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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Geographical and architectural imaginations

aid buildings. During the Mao era (1949 – 1976), China’s producing geographical knowledge, entangled with
primary diplomatic targets were countries in Asia, Africa, numerous critical sites of knowledge production, such
and Latin America, yet the Chinese possessed limited as state-power, organizational and financial institutions,
geographic knowledge of foreign countries, and few design institutes, civil diplomacy, transnational travel,
individuals had the opportunity to travel or study abroad. media publication, academic research, and embedded
This limited accumulation of geographical knowledge had architectural design practice. Through the lens of
a significant impact on foreign-aid architectural practice. “geographical imagination,” this article examines how
Furthermore, given that many countries receiving Chinese Chinese professionals produced geographical knowledge
aid are situated in tropical regions, how did Chinese of the tropical region and applied this knowledge to
architects recognize, understand, and interpret tropical develop architectural imagination.
architectural culture? Finally, how does this cognitive To investigate the Chinese professionals’ process of
process and personal expression inspire contemporary understanding and expressing geographical conditions
overseas practice? By exploring these questions, this article and cultural identities in China’s architectural intervention
seeks to shed light on the complexities of China’s foreign- in tropical Africa, this article focuses on the analysis of
aid architectural practices during the Mao era, and their two assembly (huitang) buildings, namely, the People’s
ongoing significance in contemporary global architectural Palace in Guinea (1967), and the Friendship Hall in
discourse. Sudan (1976). It is important to note that the selection of
From the 1950s to the 1970s, the People’s Republic of assembly architecture does not undermine the significance
China delivered numerous industrial, institutional, and of many other building types such as industrial factories
civic projects to less developed countries, in the form and agricultural training centers, which formed the
of gratuitous material assistance, and low-interest and cornerstone and backbone of China’s architectural aid, and
interest-free loans. These constructions substantially represented China’s emphasis on economic independence
contributed to the recipient nations’ economic, political, (Liu, 2022). However, the assembly buildings possess
social and cultural development and well-being (Ding unique characters that are highly relevant to the discussion
& Xue, 2015). However, China’s architectural aid to of formal and political issues. Among the limited number
many Asian and African countries during the Mao era of assembly buildings built during the 1960s and 1970s, the
presented considerable challenges regarding the necessary two projects render three remarkable features.
geographical knowledge. Designing buildings in vastly Politically, both projects were significant edifices
different social, political, and cultural contexts posed in their capital cities, playing an indispensable role in
significant difficulties for Chinese professionals, including the political life and international exchanges of each
architects and technocrats, as their geographical knowledge country, and marking a symbol of national independence
of the tropics was very limited. Nonetheless, the political and new order in international relations. Esthetically,
and economic nature of China’s architectural aid afforded both buildings can be regarded as the representatives
Chinese professionals opportunities to engage critically of the most formally articulated modernist projects for
with these challenges. Properly applying geographical each architect and their affiliated design institutes, and
knowledge was a crucial precondition for discovering therefore, represent remarkable material and spatial
other forms of knowledge, including architectural legacies of Chinese, Guinean, and Sudanese architectural
knowledge. In this sense, the provision of architectural aid cultures. Architect Wang Dingzeng once emphasized that
enabled Chinese professionals to develop a more nuanced the Sudan Friendship Hall was his most satisfying work
understanding of the complexities and specificities of the (Lou & Tao, 2017). The Friendship Hall has recently been
tropics and contributed to the advancement of architectural listed in the proposed Docomomo Sudan Chapter. Globally,
knowledge in China. both projects demonstrated Chinese architects’ alignment
According to Marxist geographer Harvey (2005), the with international practice in the tropical regions and
production of geographical knowledge is associated with manifested the tension of global power competition during
a diverse range of factors, including states, nations and the Cold War (Friedman, 2015).
empires, supra-national institutions, non-governmental However, what made the two projects different is that the
organizations, the institutions of civil society, commerce, People’s Palace was a result of “imagination with presence,”
industry and corporate interests, the media and as the architects designed the building on site, deeply
entertainment industries, tourism and travel, and the exposed to the Guinean architecture past and present,
institutions of education and research. In this context, including vernacular buildings, colonial heritages and
China’s architectural aid can be viewed as a process of Western and Soviet practices. In contrast, the Friendship

Volume 5 Issue 1 (2023) 2 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.200