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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Geographical and architectural imaginations

residential community design project of Caoyang Village Blue Nile in Khartoum (Shanghai Civic Architecture
(Figure 16). In contrast to the then dominant Soviet Design Institute, 1981). The architects’ geographical
planning principle in China, the Caoyang Village followed and architectural imagination for the project were
the existing river on the site and revealed Wang’s intellectual explicitly embodied in three aspects: response to the
debt to the neighborhood planning practices in the site, articulation of Islamic culture, and understanding
United States. Similarly, in his 1956 project for the Lu Xun of hot-dry climate.
Memorial Hall, Wang employed vernacular forms to create To begin with, the Friendship Hall complex exhibits
an asymmetrical layout, repudiating the conventional an overall asymmetrical layout with a free, Bauhaus style,
monumental building that tended to use traditional pitched which can be observed from a first glance (Figure 17).
roofs of imperial palaces. Wang’s background in both civil However, on closer examination, it becomes apparent
engineering (Shanghai Jiaotong University, 1935) and that several building components, such as the cinema,
architecture (The University of Illinois, 1937) helped him the main conference hall and the banquet hall, maintain
to consciously maintain subtle balance between arts and a sense of regularity. The outside plaza serves as the
technology. The Caoyang Village, Lu Xun Memorial Hall interaction of two axes that define the main hall and
and the Friendship Hall projects collectively exemplified the cinema, respectively. During the initial sketching
Wang’s repudiation of the Beaux-Arts principles that phase, Wang utilized main and secondary axial lines to
dominated China’s state-led architectural practice. measure asymmetries against the overall volume of the
masterplan. It is noteworthy that few modern institutional
Adjacent to the 2-story Sudan National Museum,
the 24,700 sqm Friendship Hall was situated on a flat buildings designed by Chinese architects maintained
dynamic balance and asymmetry. A comparison with the
site near the confluence of the White Nile and the
Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall
in Colombo, Sri Lanka is interesting (Ding & Xue, 2022).
The Colombo project consisted of an octagonal, main
conference hall and a free-style auxiliary building hosting
medium- and small-sized rooms, offices, and restaurants,
which were connected by a corridor. This approach created
a monumental order that satisfied the client’s requirements
in an economical manner. Otherwise, a number of rooms
and spaces that were arranged for a ritual gesture would
have been wasted or poorly functioning. In contrast,
the architects of the Friendship Hall integrated varying
functions, including conference, theater, cinema, banquet,
office, and exhibition, into an organic complex (Figure 18).
The interior of the main conference hall was particularly
impressive, with warm wood finishes, fine furniture, and
an overall solemn atmosphere (Figure 19).

Figure 16. Caoyang Village, 1954. Source: Ministry of Architectural
Engineering of the People’s Republic of China, edited by the Architectural
Society of China. Jianzhu sheji shinian (10 Years of Architectural Design;
Beijing: Ministry of Architectural Engineering of the People’s Republic of Figure 17. The aerial view of the Friendship Hall. Source: Shanghai
China, 1959). Institute of Architecture Design and Research.

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 13 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.200