ABSTRACT
The design institute was the only organizational form of design practice in the Mao period and remains a dominant force in China today. Institutionally, it was related to the danwei system in the socialist planned economy with an administration–production–welfare synthesis; historically, it was the site on which events and developments for the design production of architecture in Mao’s China (1950s–70s) took place. This chapter provides an introduction to the institute. It describes the emergence, typology, organization, working methods, and evolution of the institute, with a special focus on the 1950s, the first decade of the republic, when the system was established.
