Another Fusuijing Building: collective memory, reconstruction, and the echoes of the past

This thesis primarily discusses buildings as they exist within collective memories rather than as physical structures grounded in historical facts. From 1958 to 1960, amidst nationwide debates on "What is communist architecture and lifestyle?", the Fusuijing Building, designed by Changru Zhang, was constructed in the northwest corner of Beijing, China. Today, it is also referred to as the "Communist Mansion", a designation that partially obscures its multifaceted history. This research attempts to switch the microphone of the mainstream narrative embedded on the spatial and political scale to the local memories and social voices that are often overlooked. Starting from the perspective of the original residents of the Fusuijing Building, it employs collective memory as a methodological framework. Based on the original design archives of the Fusuijing Building, it translates the collective memories of the original residents into architectural language and conducts imaginative speculative architectural drawings. This process reconstructs a "disappeared" yet enduring social vision within the Fusuijing Building, reimagining it through the lens of collective memory. My research will provide a bottom-up vision for the investigation and renovation of historical buildings in Chinese cities.