The contemporary Chinese city is hardly a place to be associated as a germane location for (re)-Constructivist design, due to the perseverance of Communism in China. The critical proposition of
this thesis therefore considers modern China a relevant landscape for (re)-Constructivist architecture, suggested through a linkage of two distinct twentieth century, post-revolutionary Soviet and Chinese
cultures. The relationships are investigated through four central themes of analysis: (1) the ideology and development of Constructivism during Soviet Bolshevism, (2) Constructivism under Stalin,
(3) Constructivism and urban consciousness in post-feudal China, and (4) post-Cultural Revolution architectural practices incorporating Constructivist characteristics and ideologies without forthrightly
making it their declaration.
The architectural links between state ideologies and the Constructivist movement in Russia are explored through Moisei Ginzburg’s Style & Epoch and “functional method,” and analysis of Ginzburg’s 1927 Narkomfin housing complex. In addition, it will be shown that whereas the contributions of the ASNOVA (Association of New Architects) group unintentionally enhanced Constructivist
architectural prestige, Stalin’s “Great Break” and Boris Iofan’s 1931 proposal for the Palace of the Soviets subsequently recount the defeat and suppression of the movement, and the triumph of a neoclassical
architectural language preferred by Stalin in the Soviet Union of the 1930s.
Comparatively, analysis of the 1950s Beijing danwei work unit attempts to explicate how Constructivist social endeavors may have reappeared in China, and it will be shown that twentieth century Chinese
architecture’s incorporation of Western European ideas tended to embody Constructivist method in select high-profile architectures after the Cultural Revolution. In this context of analysis, Norman
Foster’s HongKong & Shanghai Bank and Paul Andreu’s Pudong International Airport are studied as examples of post-revolutionary architectures possessing Constructivist attributes, while I.M. Pei’s
Bank of China and Foster’s Beijing Capital Airport Terminal 3 serve as their respective architectural counterpoints.
The lessons learned from this study will be taken a step further in the design of a social housing and marketplace complex to be sited at the former location of the 2010 World’s Exposition in Shanghai.
The design concept will be guided by two Constructivist traits in Chinese architectural culture: (1) the resiliency of social consciousness in worker communes since 1949, and (2) the appearance of Constructivist design methodology during the Market Reform Era, notably from the 1980s to the present time.