A Primary Research On The History Of Modern Church Architecture In Shanghai

Influenced by varied forces and social elements, Shanghai has graduallydeveloped herself from a traditional Chinese town to a modem metropolitan city.Apart from the forces of trade and commerce, another force, namely the influence ofthe Christian church, played an important role in the urbanization of the city ofmodern Shanghai.Targeting the downtown Shanghai church architecture during the period of 1843till 1949, this paper divides its development into two phases: preliminary period(1843-1899) and prosperous period (1900-1919). It studies different types of thechurch architecture and makes the in-depth research on the features of the churchforces exerting on the architecture in both periods, as well as the influence that thechurch architecture created on the shaping of the city. Meanwhile, from theperspective of the history of the church architecture, the paper reflects on theurbanization of Shanghai, thus further emphasizes the considerable influence broughtabout by the communalization of the church buildings and the church architectureitself.