Construction technology transfer in Shanghai in the nineteenth to twentieth centuries

Shanghai, in the early twentieth century, was a big construction site and attractive experimental field for Western designers. Because of its significant location and international role, the construction activities contributed to some landmarks of the world architecture history. In addition to famous architects, local builders played a crucial role in the realization of these edifices. Introduction and application of new technologies, digestion and diffusion of new knowledge, transportation and production of new materials, the magnification of pre-existing local concerns while dealing with the geological problem, as well as the training of the workers was already solved by the natives at this time. Based on a fresh study of the documents in the Historical Archives of Shanghai Library and in the Shanghai Local Chronicles, this particular context is here used as a case-study that aims at providing new insights on the shifts from traditional construction practices to industrialized dynamics. This paper reveals that the construction technology transfer that happened between Europe and East Asia in Shanghai in the nineteenth to twentieth centuries in a sense was a process of local desire to extract knowledge and technologies from numerous overseas sources for the construction of “Modern Shanghai”.