Revisiting the ‘National Public and Private Building Standard Drawings’ of 1940s China and their postwar urban and rural construction implications

The National Public and Private Building Standard Drawings, a compilation of government-issued standard drawings for public and private buildings, was promoted by the Republic of China in 1946 after WWII (1939–1945). These documents considerably influenced postwar urban public works restoration and construction. However, scholarly research on the impact of these technical drawings on postwar reconstruction remains scarce. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how these standard drawings were produced and their impacts on the postwar urban and rural construction practices. Exploring social demands, it discusses three architectural perspectives: the classification criteria for building types, standards within the atlas text and, more importantly, the actual application of the atlas in the contexts of policy. Results ultimately contribute to a more comprehensive and systematic understanding of modern urban and rural construction planning activities that enrich the theoretical connotations of modern Chinese architectural atlases in augmenting the history of postwar urban construction and elucidating the operation and control modalities of modern government construction management functional agencies. The findings hold certain referential value for the practical renewal and renovation of historical buildings and the design of contemporary administrative office buildings.