ABSTRACT
With a comprehensive understanding of China in a spatial-temporal framework, this chapter outlines the development of building technology in the Republican period, in the area of building material, structure frame, building structure, construction, and equipment (1911–49). The chapter identifies the major characters of the development and discusses its historical impact. It is argued that regional disparity in early industrialization and urban–rural polarization formed a social-technological background for China’s construction development then and thereafter. The chapter identifies complexity and plurality in the use of building technology in China as evolved over time and as distributed unevenly across a large country.
