Architecture Of Pre-Modern Christian Hospital In Shanxi

There were many pre-modern Christian Hospitals in Shanxi.This paper is attempt to initiatory explore the localization design of the Hospital architecture by investigate the characteristics of the location, overall arrangement of the Hospital, and the technique of the Hospital architectures.When the Christian professionals working appeared, Christian Hospital as a new kind of architecture for doing missionary work came forth in Shanxi. During the primary stage, the first pre-modern Christian Hospital in Shanxi established in Tai-Yuan-Fu in 1880. Have been accompanying with the developing of the Christian professionals working , the amount of the Christian Hospitals grow up. These Christian Hospitals concentrated the middle part of the province along with the Fenhe River, rare in south and north mountainous area. At the local primary stage, clinic was established; when the local missionary work was developed, or it was developing fast, the architecture of the hospital would be set up. But newly-built Christian Hospital never appeared after 1927. During the course of wars, city developing, hospital rebuilding and enlarging, or modifying its property right, most of the pre-modern Christian Hospital architectures and correlative informations were destroyed, lost, or burned up. Lukyly, we found out a little objective and correlative informations, the investigation could be going on.This paper researches into the pre-modern Christian Hospitals in Shanxi, start with a detailed analysis of the Tai-yuan-Fu Hospital and Fenyang Hospital as typical examples, which set up the hospital building in flourishing period of missionary work in pre-modern Shanxi. The location, gardening overall arrangement, architecture, structural technique, detail of the Christian Hospitals are all distinctive. Based on the preliminary conclusion, a whole characteristic of pre-modern Christian Hospitals in Shanxi is to be discussed.In my opinion, pre-modern Christian Hospitals were timed the pre-modern time.As important department of the missionary work, the establishment and location of these Christian Hospitals were closely relatived with the development of the local missionary work in Shanxi. The design of Christian Hospitals were localized.They were gardening overall arrangement; build up on abnormity plan; mixed Chinese traditional features and foreign features on building face; no armoured concrete used in structural technique but brick wall bearing the wood roofing, and bring in joist frame and it's principle; adopted British brickwork; mixing Chinese traditional roof and foreign decoration in detail, design of minutia were full of loving care for.It can be said that artchitecture of pre-modern Shanxi Christian Hospitals were Chinese traditional artchitecture which were pregnant with modernistic; or they were modernistic artchitecture which were influenced by Chinese traditional culture.Buildings of pre-modern Shanxi Christian Hospitals were regional architectures. They introduced advanced structural technique and it's principle to Shanxi civil engineering, improved on traditional structural technique and it's principle going on for thousands of years. When they were built up, kinds of great brick wall architectures present themself on the Shanxi ground. They were the important part of Shanxi architecture history.