Nanjing is a great city! This architecture geek deserves credit for this

In the architectural world, he is on par with Liang Sicheng and is known as "Yang in the South and Liang in the North". He is Yang Tingbao, an outstanding Chinese architect and architectural educator, and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He was committed to integrating national style with modernist architecture and was one of the founders of modern Chinese architectural disciplines and architectural education.

Yang Tingbao

Yang Tingbao's former residence, Chengxian Xiaozhu, is hidden in the streets of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. The main building is simple in shape, and there are stone railings and wells in the courtyard, which gives it a sense of life. Yang Tingbao lived here for 36 years until his death (Photo source: Knowledge is Power magazine)

The leader in Nanjing's construction industry

In 1927, 26-year-old Yang Tingbao returned to his motherland and was invited to join the then famous Jitai Engineering Company. Jitai Engineering Company's business in the south was centered in Nanjing. Since then, Yang Tingbao has been closely connected with the city of Nanjing.

Nanjing Central Hospital (now the ward building of Nanjing General Hospital of Nanjing Military Region), Nanjing Central Stadium (the largest stadium in China during the Republic of China period), National Purple Mountain Observatory Headquarters (the predecessor of Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the first modern astronomical research institution established by China), Nanjing Yuhuatai Martyrs Memorial Hall (the only revolutionary memorial hall in China that displays the deeds of Yuhuatai heroes).......

Is Nanjing a city or not? Let Yang Tingbao show us!

Nanjing Yuhuatai Martyrs Memorial Hall. Yang Tingbao died before he could complete the entire design, and his student Qi Kang (now an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) took over his work (Photo source: "Knowledge is Power" magazine)

Yang Tingbao skillfully combines traditional Chinese architectural style with Western classical design concepts .

Take the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Music Platform as an example. This building combines Chinese and Western styles, fully absorbing the architectural features of ancient Greek open-air theaters. At the same time, it uses the expression form of classical gardens in the Jiangnan region in the details of the screen wall, using elements such as cloud patterns and dragon heads, highlighting the traditional Chinese charm everywhere.

The Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Music Stage was also Yang Tingbao’s favorite work. In his later years, he often came here for walks.

Nanjing Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Music Station (Photo source: Knowledge is Power magazine)

Repair and educate people at the same time

Yang Tingbao left his own architectural mark in various cities and also participated in the restoration of ancient buildings.

In the 1930s, commissioned by relevant parties, Yang Tingbao, together with other technical consultants and construction craftsmen, presided over the renovation of Beijing's ancient buildings such as the Huanqiu Altar of the Temple of Heaven, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Imperial Vault of Heaven, the Southeast Corner Tower of Beijing City, and the Ziguang Pavilion of Zhongnanhai.

With his concern and passion for ancient buildings, he maintained the appearance of these buildings with his profound professional foundation, solid basic skills and careful surveying and investigation, and made great contributions to the protection of traditional Chinese architecture.

Yang Tingbao not only achieved remarkable results in the field of architecture, but also devoted his energy to the cause of architectural education since the 1950s and 1960s, and trained a large number of outstanding talents for China's construction industry.

Throughout Yang Tingbao's life, he designed as many as a hundred projects. Together with his contemporaries, he broke the monopoly of foreign architects on China's architectural design industry, reversed the situation in which all large-scale Chinese projects were dominated by Western architects, and made great contributions to China's modernization transformation.