| The National Southwest Associated University(NSAU or AU)is a marvel in the history of education in China,having become a bastion of chaos that sheltered China’s intellectuals during the beacons and smoke of the war against Japan.The staff and students of AU sang and sang under difficult physical conditions and achieved more than they had in peacetime.More than 70 years after its dissolution,the university is still being studied by numerous scholars,and between1938 and 1946,three universities-Tsinghua University,Peking University and Nankai University-came to Kunming to collaborate in the establishment of the National Southwest United University.Due to a variety of factors,the university has operated in Kunming,Mengzi and Xuyong,leaving behind many buildings on these three campuses,which are valuable material relics of the spirit of the university.This paper compares the background and process of the formation of the University by reviewing the archives,books,essays and documentaries of the University,and restores the process of the formation of the University.The buildings used by the University during the period of its operation are selected,including the teaching buildings,student and teacher residences and research institutes used by the University during the period of its operation in Kun,and a list of the existing buildings is obtained through field research and mapping,presenting the distribution and status of the University’s buildings in the form of data.The buildings are categorised by the way they were used by the University,and are studied at three levels: macroscopic distribution,mesoscopic architectural style and form,and microscopic material decoration.The commonalities and differences between the campuses are summarised by analysing and comparing the characteristics of the self-built campuses and the chosen campuses.Then,an architectural analysis is carried out according to functional types to distil the morphological characteristics of the buildings and to explore the characteristics of the use and behaviour of AU students and staff in these spaces.Finally,based on the analysis of the AU campus and buildings,the impact of AU buildings in terms of history and urban development is summarised,the value of the connotations of the buildings is analysed,and the spiritual and cultural significance of the buildings is summarised.This provides some supporting evidence and ideas for the conservation and development of the AU buildings. |
