Localisation of Composite capital designs in modern Jiangsu, China, based on formal and social analysis

Abstract

The evolution of architectural forms is a significant field of study in modern hybrids of Chinese and foreign architecture. It involves exploring the integration of foreign buildings and their constituent elements into traditional Chinese local culture. The Composite capital is a key component in Western architecture. Research indicates that from the 1920s to 1930s, Composite capital designs in foreign architectural structures within the Jiangsu region exhibited period-specific evolutionary characteristics and variations among different cities. Therefore, the localisation of Composite capitals in Jiangsu is a gradual process. This paper proposes a research methodology combining formal analysis and social analysis to investigate the localisation of Composite capitals in Jiangsu during the modern period. The study yields two main conclusions: (1) Within the same social environment, there are common patterns in the localisation of Composite capital designs among different historical periods, reflecting shared developmental trends influenced by local traditional culture. (2) Different cities in the Jiangsu region, characterised by distinct social environments, exhibit unique patterns in the localisation of Composite capital designs, reflecting regional diversity and providing more possibilities for localisation. This paper investigates the localisation of Composite capital designs in modern Jiangsu and explores the factors that influence the form and value of capital designs, providing a systematic reference for the study of regional architectural localisation in the modern period in China.

Introduction

Research background

During the modern period in economically developed regions of China, such as Jiangsu and Shanghai city in particular, many official public buildings adopted the Western classical orders that were prevailing at that time (Zheng, 2020). Among these orders, the Composite capital, which embodies the rich decorative language of local architecture, became a primary example of the localisation of Western classical orders in the Jiangsu region. According to an investigation of Composite capitals in Jiangsu, the designs in the 1920s–1930s were influenced by historical development trends and the geographical and cultural characteristics of the area. Composite capitals in modern Jiangsu showcase local characteristics, reflecting the relatively consistent adaptability of traditional Chinese architecture when confronted with foreign architectural influences. Therefore, to unveil the pathways of localisation for Western Composite capitals in Jiangsu and elucidate the reasons for regional design variations, this paper combines formal and social analysis in consideration of the design characteristics of the region.

Research on Composite capital

Western classical orders are broken into five different types based on each component’s size, proportions, shape, and decoration, namely, Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite (Vignola et al., 2011). The Composite order, which avoids the slender capitals of the Corinthian order and incorporates decorative elements, is considered a beautiful new development of the Roman period (Wang, 2006). Although the name Composite was coined during the Renaissance, the origin of its order remains to be determined. There are no documented instances of the Composite in the ancient history of Western architecture. Only the Roman architect Vitruvius mentioned various innovative designs for the Corinthian capitals of the 1st century BC (Adam, 2017). Similar to the Corinthian order, the Composite order differs in the decoration of the capital, which is larger and displays more ornamental features than that of the Corinthian order (Hillyer, 2018).

Architectural orders consist of a column body (column), a head (capital) and a foot (base) (Tolqin, 2021), and the most significant feature is expressed in the capital (Zhao, 2012). The current discussion of Composite capitals centred around studies of the Western classical order. Early scholars of the Western classical order, such as Alberti (1955), Pollio et al. (1968), and Bullant (1564), established a theoretical system that emphasised the form, shape, and proportion of Composite capitals. Modern Western architects have also based their interpretation of Composite capitals on the classical order specifications established by Renaissance architects, summarised in scholarship such as Gibbs (1968), Chitham (1991), Tadgell (1988), and Tzonis and Lefaivre (1986), who have documented a wide range of graphic and historical sources demonstrating the diverse designs of Composite capitals.

Overall, the stylistic design of Composite capitals is characterised by two main aspects. First, the capital design is based on simulated floral and plant motifs, such as a reversed Ionic scroll shape with imitative botanical motifs such as laurel and honeysuckle leaves, sometimes including complex botanical features such as multipetal flowers (Chitham, 2007) and flower baskets (Tolqin, 2021). This stylistic design indicates that a Composite capital symbolises the theme of nature by tracing the Greek species of the scabiosa plant, stem, and leaf forms. Second, the capital design is a fusion of deified human or animal figures, such as a combination of goddesses (Mossakowski, 1991), winged horses (Onians, 1990), masks and shells (Elam, 2005), giving the capital a symbolic spiritual connotation through the combination of motifs.

Research on localisation and its path

The term “local” carries the meaning of “root” or “stem,” serving as the foundation of something or referring to oneself or aspects related to oneself (Xia, 1999). Therefore, localisation emphasises the process or act of transformation and development towards regional roots. Today, localisation not only encompasses the traditional features of a specific locality (Li, 2006) but also holds broader significance across various fields, including anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and cultural studies. In the field of architecture, localisation refers to the adaptation and development of architectural forms that embody local and stylistic characteristics within foreign environments. It demands that the culture it embodies is contemporary and distinctive, rooted in local traditions, while simultaneously evolving in the information age and receiving the influence of the culture of the foreign locality (Cui, 2007).

The term “path” is synonymous with way, route, and method (Xia, 1999). The path of architectural localisation refers not only to the formal transformation of individual buildings but also to the correlation between the formal expressions of multiple buildings. The discussion on the localisation of architecture refers to the study of its evolutionary methods. For instance, driven by an interest in the cultural differences between the East and the West, some scholars have explored the influences of cultural disparities (John et al., 2018), social behaviours (Coomans, 2018), and consciousness transmission (Law, 2020) on the material forms of architecture. Meanwhile, some Chinese scholars have discussed how regional forms of Western architecture have evolved by combining the intersectional perspectives of genealogy (Gong, 2020), communication (Zhang and Guo, 2020), and technology (Zheng et al., 2019).

However, the evolutionary pathways between architecture and architectural orders are not always consistent. Romero (2021) conducted a semiotic analysis of the classical orders in the Florence Baptistry and found that the architectural components between different architectural contexts were not consistent. Symbolic meanings such as numbers, positions, groupings of small columns and engaged columns all had different semiotic implications. Therefore, the evolutionary path of architecture cannot fully describe the evolutionary path of architectural elements.

Research from Chinese scholars on the localisation of capital designs tends to focus on comparative analysis of the formal characteristics of Chinese and Western orders from a cross-cultural perspective. The existing studies primarily cover two directions: One is to take the architectural order as the focus to generate a horizontal comparison of the manifestations of the localisation of the column across cultures, such as Xu (2008), Wang and Liu (2021), Li (2010), and Zhao (2012). The second is to consider the architectural order as the carrier to generate a vertical comparison of the formal connotations of the localisation of the column under cross-cultural thought, such as Lu and Qin (2018), and Zeng and Chen (2022). However, the path of localisation extends beyond cross-cultural comparisons and should be regarded as a complex and dynamic process. Localisation is influenced by both foreign and local cultures, as well as the acceptance and adaptation of Western orders by local cultures under the influence of local social, economic, political, and cultural factors (Appadurai, 1996). We found that the formal expression of 20th-century Composite capital design in Jiangsu cities was characterised not only by stages of evolution but also by urban differences in presentation, implying that the localisation of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region was not an overnight process. Therefore, the localisation of architecture needs to be considered in the context of social, economic, policy and cultural factors in different cities to explore the differential characteristics in the overall evolutionary pattern through more systematic research.

The significance of formal analysis combined with social analysis

Symbols are considered social because the same form holds the same meaning for a unified social group (Deng, 2019). As one of the architectural symbols, orders adhere to the principle of sociality in symbols. Currently, in addition to exploring the characteristics of order design in different countries, some scholars have argued that columns are important narrative symbols with social significance, providing a social background for contemplating architectural changes. For instance, Akyürek (2022), Rasul-Zade et al. (2021), and Romero (2021), through archaeological research combined with surveying tools, focused on the connections between columns and the changing urban environment. Simultaneously, Mindrup (2016), Álvarez (2020), Vozniak et al. (2018), and Vozniak and Butyrin (2019), through comparative analysis and deductive reasoning, revealed the significance of columns in the architectural design process from a literary and historical perspective.

At present, Chinese scholars have given some thought to the social aspects of architectural localisation, such as how changes in social groups have affected the genealogical structure and dynamic design expression of architectural materials (Gong, 2020), how mass media have influenced the ways of localising of architecture (Zhang and Guo, 2020), and how changes in architectural thinking and behaviour have impacted the narrative of the construction process (Ke, 2014). The localisation of column design involves the practices of different urban cultural backgrounds and social environments (Shan, 2017), but there is still a lack of research on the social aspects of column design localisation and a gap in the study of the localisation of Composite capitals during the modern period in Jiangsu under the influence of changing social and environmental factors. Furthermore, the cultural differences and complexities of cities make research even more challenging.

The uniqueness of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region lies in the fact that the decorative part is the most manipulable design element, making it highly susceptible to the influence of local social factors when integrated with Jiangsu’s traditional architectural characteristics. Luo (2019) argued that architectural styles reflected social environmental changes, determined by collective social values during the process of architectural integration, and pointed out the impact of changes in social factors on the evolution of architectural styles during the modern period in China. Additionally, Jiang (2004) believed that Chinese architectural decoration since the beginning of the 20th century had presented a complex history influenced by social and environmental changes, facing the dilemma of stylistic blurring and impermanence amidst rapid technological and economic development. These studies illustrate the inseparable connection between the evolution of architectural components and changes in the social environment. Therefore, while formal analysis could reveal the evolutionary patterns of capital design features, social analysis can further explore the reasons behind the evolution of capital design features. In general, the combination of formal analysis and social analysis could serve as the basis for a systematic study of the developmental path of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region.

Purpose and contributions

The specific steps of the paper analysis are as follows (Fig. 1):

1. Collecting and sorting Composite capital samples based on the historical and graphic data provided by authoritative works on modern regional architecture in Jiangsu and combining them with field surveys of the Western-style architectural heritage of urban cities in the Jiangsu region over the past year.

2. Using textual research and historical metrology to conduct a formal analysis of the existing samples of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region, focusing on the formal style and logic of Composite capitals. The characteristics of the formal evolutionary patterns of localisation in Composite capitals are summarised for the Jiangsu region in different historical periods (1920s, 1930s and mid to late 1930s) and in different city types (central city and surrounding cities).

3. Along with the social analysis of the environment, the three dimensions of the physical surroundings, social relationships and cultural milieus are explored to further identify how social factors, such as phases (time) and urbanity (space), influenced the localisation of the Composite capital in Jiangsu.

Fig. 1 [Images not available. See PDF.]

Research diagram.

The composition of the research framework points to the organisation of each section of the paper. This figure is not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reproduced with permission of Xinyi Wang; copyright © Xinyi Wang, all rights reserved.

The contributions of the paper are as follows:

1. A comprehensive overview of the design characteristics of the Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region is summarised based on the identification and classification of the sample capitals.

2. Insights into the broader relationship between architecture and society are offered by examining which social factors played a role in localising Composite capitals in Jiangsu.

3. A systematic analysis of the localisation of architectural elements using a combination of formal analysis and social analysis is provided to better understand the architectural localisation process in future research.

The development of Composite capital during the modern period

Composite capital in China

In 1888, the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Guangdong featured a unique radial arrangement of seven columns with Composite capitals above the central door, making it one of the earliest examples of Composite capitals in modern Chinese architecture (Wu, 2001). As neoclassicism spread throughout China in the 20th century, Composite capitals became a common feature of modern buildings in several cities with a large foreign presence, such as the Old Customs House in Guangdong (built in 1916), the former Salt Industry Bank in Tianjin (built in 1926), St. Joseph’s Church in Macau (built in 1903) and the HSBC (The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited) Bank in Shanghai (built in 1921).

Compared with the capitals of the Tuscan order, the Doric order, the Ionic order, the Corinthian order, and other Western classical orders, the Composite capital was introduced later in modern China. On the one hand, the detailed design requirements of the Composite capital were not matched to the construction conditions for early Western expatriates. As the highest art form of the Roman order, the Composite order requires a high construction standard, such as rich details, and the order must adopt a composite line footing (Luo, 2005). Thus, the capital cannot be enlarged in equal proportions, or it will lose its sense of scale. On the other hand, Western expatriates who arrived in China in the early 19th century did not have sufficient funds or design capabilities to support the construction of authentic Western-style buildings (Wu, 2008), so their approach toward capital design tended towards the simple lines of Tuscan and Doric orders. In addition, many foreigners who came to China during the modern period did not intend to stay long; they wanted to explore the country and make a profit before leaving (Wu, 2008), accelerating the tendency for capital design to spread as a simple symbol of Western colonialism and further limiting the use of the Composite order in China.

Composite capital in the Jiangsu region

Jiangsu derives its name from a fusion of the first characters of Jiangning (now Nanjing) and Suzhou prefectures (now Suzhou) (Wang, 1985). Before 1927, Jiangsu’s jurisdiction covered several other prefectures, including Songjiang (now Songjiang District, Shanghai), Huai’an (now Huai’an), Yangzhou (now Yangzhou), Xuzhou (now Xuzhou), Changzhou (now Changzhou), Zhenjiang (now Zhenjiang), Tongzhou (now Nantong), Haizhou (now Lianyungang), Taicang (now Taicang), and Haimen (now Haimen District, Nantong). However, after the Nationalist government moved its capital to Nanjing, the administrative jurisdiction of Shanghai was included under Jiangsu (Liu and Wang, 2008). Although Shanghai was not formally part of the geographical area of Jiangsu after the establishment of the Nanjing government (1927), the increased status of merchants and freer social activities facilitated cultural exchanges between Shanghai and the Jiangsu region (Gong, 2020). As a result, the unity of the regional architectural form is formed by the cultural radiation of the city into the Jiangsu region. The influence of this correlation, in turn, is also at work in the evolutionary patterns of Composite capitals.

From the 1860s to the early 1920s, several official public buildings, such as consulates, ministries of industry and foreign banks, were the first to use the neoclassical architectural forms popular in Western countries at that time, starting with the buildings along the Huangpu River in Shanghai (Zhang, 1999). Some property owners in Shanghai realised the importance of architectural imagery to add value to the property in the economy and began focusing on constructing authentic European architecture. Therefore, with the availability of fine craftsmanship (Wu, 2008), the Composite, which had a neoclassical architectural form, was able to meet the needs of property owners in search of authentic European architecture and was therefore highly valued. After the 1920s, as neoclassicism gained popularity in the Jiangsu region, Composite capital started to become concentrated in modern architecture in urban cities such as Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Nantong, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou, forming a new period of concentrated Composite capital design.

Research data and methodology

Sample selection

The selection criteria for the sample in this study are based on the buildings constructed in the Jiangsu region during the 20th century. As the study aims to investigate the Composite capitals in Jiangsu architecture, the sample has to include buildings that feature Composite capitals as a prominent architectural element. To identify potential buildings for inclusion, the authors consulted relevant literature and archives such as historical records, architectural guides, and scholarly articles. The sample was then narrowed down through a process of elimination based on the selection criteria. For instance, The Early Modern Architecture in Jiangsu by Professor Liu Xianjue from Southeast University in China, which records historical images of Composite capitals, was consulted alongside other authoritative works, including The Evolution of Shanghai Architecture in Modern Times, A Study on the Bund Section of Nanjing Road in Shanghai, Nanjing Republican Architecture Atlas, and Modern Architecture in Zhenjiang, all of which provide a wealth of graphic and historical data about modern architecture in Jiangsu. However, some capitals could not meet the selection criteria of explicit forms, visible patterns, and well-documented architectural history due to historical damage from wartime and poor maintenance. As a result, 41 Composite capitals were selected for inclusion in the sample based on the quality of their preservation and availability of their architectural history.

According to the screening of the sample data, there are more Composite capitals in urban buildings in Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Zhenjiang, Wuxi, Changzhou, Nantong, Lianyungang and Suqian. Therefore, the above cities were used as a focus for sample selection in the Jiangsu region during the 20th century. Among them, Shanghai, as the first city in the Jiangsu region to open up to the outside world, formed an association with the architecture of surrounding cities through radiating the voluntary adoption of Westernisation. In contrast, Nanjing, as the provincial capital city of the Jiangsu region, formed a geocultural linkage with surrounding cities through unified political and cultural influences (Gong, 2020). Therefore, this paper considers Shanghai and Nanjing as the central cities of the Jiangsu region. However, cities including Suzhou, Zhenjiang, Wuxi, Changzhou, Nantong, Lianyungang and Suqian, due to their slow modernisation process and status as partial port cities, also known as peripheral cities (Yang and Cai, 2004), do not have the same Composite capital forms in their architecture as the more westernised and standard forms found in port cities, also known as mainstream cities (Yang and Cai, 2004) such as Shanghai and Tianjin. Therefore, this paper considers Suzhou, Zhenjiang, Wuxi, Changzhou, Nantong, Lianyungang and Suqian as the surrounding cities of the Jiangsu region. By defining the central cities and surrounding cities, this paper compares the formal associations of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region during the 20^th century under different geographical influences (Fig. 2). Within the total sample, 19 observations were from the central cities of Shanghai and Nanjing, while 22 were from surrounding cities; 19 were from the 1920s (covering the period from before the 1920s to the 1920s), and 22 were from the 1930s (including the 1930s and afterward) (Tables 1 and 2).

Fig. 2 [Images not available. See PDF.]

The spatial scope of the research, with the central city and surrounding city in the Jiangsu region during the 20th century.

The small image in the top right corner (a) shows the geographical location of Jiangsu, China, during the 20th century; the historical map (b) shows the cities covered by Jiangsu, China, in the 20th century, with the solid red dots being the central cities and the red hollow dots being the surrounding cities. This figure is not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reproduced with permission of GS(2016)1579 (a) and Dingle, John Edwin (b); copyright © SinoMaps Press (a) and North-China Daily News & Herald, Ltd. (b), all rights reserved.

Table 1. List of selected Composite capital numbers in Jiangsu region.

Decade	Central city	Surrounding city	Total
Before 1920s	3	8	11
1920s	5	3	8
1930s	11	11	22
After 1930s	0	0	0
Total	19 (46% of total)	22(54% of total)	41

Source: Made by the author.

Table 2. List of selected Composite capitals in Jiangsu region.

Sample No.	City location	Construction time	City	Building name
01	Central city	1900	Shanghai	Annex Building, 168 Jiujiang Road
02	Central city	1914	Shanghai	Cercle Sportif Francais Building
03	Central city	1915	Shanghai	Chamber of Commerce Council Building
04	Central city	1920	Shanghai	Y.M.C.A. Building
05	Central city	1921	Shanghai	HSBC Bank Building
06	Central city	1923	Shanghai	Columbia Country Club
07	Central city	1924	Shanghai	Post Office Building
08	Central city	1927	Shanghai	Taiwan Bank Building
09	Central city	1930	Shanghai	Buchan Villa
10	Central city	1932	Shanghai	Former Foreign YMCA Building
11	Central city	1933	Nanjing	Former Central Hospital Building
12	Central city	1933	Shanghai	Women’s Youth Association Building
13	Central city	1934	Nanjing	Former Office Building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
14	Central city	1934	Shanghai	Mitsui Bank
15	Central city	1934	Shanghai	Mistubishi Bank
16	Central city	1935	Nanjing	Former National Art Museum
17	Central city	1936	Nanjing	The National Auditorium
18	Central city	1936	Shanghai	Chen Chuxiang Residence Building
19	Central city	1937	Shanghai	Bank of China Building
20	Surrounding city	1901	Suzhou	The Clock Tower Building of Dongwu University
21	Surrounding city	1903	Nantong	Dada Riverboat Company
22	Surrounding city	1907	Zhenjiang	Jiang Huairen Clinic Building
23	Surrounding city	1914	Nantong	Nantong Library Building
24	Surrounding city	1915	Zhenjiang	American Pastoral Residence
25	Surrounding city	1915	Wuxi	Former Site of Wuxi County Chamber of Commerce Building
26	Surrounding city	1916	Changzhou	Continental Hotel
27	Surrounding city	1919	Lianyungang	East Asia Hotel Building
28	Surrounding city	1920	Nantong	Sanxin Bath
29	Surrounding city	1922	Zhenjiang	Tang Laoyi House Building
30	Surrounding city	1924	Suzhou	Former Residence of Zou Liangchen
31	Surrounding city	1930	Zhenjiang	May 3rd Library
32	Surrounding city	1930	Changzhou	Former Residence of Zhuang Yunkuan
33	Surrounding city	1931	Suqian	Former Daosheng Soda Shop
34	Surrounding city	1932	Lianyungang	Shandong Overseas Chinese Association
35	Surrounding city	1933	Wuxi	Former Residence of Zhang Wentian
36	Surrounding city	1933	Changzhou	Songyun Small Building
37	Surrounding city	1933	Wuxi	Former Residence of Zhang Xiaocheng
38	Surrounding city	1933	Lianyungang	Yixin Store and Dehoucheng Store Building
39	Surrounding city	1934	Suzhou	Former Residence of Zhang Taiyan North Building
40	Surrounding city	1934	Suzhou	Yinlu Building
41	Surrounding city	1935	Wuxi	Ding’s Building

Source: Made by the author.

Three typical styles of Capital designs

Based on the views generally accepted by Chinese historians, Zheng (2020) divided modern architecture in Shanghai into four periods according to factors such as architectural types and the evolution of architectural styles: the early period (1843–1900), the middle modern period (1900–1920), the blooming modern period (1920–1937), and the late modern period (1937–1949). Influenced by the modernisation of Shanghai, modern urban architecture in Jiangsu has developed a regional genealogy characterised by passive constraints (Gong, 2020), so the overall evolution of modern architectural styles in Jiangsu corresponded to a certain extent to the chronology of the evolution of modern architectural styles in Shanghai.

Based on the overall evolution of stylistic features and forms in Jiangsu capitals, 41 Composite capitals are divided into three typical styles according to their construction era: capitals designed in the Western classical style of the 1920s, capitals designed in the Art Deco style of the 1930s, and capitals designed in the Modernist style of the mid and late 1930s. Figure 3 shows the distribution of the sample of Composite capitals surveyed across the Jiangsu region in historical order. The photos are derived from historical photographs of authoritative works on modern architecture in Jiangsu and field research photographs for this study, and the figure has been composited and processed through Adobe Illustrator CC 2019. The composite photos are ordered according to the period of construction and are annotated with different colours and lines to show the distribution of the three typical styles in the central and surrounding cities of the Jiangsu region (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 [Images not available. See PDF.]

Sample distribution of Composite capital survey in the Jiangsu region.

The sample distribution of modern Jiangsu composite capitals is based on their location, time, and style. This figure is not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reproduced with permission of Tongji University Press and Phoenix Science Press; copyright © Chang Qing, copyright © Zheng Shiling, copyright © Liu Xianjue and Wang Xin, all rights reserved.

Criteria for analysing the localisation path

Formal analysis

Architecture refers to one of the visual arts (Hamlin, 1982), and an architectural order refers to the most fundamental element of architectural composition (Dai, 2017), resulting in the composition of the order following the elements and principles of visual artistic form. The paper conducts a formal analysis of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region, which is split into two parts: first, it relies on the analysis of formal style, including the analysis of the obvious basic elements such as the subject and shape of the motifs on the capital. Second, it analyses formal logic, including hidden formal elements such as the capital’s proportions, scale, and spatial distance.

1. Formal style: formal style refers to the visual representation that distinguishes different forms (Hamlin, 1982). For instance, artists and art historians typically use artistic elements such as line, texture, colour, and shape to provide a structured basis for effectively communicating artistic forms (Fichner-Rathus, 2011). In this regard, the architectural order of design elements, such as the motifs’ subject and shapes, constitutes the fundamental formal style of Composite capital design in the Jiangsu region.

2. Formal logic: formal logic refers to the implicit formal association between different architectural elements and spatial elements. In architecture, specific principles such as scale and proportion are combined to create a sense of uniformity and architectural order. For instance, the five Roman orders have distinct proportions that relate their various parts, resulting in unique characteristics (Shi and Zhou, 2004). In the case of Composite capital design in the Jiangsu region, the interaction between the capital and the column is determined by factors such as proportion, scale, and space, contributing to the overall design of the architectural order.

Social analysis

The human social environment includes the three most essential social factors within which groups interact: the immediate physical surroundings, social relationships, and cultural milieus (Barnett and Casper, 2001). The decorative part of the Jiangsu region Composite capital is the most manipulated in design. The capital is susceptible to the influence of local social factors and shows a tendency to adopt a local architectural identity. Thus, the physical surroundings, social relationships, and cultural milieus are the most direct and pervasive influences on the localisation of modern Composite capital designs in Jiangsu, acting as a macroenvironmental change influencing the design layout and formal expression.

For this point, the paper utilises over 100 architectural records from libraries in Shanghai, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Nantong, Changzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Jiangnan University, focusing on the influence of physical surroundings, social relationships, and cultural milieus on the localisation of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region and exploring the historical factors that influenced the change in morphology. Specifically, the following three aspects are shown:

1. Localisation of physical surroundings: Localising physical surroundings involves modifying the design and layout of capital to cater to unique local aesthetic requirements and preferences in response to Jiangsu’s evolving economic and technological surroundings. The flourishing construction market and advancements in construction techniques during the 1920s in the Jiangsu region provided a strong foundation for modernising construction, including the design and production of Composite capitals. However, the downturn in the construction market in the 1930s in the Jiangsu region limited the refinement of the formal composite design. Therefore, the combined changes in the economic and technological environment, as a guide to material environmental factors, put forward the requirements of figurative design for the Composite capital designs of the 1920s and 1930s.

2. Localisation of social relationships: Localising social relationships involves modifying the design and layout of capital forms to cater to the specific needs and preferences of local communities in response to the changing relations of Jiangsu with the international community. The dispersion of state power resulted in a regional reintegration of the different variables of international relations, indicating how international relations and movements actually influenced the regional political environment. Although China was never a colonial vassal of a Western empire, during the late Qing and Republican periods, it was largely dominated by Western empires (Gong et al., 2019). Thus, the cultural practices led by European and American colonial powers, and the countercultural colonial practices of modern China, as a source of influence on international social relations, formed a chain of influential reflections in the regional evolution of Composite capital designs in the Jiangsu region.

3. Localisation of cultural milieus: Localising cultural milieus involves modifying the design of capital forms to cater to local communities’ specific needs and preferences in response to the evolving psychological and aesthetic attitudes of groups in the Jiangsu region. The localisation of the Western classical order in Jiangsu reflects Chinese architecture’s modern and advanced nature and the influence of traditional thinking and cognitive habits. Therefore, the transformation of the psychology and aesthetic attitude of the social group in the Jiangsu region, as a factor guiding the regional cultural environment, guided the transformation and exploitation of the Composite capital design with characteristic images from cultural traditions and humanistic spiritual activity.

The formal analysis of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region

Localisation of formal style

The localisation of the formal style of Composite capital design can be described as a gradual change from the figurative representation of the retro Western style to a stylised design with a distinctly industrial architectural identity. This localisation involves the fusion of traditional Chinese motifs with modern Western architectural features, resulting in an “invisible” decoration attached to the building facade and forming a structured order.

The localisation of the formal style of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region can be recognised in three stages of development:

1. In the early stage, traditional Chinese motifs expressed the retro Western style in both “partially localised” and “wholly localised” approaches.

2. In the middle stage, traditional Chinese motifs expressed the symbolic imagery of Western Composite capitals in an abstract geometric style through “elongation”.

3. In the late stage, the Composite capital design expressed a structured style that was integrated into the building façade or in an “extracted localised” expression.

Retro Western style

In the 1920s, the modern architecture of Jiangsu, led by the Bund in Shanghai, was heavily influenced by the retro Western style and had little exposure to modern Western architectural styles (Wu, 2008). During this period, many Composite capitals were carved and drawn on the entrances, façades, doors, and windows of many buildings, decorated with many patterns from Western classical buildings, forming a style based on the eclectic modelling of Western classical orders. There are two approaches to localising the formal style of the capital:

The first approach is “partially localised”, an approach commonly found in the design of Composite capitals in the central cities of the Jiangsu region, which uses traditional Chinese patterns to partially express the decorative features of the Western Composite capital. For instance, Chinese patterns of fretwork, plums, and scrolls were mixed with partially localised acanthus patterns or vortices that expressed classical Western features, such as on the capitals of the HSBC Bank Building in Shanghai (built in 1921). The HSBC Bank Building was designed with a double column in a mixed Roman style, with the upper part of the capitals crowned with a Chinese fret pattern and the lower part cast with two equal levels of Western-style sculptures, presenting a combination of traditional Chinese and Roman architectural styles. The same treatment is used in the decoration of the capitals of the Shanghai Post Office Building (built in 1924). The form of the column is modelled on an ancient Greek Corinthian column, and the capitals show an eclectic treatment in which the Chinese fret patterns on the upper part of the column are stretched horizontally to match the Western sculptures.

The second approach is “wholly localised”, an approach commonly found in the design of Composite capitals in the surrounding cities of the Jiangsu region, which uses traditional Chinese patterns holistically to convey the symbolic imagery of the Western Composite capital. For example, the capital design of the Tang Laoyi House in Zhenjiang (built in 1922) used Chinese patterns of peonies and scrolls through the traditional Jiangsu expression of water-rubbed green brick walls to imitate the overall shape of western Composite capitals with scrolling vortex motifs with scabiosa leaves. The capital design of the East Asia Hotel Building in Lianyungang (built in 1919) is also unique, with a lotus flower throne on the head of the column; this throne does not evoke the bodhisattva Guanyin but directly represents a vibrant yellow sprout in nature. The overall design conveys the symbolic imagery of Composite capitals (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4 [Images not available. See PDF.]

Composite capital samples in Jiangsu region in the 1920s.

Composite capitals in retro Western style, with different localised methods and city types. This figure is not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reproduced with permission of Tongji University Press (a), Phoenix Science Press (d), and Xinyi Wang (b, c, e–p); copyright © Zheng Shiling (a), copyright © Liu Xianjue and Wang Xin (d), copyright © Xinyi Wang (b, c, e–p), all rights reserved.

Abstract geometric style

In the 1930s, although Western neoclassicism continued to exist, its period of popularity had generally come to an end and given way to the international architectural style of modernism (Zheng, 2020). Among these styles, modernist architecture with Art Deco features was more easily accepted by the public than the bare classical and modern varieties of expressionists (Zheng, 2020). Accordingly, the Composite capital gradually deviated from the retro Western style and became an abstract geometric style with traditional Chinese geometric patterns. A typical design phenomenon is the use of geometric elements in the decoration of capitals and an emphasis on abstract graphic expression.

For example, in the Mitsui Bank building in Shanghai (built in 1934), the south façade features six hexagonal pilasters running from the 3rd to the 6th floors, with two double pilasters in the middle, and the capitals are simplified into geometric expressions from more naturalist origins, such as the Western acanthus, which is simplified into a modular expression similar to a folding Chinese fret pattern. These capitals represent an abstract expression of the classical style. This localised variation reflects the harmonious unity of order and rhythm in the detailed construction of the building façade, which has become the most attractive part of the building.

In contrast, the capitals in Suzhou, Lianyungang and Wuxi are more traditional in their geometric expressions, with diverse traditional Chinese figurative patterns, such as the Chinese plum, lotus flower and fret patterns, intervening in the design of the capitals to express auspicious wishes for the region. For example, the capitals on the entrance façade of the Suzhou Yinshi House (built in 1934) show Chinese fret patterns and Western acanthus patterns; the capitals on the entrance façade of the Lianyungang Yixin Store and the Dehoucheng Store (built in 1933) show arc patterns with plum patterns, and the capitals of the corbel columns on the entrance façade of the former residence of Zhang Xiaocheng in Wuxi (built in 1933) show fret patterns with lotus patterns (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5 [Images not available. See PDF.]

Composite capital samples in Jiangsu region in the 1930s.

Composite capitals in abstract geometric style. This figure is not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reproduced with permission of Tongji University Press (a, b), Phoenix Science Press (d), and Xinyi Wang (c, e, f–h); copyright © Chang Qing (a, b), copyright © Liu Xianjue and Wang Xin (d), copyright © Xinyi Wang (c, e, f–h), all rights reserved.

Structured style

In the middle and late 1930s, the Composite capital was further transformed into a pilaster style with obvious industrial architectural features. It gradually broke away from the original three-dimensional appearance, becoming attached to the building facade and forming a structured order with traditional Chinese decorative patterns and modern Western architectural forms.

At this time, the number of capitals in Nanjing city increased, such as at the Former Office Building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nanjing (built in 1934), the National Auditorium (built in 1936), the Former National Art Museum in Nanjing (built in 1935) and the Former Central Hospital Building in Nanjing (built in 1933). Nanjing became a city where the construction of structured capitals was concentrated. There are a large number of traditional Chinese patterns in these columns. The column bodies are vastly simplified and fitted into the building façade, creating a form that is integrated into the façade structure (Fig. 6). This design approach was influenced by traditional Chinese concepts of architectural aesthetics, which were formed by the traditional Chinese way of decorating buildings, which tended to believe that there should be some decorative elements in the building, such as colour painting and open moulding.

Fig. 6 [Images not available. See PDF.]

Composite capital samples in Jiangsu region in the middle and late 1930s.

Composite capitals in structured style. This figure is not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reproduced with permission of Phoenix Science Press (g), and Xinyi Wang (a–f, h–k); copyright © Liu Xianjue and Wang Xin (g), copyright © Xinyi Wang (a–f, h–k), all rights reserved.

When structured capitals spread to the surrounding cities in the Jiangsu region, the design of the capital could change to various localised forms due to regional and cultural differences, the availability of techniques and materials, and the historical and social context. For example, in the commercial building façade on Xizhong Street in Suzhou, the structured capitals are fused with the façade on the street side only. The decorative image of Chinese style is mixed with the façade form of Western style, creating a decorative Westernised surface fusing the Composite capital and the structure of the wall. In contrast, the part behind the wall that is not easily visible still maintains the stylistic form of traditional Chinese architecture. The characteristics and cultural identity of the different regions enrich the diversity of the architectural design and become a formal expression of the localisation of the Western Composite capital design in the cities of the surrounding Jiangsu region in the context of local design thinking.

Localisation of formal logic

In some applications of formal logic, it is necessary to consider the specific characteristics of the domain being analysed. In this approach, the rules and axioms of reasoning are adapted to the particular field of proportion, resulting in more precise and accurate reasoning. The localisation of the formal logic of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region is summarised into three stages of development:

1. In the early stages, the formal logic of Composite capital design is categorised into equal-height blocks, resulting in the design expression of “stratified as equal height”.

2. In the middle stage, the formal logic of the Composite capital is shown with the Art Deco approach. The capital design is deformed through abstraction, leading to a design expression of “categorised as equal height”.

3. In the late stage, the formal logic of the Composite capital takes modernism as its starting point, and through the integration of innovations with modern Western architecture, a structured design form emerges that is adapted to the different distances of modern architectural façades in Jiangsu.

Stratified as equal height

In the 1920s, the formal logic of Composite capitals focused on the harmony of proportions in the Western classical order and its elegant effect on architecture. After the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the Chinese government tried hard to change. Many official and private shops were converted into Western-style buildings in large quantities. The presence of the Western style reflected a change from hatred of foreign countries to worship of foreign countries, and the Western classical order at that time represented fashion (Zhao, 2012). Therefore, the Composite capitals became a symbolic representation of the aesthetic norms of Western classical architecture.

According to the study sample, even if there are many forms of modelling transformation in the Composite capitals, the logic of the proportion of the column to the capital is always consistent. As Adam (2017), a British architect who founded the ADAM architecture firm specialising in classical architecture said in Classical architecture: A complete handbook, “The height of the Composite capital is usually equal to the diameter of the base, the crown plate is divided into three equal-height blocks, the lower two layers are two rows of acanthus leaves, and the upper is the typical pattern of the Ionic capital.” In the localisation process, the Composite capital continued the formal logic of the Western classical order in the Jiangsu region.

For example, as the most representative example of Western classical architecture in 1920s Jiangsu, the HSBC Bank Building in Shanghai continued the precise and stable formal logic of Western classical capitals with a large middle section. The capitals’ fret pattern and acanthus pattern were divided into three registers of equal height, creating a formal logic that stratified elements in equal heights. At the same time, the proportion of the designs follows the 1:10 rule of the Western classical order, reflecting the balance of base diameter and column height and of the capital and column.

Meanwhile, local architects in the Jiangsu region adopted the formal logic of the stratified equal registers on the capital and applied it to constructing Western-style forms in neighbouring cities. However, to meet the needs of the local architecture and design style, the distribution within the Composite capitals was reduced from 1:1:1 to 1:1. For example, the Composite capitals in Zhenjiang Jiang Huairen Clinic (built in 1907), the Former Site of Wuxi County Chamber of Commerce Building (built in 1915), Nantong Library (built in 1903), Lianyungang Dongya Hostel (built in 1919), Nantong Sanxin Bath (built in 1920), and the Zhenjiang Tang Laoyi House Building (built in 1922) all not only reflect the formal logic of stratified equal height but also adjust the proportional registers on the Composite capitals to 1:1 (Fig. 7). The reduced capital design scale reduces building materials and construction costs while simultaneously demonstrating the harmony of the standard Western classical column, meeting the diverse needs for simplicity, functionality and practicality in modern architecture in the Jiangsu region.

Fig. 7 [Images not available. See PDF.]

The proportion of Composite capital in the 1920s.

Composite capital in the Western classical formal logic, with stratified as equal height. This figure is not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reproduced with permission of Tongji University Press (a, c), Dover Publications (d), and Xinyi Wang (b, e); copyright © Zheng Shiling (a, c), copyright © David Watkin (d), copyright © Xinyi Wang (b, e), all rights reserved.

Categorised as equal height

In the 1930s, to accommodate the recent development of high-rise buildings in Jiangsu, the Composite order began to deform, forming a morphological division marked by structural deformities. With the increase of high rises, the overall form of modern architecture in Jiangsu increased in height and size (Wu, 2008). The commercial buildings with an Art Deco style along the Bund in Shanghai were the first to adapt, with Composite capitals that abandoned the constraints of Western classical aesthetics and emphasised the abstract and deformed expression of design. For example, in the Shanghai Former Foreign YMCA Building (built in 1932), as an architectural model of Art Deco formal logic, the Composite capitals have been adjusted from stratified registers of equal height to examples that are categorised as equal height. At the same time, the height of the capital was adjusted from the traditional proportions of 1:10 to 1:7.5, giving the capital a partially enlarged visual effect.

With the proliferation of this innovative architectural form, the design of Composite capitals in the Shanghai Former Foreign YMCA Building had a significant influence on Western-style buildings in neighbouring cities such as Suzhou. For instance, the façade of the corridor in the Suzhou Yinlu Building resembles that of the Shanghai Former Foreign YMCA Building, featuring a tall horseshoe-shaped arch complemented by grand Composite columns. However, in the proportional design of the capital for the entrance to the corridor in the Suzhou Yinlu Building, there is a further distortion from the capital on the façade of the Shanghai Foreign YMCA Building, with the ratio of the column base to the column height being 1:7.8. The ratio of the capital to the column body is nearly 1:8, resulting in a larger capital shape in the Suzhou Yinlu Building than the façade of the Shanghai Former Foreign YMCA Building. The magnification of the capital serves as a distinctive feature of the Yinlu Building’s façade, providing a more visually striking expression in the section blocked for the capital on the building façade (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8 [Images not available. See PDF.]

The proportion of Composite capital in the 1930s.

Composite capital in the Art Deco formal logic, with categorised as equal height. This figure is not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reproduced with permission of Tongji University Press (a, b), and Xinyi Wang (c–e); copyright © Zheng Shiling (a, b), copyright © Xinyi Wang (c–e), all rights reserved.

Structural order

In the middle and late 1930s, the Composite capital emphasised the aesthetic integration of national decorative language and modern architectural façades, resulting in simpler, brighter, and more luminous façade decorations that were straight in appearance. The design of the capital, through structural integration with modern Western architecture, was no longer limited to the Western form of the capital. Instead, it conveyed the possibilities of a formal period façade with national decorative characteristics in a structured order.

For example, the Former National Art Museum in Nanjing (built in 1936), a model of early modernist architecture in Jiangsu, has a façade adorned with a Composite capital design featuring Chinese motifs. When the viewer is far away, the auspicious cloud pattern on the lintel enhances the simple decorative effect of the building. When the viewer approaches, the pilaster pattern in the colour painting enhances the strong decorative sense of the central part of the wall. When the viewer is closer, the complex mouldings of the lintel, the symmetrical stone lions and the stone piers at the entrance form the solemn decorative impression of the building. At the same time, the capitals of the Bank of China building in Shanghai (built in 1937) show the same scaled façade patterns. The top section of the building features a gently sloping, four-sided pointed roof covered with dull green glazed tiles, and the eaves are decorated with stone architraves to allow for views of the silhouette from a distance. The middle section of the building has neatly arranged square window openings at the top and bottom, with a central projection flanked by distorted coin-shaped openwork panes to allow for views of the façade from a moderate distance. The bottom section of the building contains a relief carving of “Confucius”, and the pilasters on both sides are decorated with auspicious cloud patterns, allowing viewers to appreciate the decorative details up close.

However, in commercial buildings such as those on Xizhong Street in Suzhou, the structured capitals are often partially decorated in the form of lintels on the façade of the wall. For example, the lintels of the commercial buildings fronting Xizhong Street feature auspicious cloud patterns combined with modern Western architectural façades. At the same time, large areas of traditional Chinese rhombus patterns appear in the centre of the façade, signifying wealth and prosperity. As the lintel is an often noticed part of the building, architects often decorate the lintel with a structured Composite capital, which serves the specific purpose of both finishing the architectural footing of the lintel and visually highlighting the lintel, given the limited financial and technical constraints on construction. Thus, based on the formal language of modern Western architecture, the structural order expresses the various possibilities of façade modelling through indigenous elements, resulting in a Composite design adapted by the structural order to the viewer’s distance and the building’s expressive character (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9 [Images not available. See PDF.]

Different distances of Composite capital in the middle and late 1930s.

Composite capital in the modern formal logic, with structural order. The photo (a) in the figure is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reproduced with permission of ScareCriterion12; copyright © ScareCriterion12, all rights reserved. Other photos and images (b–m) in this figure are not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reproduced with permission of Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore Co., Ltd. (b, c), and Xinyi Wang (d–m); copyright © ScareCriterion12 (a), copyright © Chen Congzhou (b, c), copyright © Xinyi Wang (d–m), all rights reserved.

The social analysis of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region

Localisation of physical surroundings

Image priority

In the 1920s, capitals symbolically carried the aesthetic style and consumer trends of the time. At that time, the overall land price in Shanghai was comparable to that of London, the cost of the building as a proportion of the total investment was reduced accordingly, and the requirement for the image of the building rose to the forefront (Zheng, 2020). To achieve high commercial profits, the shopping and financial buildings on the Bund in Shanghai attempted to attract footfalls and promote consumption through beautifully decorated capitals. Consequently, the design of the capital became the visual centre of gravity for architectural design and was given high priority in the design process (Moughtin et al. 1999).

On the one hand, the sculptural forms of the Composite order were standardised and strict (Zhao, 2012), making it a representation of high-quality craftsmanship that was only consumed by the upper classes of the time. On the other hand, the Composite order, because of its Western classical formal style and logic, satisfied the aesthetic inclinations of the upper classes for Western classical architecture (Wu, 2008). For example, in Fig. 4 above, the HSBC Bank, the Bank of Taiwan and the General Post Office in Shanghai used capitals with the formal style and logic of classical architecture through a partially localised approach. Public buildings of an authoritative nature opted for Composite capitals with classical Western stylistic features, becoming centres for promoting Composite capitals.

Following frequent interaction with the Jiangsu region in the modern era, the Composite order with its Western classical stylistic features was further promoted and used in commercial buildings in the surrounding cities. As lime is a simpler material to process into moulding than the stone associated with Western stonework (Xie, 2020), the style of the Composite capital is easier to shape. Therefore, with the support of lime moulding, the Western classical features of Composite capitals spread from authoritative public buildings to private commercial buildings.

However, the widespread dissemination of the Composite capital distorted its original form, not just from a purely Western origin but also from its initial hybridisations by incorporating the traditional construction techniques of the surrounding city, ultimately giving the Composite capital diverse forms under the “wholly localised” design approach. For example, in Fig. 4 above, the colourful lotus in the Composite capital of the Lianyungang East Asia Hotel was made from traditional Jiangsu lime and painted red and green after modelling was completed (Liu and Wang, 2008). The Composite capitals thus formed Western classical capitals with a variety of localised characteristics.

Economic saving

In the 1930s, the economic crisis in China gradually peaked. Faced with the actual pressure of the decay of the regional architectural market economy in the Jiangsu region, the owners of modern Jiangsu properties began to seek artistic additions to the architecture that would add value to the property in future sales. As a result, many property developers changed the original Western classical architectural style and form to more economical solutions that would improve their buildings’ façade with lower costs.

For national industrialists, the reduction of ornamentation helped to save construction costs, and the new structure made the building more stable, thus improving the economy of the building in the long run (Dai, 2018). Therefore, it was desirable to choose a capital design symbol adapted to the affordable construction needs of the modern building market in Jiangsu. The commercial buildings along the Bund in Shanghai, for example, that used a purely Western classical order, were made of stone and were complex and time-consuming to carve. However, traditional Chinese architecture had developed over a long period, with expensive, complex figurative decoration and inexpensive, abstract, generalised geometric decoration. Therefore, as the geometric design and the deformed shape of the capital design met the market demands for rapid construction, rapid use and rapid output in the Jiangsu region (Chen, 2017), people widely used abstract modelling art to form a general characteristic of the graphic, orderly, programmatic and abstract decorative art on capitals of this period.

With the development of plastered line footings and decorative cement mortars in residential and small and medium-sized urban buildings, most of the façade decoration of Western-style shop fronts was plastered out, and some decorative techniques such as complex carving of cement processing had reached a very sophisticated level (China Academy of Building Research, 1962). Consequently, some small-scale designs with traditional Chinese geometric motifs appeared in the buildings of Suzhou, Lianyungang, Wuxi and other cities around Jiangsu in modern times. For example, in Fig. 8 above, for the Suzhou Yinlu Building, which has the same corridor shape as the façade of the Shanghai Former Foreign YMCA Building, the Composite column at the entrance is much slimmer in size than the Composite column on the façade of the YMCA. In addition, the recesses in the design of the capitals of the Suzhou Yinlu Building are also partial and do not extend to the whole column, thus showing only the surface of the Western classical column rather than involving an overall replication of the form. This subtle design difference illustrates the architect’s rethinking and precise treatment of classical Western columnar features within the limited construction conditions.

Technology renewal

In the middle to late 1930s, with the standardisation of beam dimensions, frame structures gradually evolved from material convergence to pre-construction calculation as a single unit (Wang and Tsavdaridis, 2022). Advancements in framed beam technology provided crucial technical support for developing the structured capital design. Thanks to the regional development of reinforced concrete frames and steel-framed structural systems, the capital design gradually became free from the restrictions of load-bearing forces and transformed into a decorative element that no longer had to bear the structural load of the façade, giving the Composite capital design more flexibility and freedom of design.

The traditional capital design in the architectural orders placed more emphasis on load-bearing capacity (Zheng et al., 2019), resulting in greater demand for blocks for capital design. However, with the intervention of frames within composite structures, this block was transformed into a design that depended on the building frame. As a result, the Composite capital presented a modern design integrated with the building structure, resulting in a flexible design that could be viewed from different distances in modern Jiangsu architecture. Nanjing and Shanghai, as the political and economic centres of Jiangsu, attracted large amounts of funding and talent, and the construction industry developed rapidly. Therefore, the first structural Composite capital designs emerged in Nanjing and Shanghai, as shown in Figs. 6 and 9 above, and gradually influenced the architectural design of the surrounding cities.

However, constrained by the uneven development of regional building material technology, the transformation of Composite capitals, triggered by technological renewal, manifested as a more varied formal logic in the surrounding cities in the Jiangsu region. In the Suzhou region, for example, the use of mixed reinforced concrete structures was relatively late and limited by the availability of materials, so a structured order is only found in the partial design of the façade at the building entrance (Liu, 2016). For example, in Fig. 9 above, the structured capitals of the commercial buildings facing Xizhong Street in Suzhou are partially presented and decorated on the lintel, aiming to maximise the artistic expression of the Composite capitals in the building façade by integrating them with the structure of the lintel in the most intuitive and applicable way. Therefore, by guaranteeing the economic benefits from the deployment of foreign architecture, Composite capitals became a localised design in the Jiangsu region that compromised wholesale copying for a balance between the benefits of local economic strength and technological development.

Localisation of social relationships

European domination

In the 1920s, the world economic order was mainly in the hands of the sovereign states of Western Europe (Conrad and Sachsenmaier, 2007). As a result, European architects, led by England, France and Germany, dominated modern architectural activities in Jiangsu (Zheng and Zhang, 2017). These British, French and German architects in China, led by Western classical aesthetic ideas, designed many capitals in several official public buildings along the Huangpu River in Shanghai, which were characteristic of the Western classical architectural style. As shown in Fig. 4 above, they benefited from the convenience of the Treaty of Concessions in Shanghai, which enhanced the global discursive power of the British, French and German colonialists through the Western-style images conveyed by the capitals on the columns.

However, in Nantong, Suzhou, Wuxi and Lianyungang, which are far from the jurisdictions of the Western powers, regional building construction was supported mainly by local officials and gentry, resulting in a relatively conservative capital design. For example, in modern China, Nantong City had been under the jurisdiction of the modern Chinese industrialist and politician Jian Zhang (Wu, 2005), so the localisation of Composite capital design in Nantong might have been more profoundly influenced by traditional local building methods. Therefore, although foreign façades in the Nantong area are similar in architectural patterns to those in Shanghai, the foreign façade gates in Nantong further incorporate and continue the formal features of the traditional memorial archway while exposing the practice of inscribing square plaques on the front of the archway (Nantong Jianghai Cultural Research Association, 2018). Based on Zhang’s general requirements for constructing buildings in Nantong city (Luo et al., 2014), the design of the Composite capitals in Nantong shows relatively obvious trends of localisation of the formal style, even though they follow the original formal logic of the classical Western capitals. These localised patterns incorporate many indigenous decorative elements, including patterns such as the peony, scrolling, and Peking cabbage leaf, as seen in Fig. 4. This innovation in design technique not only reveals the superficial understanding of the local artisans in Jiangsu of the original capital design before localisation but also a secondary innovation in the localisation of Composite capital designs based on the influence of the relatively simple social relations in the Nantong area. This deepened the process of localising Western Composite capital designs in the surrounding cities.

American promotion

In the 1930s, with Europe preoccupied by World War II, the proportion of American architects in the construction industry grew rapidly in the Jiangsu region (Zheng, 2017). As a country transplanted from the old continent of Europe, the United States urgently needed to promote its architectural ideas (Ikenberry, 1989). At this time, Composite orders with Art Deco formal style and logic were popular in the United States because innovative forms and simple structures were adaptable to the mass production and construction of buildings. As a result, under the impetus of the Shanghai Concession Treaty, American architects were active in the Bund area, using Shanghai as a centre to promote American architectural styles and leading to a transformation in architectural art in the Jiangsu region.

However, when the geometric style of the capitals on the Mitsui Bank in Fig. 5 was applied to the surrounding city, the formal style and logic of the capital, in turn, developed multiple variations. For example, in Fig. 5 above, the design of the capitals at the entrance to the Yinlu Building (built in 1934), the entrance to the Yixin Store and Dehoucheng Store in Lianyungang (built in 1933) and the entrance to the former residence of Zhang Xiaocheng in Wuxi (built in 1933), incorporate both the Art Deco formal style and various forms of traditional figurative motifs such as the Chinese peony pattern, lotus pattern and fret pattern, showing a different character from that of the Shanghai area. That is, the Shanghai region tended towards a Westernised style of capital design, incorporating many Western artistic elements, while the surrounding cities focus more on preserving and developing local traditional culture, incorporating traditional Chinese elements into their designs to demonstrate the fusion and innovation between local cultural styles and popular artistic trends. This difference reflects the diversity of design thinking and the cultural richness of the Jiangsu region. It also reflects the dialectical consideration of local artisans in the surrounding cities for the design of popular architectural styles.

Chinese resistance

In the mid- to late 1930s, the conflicts created by European and American colonialists by carving up Chinese architectural interests in international social relations provided an opportunity to modernise Chinese architecture. As the world’s anti-fascist movements progressed, the international strategic positions of China, Europe and the United States gradually converged (Zhang, 2004), providing an atmosphere for modernising Chinese architecture and the macroscale development of the international political and strategic landscape. Thus, in the interval between the struggle for world hegemony between the European and American camps, the structured capital created by Chinese architects was an attempt at a new design style that cleverly resolved the contradiction between Chinese traditional architectural forms and modern architectural functions.

At this time, many Chinese architects who studied in Beaux-Arts educational institutions in Europe and the United States saw the new architectural movement emerging in the United States and the social-critical power of its ideological promotion and hoped to be on the same footing as the Western architectural community through the new architectural movement in China. At the same time, Shanghai and Nanjing were home to architects’ firms of international reputation, such as Morrison, G James, Heinrich Becker, Smedley, J. & Co., which provided quality practice opportunities for Chinese architects returning from their studies (Zheng, 2020). Thus, guided by both the theoretical innovation of Beaux-Arts educational institutions and the innovation of national architectural thinking, this group of Chinese architects took the plunge into modern Chinese architecture and promoted the formal generation of structured columns in Shanghai and Nanjing. Structured capitals represent a deliberate and defiant attempt by returning Chinese architects to confront European and American architectural hegemony in China, as it is a complete departure from the previous style of capital design, representing a new design approach fusing Western modern architectural thought with Chinese national architectural culture.

As Professor Zhang (1993), a translator of Marxist-Leninist Agricultural Works in Chinese, once stated, “In the age of imperialism, the disputes within the imperialist camp are deepening and sharpening daily, resulting in the world capitalist front weakening daily, and providing the toiling masses of all countries can break through this front, that is to say, the possibility of socialism winning in one country”, the emergence of the structured capital in the context of colonial and anticolonial movements in modern China had a rational historical basis. Structured capital represents a deliberate attempt by returning Chinese architects to resist European and American architectural cultural hegemony in China, fusing Western modern architectural thought with Chinese national architectural culture. Nevertheless, when this new column design was applied to neighbouring cities in the Jiangsu region, as described above in the design of the commercial façade on Xizhong Street, these new designs were adapted to the actual construction conditions of the local building market, becoming an expression of cultural identity in the local evolution of the structured column design following the availability of local architectural resources.

Localisation of cultural milieus

Inadequate westernisation

At the beginning of the 20th century, under the influence of Westernisation as a social ideology, the Composite capital design had an apparent expressive tendency towards the ideological worship of Westernisation. The modernisation of architecture in the minds of the Chinese was essentially the same as adopting Western classical architectural forms, which was reflected in the form of Composite capitals. This movement gestured to the upper-class demand for the use of relatively pure Western classical orders to express their desire for the aesthetics of European architecture. As the earliest port city in modern China, Shanghai had no other objects of reference other than the constructions of foreign merchants in the concessions. The city’s commercial heritage and the marginalisation of the Confucian culture of the gentry resulted in fewer obstacles to emulating foreign merchants and learning from the West and a deeper degree of learning and imitation of foreign merchants’ construction activities (Gong, 2020). As a result, the construction of buildings by foreign merchants in the Shanghai Foreign Concessions, in pursuit of huge profits and the expression of their financial glory, contributed to the concentration of Western classical columns in Shanghai.

However, as the surrounding cities of the Jiangsu region were not subject to the direct sovereign intervention of the political culture of European and American countries, the morphological design of the capital adopted the aesthetic preferences of traditional architectural construction in modern Jiangsu under the influence of the regional autonomy of the surrounding cities. For example, the capital designs with Chinese plum and scrolling grass patterns in Fig. 4 above and the design of the capitals showing a 1:1 formal logic in Fig. 7 above are cultural artefacts of the inadequate Westernisation of local architects attempting to use Western classical capitals. Therefore, the use of the Western classical order was both an expression of the aesthetic concepts and value judgements of the building users and the public and an expression of the aesthetic interest in maintaining folk architecture, revealing both the mentality of learning from the West and the autonomy of local people to maintain traditional culture. These competing tendencies were one of the reasons why there were many Western classical orders with diverse characteristics in the cities around Jiangsu during the modern period.

Conflicted self-identity

In the 1930s, the image of the geometrical capital, with its Art Deco formal style, as a simple and commonplace motif, gained public approval for modernising architectural design. As China’s economic, commercial and cultural centre at the time, Shanghai attracted a large amount of domestic and foreign capital and talent. This influx of capital and talent injected new ideas and trends into Shanghai’s architectural designs, making the city an important recipient of advanced architectural thinking. By this time, the national industrialists of Jiangsu were generally out of the asset accumulation stage, and modernism became one of the universal factors to be considered in the design of buildings, both in the absorption of modernist styles and in the continuation of cost savings (Dai, 2018). Thus, out of cultural inclinations, architecture with an Art Deco formal style became a symbol sought by the modern upper classes of Jiangsu, who wished to emulate the Western ruling class’s perception of architectural modernity and complete their identification with a modern transformation of their self-image. According to the modernist architect Corbusier (2000), “In an age when mechanised mass production was the dominant society, architectural designs of mathematical or geometric formal order were the most representative of the spirit of the times and were in keeping with the modern development of society.” The geometric Composite capital thus became an expression of the architectural stylistic preference of the upper classes of modern Jiangsu for the progressive ideas of Western modernist architecture.

However, while the modern Jiangsu upper classes were in the process of self-correction through the architectural language of the Western ruling class, they were vulnerable to construction costs and the intervention of regional culture that made it challenging to step outside the old frameworks of self-perception. Consequently, they would find similar architectural symbols to represent their self-identity that contrasted with both Chinese and Western architectural cultures. The eminent British historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee argued that cultural compromise or accommodation was a transitional means of resolving problems in the face of new and heterogeneous cultures (Toynbee, 1987). Thus, the rise of decorative elements with traditional Chinese geometric patterns to stature as a common motif in modern Jiangsu architecture provided a reference for how the modern upper classes followed the transformation of Western architectural styles, which was even more evident in surrounding cities with a relatively conservative cultural environment.

For example, in Fig. 5 above, the capitals in the Yinlu building (built in 1934) in Suzhou, the Yixin Store and Dehoucheng Store Building in Lianyungang (built in 1933), and the former residence of Zhang Xiaocheng (built in 1933) in Wuxi show not only certain characteristics of the Art Deco formal style but also a mixture of traditional Chinese figurative designs. Therefore, the upper classes of these surrounding cities might have thought that imitating the tastes of the upper ranks of the central cities would bring them closer to those elites and enhance their own social status. However, they still found it difficult to break away from their repositioning of traditional aesthetic preferences under the influence of local culture. This principle of cultural compromise or middle ground, embodied in the design of the eclectic capital, became an external symbol of the reconfiguration of the self-perception of the upper classes in the surrounding cities of the Jiangsu region.

Self-transformation

In the 1930s, the Chinese government spearheaded the national rejuvenation movement, which promoted new ideas for Chinese architecture rooted in traditional Confucian values of courtesy, integrity, and self-esteem. Amidst the crisis facing the nation, it was crucial to establish a new national consciousness and mass spirit (Dillon, 2013). Therefore, while Western architectural styles remained prevalent, Chinese architects recognised the importance of reflecting cultural traditions in architecture, which must be rooted in local culture to achieve self-modernisation. The national revival movement, spearheaded by the Nanjing government, contributed to a Chinese architectural philosophy rooted in traditional Confucian values of decency, integrity and self-respect. At the same time, the Shanghai area became a centre for developing a new Chinese architectural style, driven by the Nationalist government’s planning and construction of the Greater Shanghai Project. As a result, many Chinese architects who had returned from their studies were based in Nanjing and Shanghai and were actively involved in the new architectural movement in China. As shown in Fig. 9 above, Lu Qianshou, Xi Fuquan and others, in the Bank of China building in Shanghai and the former National Art Museum in Nanjing, broke with the original 1:10 proportions in the formal logic of the Western classical order and actively explored new directions in design under the moderate fusion of Western modern architectural language and traditional Chinese architectural decorations, forming a free and flexible formal logic for structured orders in the building façade and conveying the national and modern aspects of Chinese architecture.

Architects who had studied and grown up in the local community could also express the deep integration of the spirit of traditional Chinese aesthetics and contemporary aesthetic pursuits through their designs. For example, the entrance colonnade of the Songyun Small Building in Changzhou (built in 1933) and the entrance colonnade of the former residence of Zhang Wentian in Wuxi (built in 1933) both display a structured capital in the traditional style of Jiangsu. The traditional capital of Jiangsu has a delicate and sophisticated decoration, which is made up of small but delicate bite-size relationships between the woodwork and slightly carved patterns as part of the integrity of the capitals (Ji, 2010). Therefore, the structured style in the traditional capitals of Jiangsu emphasises the purity of the capital design by reducing the fussiness of decoration and the complexity of detail, reflecting the Chinese architect’s confidence in and identification with traditional Jiangsu architectural culture.

In fact, in the 1930s, there was already a group of local artisan architects who had studied and grown up locally in Jiangsu and were able to express a deep fusion of the spirit of traditional Chinese aesthetics with contemporary aesthetic pursuits in their designs. For example, Yang Runyu, a famous local architect in Shanghai, received complete training in “drawing” during his studies at Xujiahui Tushanwan Craft School in Shanghai; after graduation, he volunteered to work for the British Alder Foreign Bank in Shanghai, where he was responsible for assisting the lead architect in the design of the building and was actively involved in the construction of the Yuanfang Foreign Bank in Shanghai (built in 1914) (Huang, 2013). As Yang’s experience grew in the 1930s, his breakthroughs in the design of the Yuanfang Foreign Bank were evident in his architectural project, the Chen Chuxiang Residence (built in 1936).

Although the Chen Chuxiang Residence features the same horseshoe-shaped arch and double columns as the Yuanfang Foreign Bank, it incorporates a double corner column shape in its detailed design (Fig. 10). The double corner columns, each supporting beams, are one of the ancient Chinese double columns that can still be found at the heritage site of the Mingtang Peiyong, dating back to the late Western Han (Wang, 1994). The design feature of the double corner columns was intended to redirect the forces from the upper beams at right angles to the corners of the structure and to connect with them (Wu and Li, 2018). Now through the modern language of Western architectural design, the cultural awakening of local architects to the heritage of traditional Chinese aesthetic concepts and the continuation of the inherent cultural aesthetics of traditional Chinese orders was revealed in the Western building façades. Therefore, the design of the double corner columns reflects the discernment of the local architects after their cultural awakening, breaking away from the “extracted” expression of the structured capital and making the localised characteristics of a Chinese order more obvious. It is a presentation that both carries the building load and continues the cultural aesthetics of traditional Chinese architecture.

Fig. 10 [Images not available. See PDF.]

Double corner columns of Chen Chuxiang Residence Building in Shanghai.

The double corner column’s design shape appeared in the Chen Chuxiang Residence Building and Mingtang Peiyong. This figure is not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Reproduced with permission of Tongji University Press (a), The Chinese architect (b), and Cultural Relics (c, d); copyright © Zheng Shiling (a), copyright © Architectural Society of China (b), copyright © Tao Fu (c, d), all rights reserved.

Conclusion

The paper conducted thematic research on the localisation of Composite capital designs in modern Jiangsu, China, based on formal analysis and social analysis. The analysis included both the evolutionary characteristics of different phases (time) and urbanity (space), establishing a correlation between the evolution of Composite capital design in form and social factors in the Jiangsu region.

Regarding the evolutionary characteristics of the different phases (time), the relatively consistent social environment of urban architecture in the Jiangsu region created a common pattern of localisation for the design of the Composite capital. For example, the changes in physical surroundings included elements of prioritising images, establishing economic savings and developing technology renewal; the changes in social relationships included new elements of European domination, the promotion of American interests and Chinese resistance. The changes in the cultural milieu traversed periods of inadequate westernisation among local architects, conflicted self-identity among elites, and the ideological promotion of self-transformation. These were collectively the most prominent social factors influencing the design of Composite capitals in the Jiangsu region. Changes in the formal style were twofold: from the retro Western style to an abstract geometric style and then a structured style; the changes in the formal logic that stratified different registers as equal height eventually categorised them as equal height and then developed a new structural order. This relatively synchronous evolutionary pattern reflects the common trend of urban architecture in Jiangsu in the face of foreign architectural influence.

Regarding the evolutionary patterns of urbanity (space), the relatively different social environments of the central cities of the Jiangsu region (such as Shanghai and Nanjing) and the surrounding cities (such as Suzhou, Zhenjiang, Wuxi, Changzhou, Nantong, Lianyungang and Suqian) have shaped the characteristic patterns involved in localising capital designs. The central cities of Jiangsu, with their relatively developed physical surroundings, fairly complex social relationships and relatively open cultural milieus, created an environment for a less localised capital design. In contrast, the surrounding cities of Jiangsu, with their relatively less developed physical surroundings, fairly straightforward social relationships, and relatively conservative cultural milieus, created an environment for diverse pathways to localising capital design.

This paper demonstrates a systematic approach to studying architectural localisation by combining formal analysis with social analysis. At the same time, this paper clarifies the initial differences in localisation of the capitals between the central cities and surrounding cities in Jiangsu, establishing a basic framework for the subsequent in-depth study of localisation patterns for architecture in the Jiangsu region. However, future research needs to further explore in depth the degree of localisation of capital design, which may intervene in the form of quantitative analyses. By quantifying the degree of localisation of capital design, the pathways of localisation in the capital designs from the central cities and surrounding cities in Jiangsu can be more deeply and systematically understood.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of the National Social Science Foundation of China in 2022 for the major project of art “Research on the image design of Chinese cities” (22ZD18), the Philosophy and Social Science Research in Jiangsu Universities in 2018 for the key project “Study on the localisation and genealogy of foreign architectural patterns in Jiangsu region during modern times of China” (2018SJZDI146), the Jiangsu Postgraduate Scientific Research Plan Innovation Project in 2022 “Research on the localisation path of foreign architecture in Jiangnan region during modern times of China” (KYCX22_2294), and the China Scholarship Council ([2002]804-202206790008).

Author contributions

Writing and revising the paper, XW; Oversight and leadership responsibility for the research, WG; Funding acquisition, XW and WG; Development design of methodology, ZY; Structure reviewing of the paper, XL; Data curation of the research, BZ.

Data availability

Our custom data are available in the Open Science Framework repository at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/N9XZC.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

The authors declare that this article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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