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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Geographical and architectural imaginations

otherwise be unavailable at the time. China’s state-owned
design institutes had their own ways of assembling and
analyzing geographical and architectural information for
their purpose of production (Xue & Ding, 2018). The result
is the emergence of a specific in-house sector (qingbao chu)
responsible for assembling national and international
knowledge and the establishment of internal design group
within institutional settings that focused specifically on
foreign-aid projects.
3. The People’s Palace, Guinea: Presence
and imagination
Following Guinea’s overwhelming vote for independence
in 1958, the French promptly withdrew from the country,
taking everything that was not bolted down and leaving a
dilapidated economy. At the time, the capital city of Conakry
exhibited a monotonous urban landscape characterized
by a scarcity of modern constructions built by the French
colonizers and primarily composed of lower-rise houses
constructed by locals (Goerg, 2011). Guinea rapidly aligned
itself with the Soviet Union and implemented socialist
policies. By modeling on the contracts and agreements
that governed intra-Bloc exchange, Guinea and the Soviet
Union signed trade, financial, and technical agreements in
1959 and 1960, which encompassed the Soviet provision of
blueprints, industrial plans, and equipment, as well as the
Figure 5. Guinean architecture survey published in Jianzhu xuebao. dispatch of Soviet experts (Jersild, 2016).
Source: Jianzhu xuebao, 1964, no. 8.
The Soviet model of aid posed several challenges for
Guinea, which had just gained independence and was
journal mainly came from the socialist bloc (Lu, 2017). reluctant to accept the Soviet “hegemonic” behavior and
The publications of the early 1960s were partly indicative “unfair” protocol. Guinean President Touré was quickly
of China’s desire to break away from Soviet influence disappointed with the Soviet Union and turned to the
and engage more with developing countries in Asia and People’s Republic of China for assistance. During Touré’s
Africa. These introductions were also closely associated visit to Beijing in September 1960, China and Guinea
with China’s architectural aid program, in which Chinese signed an economic and technical cooperation agreement.
architectural professionals were sent to visit these countries In 1961, the two countries discussed the first batch of
for project surveys and investigations. On their return to China-aided projects, which included a match factory,
China, their writings became an essential source for fellow a cigarette factory, a hydropower station, and a tea test
architects seeking to understand tropical architecture. station.
While some Western architectural magazines, such as The match and cigarette united factory represented
the Architectural Review and Architectural Record, were China’s foray into Africa and its emerging international
available in China’s large design institutes and architecture ambition (daxiang feizhou diyipao, or firing the first
schools, those interested in tropical climate design could shot in Africa), and was the first project aided by China
turn to other specific monographs, such as Maxwell Fry in Africa (Figure 6). It is not surprising, then, that the
and Jane Drew’s Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone of factory design received considerable attention from both
1956 and the research report such as Housing and Building Chinese central and local governmental leaders, including
in the Hot-Humid and Hot-Dry Climates of 1952. Those Premier Zhou, Fang Yi, and Guinean officials. By then,
works served as bibliographical resources for architect Fang Yi had left Vietnam for Beijing and was appointed as
Chen (1962) in his article on tropical building design. director of the newly established State Administration of
These publications provided valuable knowledge about Foreign Economic Relations. The Shanghai Light Industry
tropical architecture to Chinese audiences that would Bureau, which had already gained extensive experience

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 7 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.200