1950 niándài chūqí “rénmín rìbào” zhōng jiànzhú huàtí shì xī – yǐ “xiān shèjì hòu shīgōng” huàtí wéi lì [Research on Architectural Topics in "People's Daily" in the 1950s: The Discourse of “Design before Construction”]

In the early days of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the central committee started the “Three-Antis Campaign”, of which the fighting against “Waste in Architecture”, one of the movement' s aims, had been a major concern of the society. During this period, when specialized architectural publications were almost absent, People’s Daily provided a platform for all spheres of society to discuss architecture and construction-related topics. During the “Three-Antis Campaign”, the discussion in People's Daily of the question concerning “design before before construction” increased the professional identity of architects as a design occupation in China. It also promoted the proposal of interim regulations on infrastructure construction, making the Chinese architecture industry gradually move towards standardization and industrialization. Based on records and reports on the discussion of “design before construction” in People’s Daily in the early 1950s, this paper argues that the architectural criticism in People’s Daily deeply affected the development of the Chinese architectural system of practice and theory in the early years or the PRC by framing the discourse around construction and management strategies.