Page 21 - JCAU-5-1

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Geographical and architectural imaginations

To regulate the amount of light and heat, the architects Friendship Hall, a cultural center built with Chinese
employed two types of sun-shading devices: vertical aid of loan (5.4 million U.S. dollars). The ceremony was
brise-soleil on the north façade of the conference hall and attended by a Chinese delegation headed by Fang Yi, and
pre-fabricated cement blocks (huage qiang in Chinese was warmly received by the crowd and military band
architecture or Jalis in Islamic culture) that enveloped the (Fangyi zhuan bianxiezu & Zhongguo jingmao huabaoshe,
façade of the horizontal platform and the cinema hall. 2005). President Nimeiry and Fang Yi were both adorned
Given that the complex’s main façade faces the Blue Nile in with large garlands for the occasion. As the third assembly
the north, there are fewer windows on the east, west, and building aided by China, the Friendship Hall once received
south façades, which effectively reduces solar radiation. unprecedented political attention internationally.
As one of the most remarkable edifices built in 5. Imagining tropical modernism elsewhere
Khartoum, the Friendship Hall showcased the highest
quality of Chinese design and construction, committed The People’s Palace and the Sudan Friendship Hall not
collaboration between Chinese technicians and Sudanese only serve as physical landmarks that defined the horizon
engineers and builders, and an international profile and of local urban landscape or cityscape, but also embody the
political gesture of architecture. The project epitomized the vision of Chinese architects and technocrats during the
consistent characteristics of Chinese-aided construction. 1960s and1970s. These buildings form part of a large set
During their collaboration with Sudanese Ministry of of China-aided industrial, institutional, civil, and medical
Construction and Public Works technicians, the Chinese projects that aimed to transform the socio-economic and
professionals maintained a hard and simple spirit of cultural wellbeing of the recipient African nations. While
sacrifice, disregarding personal gains or losses, and sharing certain geographical awareness and architectural
contributing their own strength to the country’s foreign sensibilities, these two buildings exhibit distinct approaches
aid mission. On the project’s completion in 1976, Sudanese in producing alternative forms and spaces. The People’s Palace
scholar Ali (1976) provided a detailed account of the features a centrally symmetrical layout and emphasizes a
construction process: clear spatial sequence from the outdoor entrance steps to
the lobby on the 2 floor, evoking a traditional arrangement
nd
When the hot summer months came, the technicians of the piano nobile in Western architecture. With little
worked in the interior of the Hall and when the contextual references, the palace asserts its self-centered
cooler weather approached, they shifted to work on
the exterior of the building, thus saving energy and architectural order. The building’s columns with decorative
textures and lines and large-scale paintings in the interior
time. That is why the projects they undertake either spaces reproduce Guinea’s traditional and political culture,
finish on time or earlier than scheduled, but never which adds to its symbolic value.
after the target date… The Chinese normally prefer
to be involved in the construction of the project in On the other hand, the Sudan Friendship Hall
full collaboration, actually in real partnership, with presents an ingenious adaptation to the site environment.
Sudanese engineers and labors. While the Chinese Its asymmetric layout subtly highlights the towering
receive a low wage, the Sudanese technicians are auditorium’s dominant position, while lowering the
paid according to the prevailing wage rates. All traditional large-scale entrance steps to create a more
the Chinese from the team leaders to the lowest intimate atmosphere. Unlike the People’s Palace, the
technicians receive the same wage (LS. 30.7 per Friendship Hall does not employ obvious symbolic
month in the case of the Friendship Hall). Moreover, decoration. Instead, its light-colored materials and
the Chinese technicians mostly live in groups in consistent formal languages produce a serene atmosphere
a hostel-like setting and therefore do not create that responds to the local dry and hot climatic conditions.
a problem of accommodation. The 200 Chinese During the Mao era, foreign-aid projects presented
technicians who participated in the erection of the important opportunities for Chinese architects to explore
Friendship Hall lived in three government houses and experiment with modernist ideas, which showed both
(opening into each other), under the normal dramatic changes and certain continuities when compared
circumstances occupied by three Sudanese families with their domestic works. While architects such as Chen
who are in government service. Their dwelling was Deng’ao, Gong Deshun and Dai Nianci had completed
across the street from the project site and they did several institutional buildings with political significance
not require transport to and from their work. and Beaux-Arts expression in Beijing during the 1950s,
On May 23, 1976, the Sudanese government held they also designed modernist architecture in Guinea,
a grand ceremony in Khartoum to mark the opening of Mongolia, and Sri Lanka, respectively, during the 1960s.

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 15 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.200