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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Bank of China’s modern buildings

Figure 8. Map of the existing modern buildings of the Bank of China. Source: Photos by Jun Wang and Xiaofan Du (except for the photos of the two
buildings in Hong Kong, which are obtained from the Internet); Drawing by Jun Wang

5.2. Time of construction, building layout, and in production. In this sense, the modern buildings
architectural style of the Bank of China serve as functional carriers,
embodying the empirical value of architecture and
The emergence of China’s modern banking industry
introduced the Western world’s financial concepts and, along construction and reflecting cultural and architectural
significance.
with them, Western-style bank architecture. Contemporary
Western materials, technology, capital, talent, and ideas 5.2.1. Construction time
facilitated the adoption of this new architectural style in
China. Modern Western-style bank buildings, distinguished The modern buildings of the Bank of China, as physical
structures, encapsulate a temporal panorama of modern
by their grandeur appearance, notably differ from traditional architectural evolution spanning a hundred years. Based
Chinese money changers in terms of decorative materials, on the earlier discussion of the Bank of China’s historical
spatial layout, and architectural style, particularly in building evolution, these existing modern buildings can be classified
expansion scale and modern form and design. into four phases: late Qing Dynasty buildings (before

Lefebvre (1992) regards banks as abstract spaces 1912), buildings from the period of the Northern Warlord
where capitalist and neo-capitalist countries engage Government (1912 – 1928), buildings from the period of

Volume 6 Issue 2 (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.2166