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Asmara, the capital of the small East African country of Eritrea,
bordering the Red Sea, is one of the most important and exciting
architectural 'discoveries' of recent years. Built almost entirely
in the 1930s by the Italians, who transformed it into a hotbed of
radical architectural innovation, Asmara has one of the highest
concentrations of Modernist architecture anywhere in the world.
This superb building-by-building survey, illustrated with
previously unpublished archival material and specially commissioned
photography, chronicles the colonial past and remarkable survival
of a city that has evocatively been described as "the Miami of
Africa."
Luke Him Sau/Lu Qianshou (1904 1991) 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, Luke s 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 country s history and culture. This
book satiates this by providing a highly engaging and visual
account of China s 20th-century architecture through the lens of
one of the country s most distinguished yet overlooked designers.
It features over 250 new colour photographs by Edward Denison of
Luke s buildings and original archive material. The book charts
Luke s 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
(1927 30). In London, Luke was offered the post of Head of the
Architecture Department at the newly established Bank of China,
where IM Pei s 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.
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