveled through the gunpowder smoke and wounds of war and by virtue of fresh hope and inspired vision gave birth to a new beginning. Between 1949 and 1957, China's national economy underwent recovery and development. It was faced with healing the wounds of war, reinstating production and the two central tasks of ensuring stability and improving standards of living.
In addition, modernist architecture's functionalism and opposition to ornamentation meant that design was to be used to change the lives of ordinary working people, while new building materials and tools were used to adapt to the requirements and principles of an industrializing society. The early 1950s saw the nationwide birth of a set of outstanding works of domestic modernist architecture, for example the Sun Yat-sen Medical School's biology building in Guangzhou and the Beijing Children's Hospital.
About the book
Chinese Architecture Written by Cai Yanxin Published by China Intercontinental Press, Beijing, 2018
The People's Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949. From the perspective of political history, everything in China, from its social system to the domestic and international political, economic, and cultural environment, underwent tremendous changes in 1949. In the 1920s and 1930s, China's first generation of architects began to put modernist architecture techniques into practice. The growth of modernist architecture ideology, as well as China's objective requirements for it, together formed the basis for the self-renewal of Chinese modernist architecture after 1949. The development of Chinese modernist architecture displayed a seamless historical continuity before and after the founding of the new China. In the first half of the 20th century, the course of China's modernist architecture traveled through the gunpowder smoke and wounds of war and by virtue of fresh hope and inspired vision gave birth to a new beginning. Between 1949 and 1957, China's national economy underwent recovery and development. It was faced with healing the wounds of war, reinstating production and the two central tasks of ensuring stability and improving standards of living.
In addition, modernist architecture's functionalism and opposition to ornamentation meant that design was to be used to change the lives of ordinary working people, while new building materials and tools were used to adapt to the requirements and principles of an industrializing society. The early 1950s saw the nationwide birth of a set of outstanding works of domestic modernist architecture, for example the Sun Yat-sen Medical School's biology building in Guangzhou and the Beijing Children's Hospital.
About the book
Chinese Architecture Written by Cai Yanxin Published by China Intercontinental Press, Beijing, 2018
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