Luke Him Sau/Lu Qianshou (19041991) is best known internationally and in China as the architect of the iconic Bank of China Headquarters in Shanghai. One of the first Chinese students to be trained at the Architectural Association in London in the late 1920s, Lukes long, prolific and highly successful career in China and Hong Kong offers unique insights into an extraordinary period of Chinese political turbulence that scuppered the professional prospects and historical recognition of so many of his colleagues.
Global interest in China has risen exponentially in recent times, creating an appetite for the countrys history and culture. This book satiates this by providing a highly engaging and visual account of Chinas 20th-century architecture through the lens of one of the countrys most distinguished yet overlooked designers. It features over 250 new colour photographs by Edward Denison of Lukes buildings and original archive material.
The book charts Lukes life and work, commencing with his childhood in colonial Hong Kong and his apprenticeship with a British architectural firm before focusing on his education at the Architectural Association (192730). In London, Luke was offered the post of Head of the Architecture Department at the newly established Bank of China, where IM Peis father was a senior figure. Luke spent the next seven years in the inimitable city of Shanghai designing buildings all over China for the Bank before the Japanese invasion in 1937 forced him, and countless others, to flee to the proxy wartime capital of Chongqing. In 1945 he returned to Shanghai where he formed a partnership with four other Chinese graduates of UK universities; but civil war (between the Communists and Nationalists) once again caused him and others to uproot in 1949. Initially intent on fleeing with the Nationalists to Taiwan, Luke was almost convinced to stay in Communist China but decided finally to move to Hong Kong. There, for the third time in his life, he had to establish his career all over again. Despite many challenges, he eventually prospered, becoming a pioneer in the design of private residences, schools, hospitals, chapels and public housing.
Edward Denison is an architectural historian, writer and photographer. He has a PhD in architectural history and is the author ofBuilding Shanghai,Modernism in China andThe Life of the British Home (all published by Wiley). Edward has worked in China for many years and is now based in London where he is a research associate and teaches architectural history and theory at the Bartlett School of Architecture (University College London).
Guang Yu Ren is an architect, researcher and independent consultant born and trained in China and now based in London. She has researched and published several books on architecture includingBuilding Shanghai,Modernism in China andThe Life of the British Home.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6
A NOTE ON SPELLING 7
INTRODUCTION 8
A Mirror to China
CHAPTER 1 12
A Complicated Birth
CHAPTER 2 36
London Calling
CHAPTER 3 86
Bank Building
CHAPTER 4 178
Architectural Retreat
CHAPTER 5 208
Hong Kong
CHAPTER 6 264
Lukes Legacy
LIST OF WORKS 270
SELECTED READING 276
INDEX 282
PICTURE CREDITS 288
