In the 1950s in Guangdong province, South China, a specific regional architectural modernism evolved, promoted by a group of architects affiliated with the South China University of Technology. One of the main protagonists was the architect Hsia Changshi who – like many of his fellow architects in that generation – had studied abroad and adapted ideas he had encountered during his education to specific local conditions he found in South China.
Guangzhou, at that time the only port city in China that remained open for trade with the West due to its geographical proximity to Hong Kong, also played a particular role in building culture. While the official line for architecture and construction was geared to the Soviet model under the slogan “Learning from the Soviet Union” and simultaneously a Neo-Sino-Classicism, a climate-adaptive approach in South China allowed for the otherwise discredited modernist architectural language using horizontal lines in its design that was associated with the Western capitalist class enemy.

Hsia’s architecture was based on three cornerstones, a rigidly rational examination of climatic conditions reminiscent of tropicalist concepts concerning shading technology, natural ventilation and heat insulation; the study of vernacular Lingnan architecture in respect to climate conformity and by social means; and a cost effectiveness through the use of low-priced and local material.
In 1958 Hsia Changshi published an article in the Chinese Architectural Magazine “Jianzhu Xuebao” with the title “Problems on lowering Temperature of Building in the Subtropical Zone.” By thoroughly estimating the geographically relevant incidence of sunlight, he argues for what becomes the predominant feature of his buildings, an extensive shading structure resembling Le Corbusier’s brise soleil. Replacing the traditional mobile sunscreens, Hsia developed a system of long horizontal shading boards. They became the greatest distinction in the design of his buildings, such as Zhongshan medical building with various depths depending on the number of the floor and the orientation of the building. South facing windows also had vertical boards. At the same time, he analyzed systems for natural ventilation by developing curved clay roofs that were prefabricated on site using local clay bricks.

Architectural practice in Guangzhou among Hsia Changshi and his colleagues was oriented around building, teaching, and research. A research center for vernacular architecture with a special focus on Lingnan gardens was established. Hsia and his colleague Mo Bozhi conducted site surveys with their students; archival photographs show students measuring vernacular architecture. Hsia Changshi developed a special interest in Lingnan gardens “starting a general survey on the garden in the middle Canton area in 1954. Later, Mr. Mo Bozhi joined in his research.
In the autumn of 1961, the Architecture Department of South China Institute of Technology cooperated with TPB of Guangzhou to launch a systematic survey directed by Mr. Hsia and Mr. Mo. Until 1963, they had already finished the study of around forty gardens in Guangzhou, Chaoshan, Quanzhou and Fuzhou.” (Peng, 2007:38)
In 1963 his findings on Lingnan Garden were published in a second article in Jianzhu Xuebao. At the core of the research were the spatial qualities and the sequence of alternating architectural features such as courtyards, architectural and landscape elements, a space-time concept found in modernist thought as in Le Corbusier’s “Promenade Architectural” or Siegfried Giedeon’s “Flowing Space.” In the first half of the 1960s, the consequences of the Great Leap Forward had caused a rigid austerity program, and subject matters of exclusively architectural questions with no relevance for the re-construction of economy or general welfare were commonly considered rightist, while the study of vernacular architecture and the use of local building methods and material had been promoted by the officials.

In order to expand his own professional practice beyond the strict framework of spatial production driven by almost exclusively economic constraints, Hsia Changshi developed a number of techniques utilizing economic, vernacular, and rational elements, climatic matters, and the study of spatial qualities in garden architecture to create a distinct regional adaptive architecture. The use of modernist principles such as functionality, “sincerity” of material and structure can be seen as passive resistance encouraging the growth of an architectural thinking that was unconventional and controversial at that time and place.
(CL)


Sources:
Hsia, Changshi (1958): “Problems of Lowering the Temperature of Buildings in the Subtropical Zone.” In: Jianzhu Xuebao Issue 10/1958. 36-39
Hsia, Changshi/ Mo, Bozhi (1963): “Lingnan Gardens.” In: Jianzhu Xuebao, Issue 03/1963. 11-14
Peng, Changxin (2007): “Regionalism and Realism: Hsia Changshi’s Ideas on Modern Architecture in China.” In: South Architecure, Issue 02/2007. 36-41
Linortner, Christina (2011): Interview with Professor He Jintang. South China University of Technology. 10/10/2011.Linortner, Christina (2011): Interview with Gang Song at South China University of Technology. 03/10/201.