Adaptive Modern and Speculative Urbanism: The Architecture of the Credit Foncier d'Extreme-Orient (C.F.E.O.) in Hong Kong and China's Treaty Ports, 1907-1959

Architectural practices experienced a flourishing period of development in the treaty ports of China during the early twentieth century. Inspired by new technologies, materials, and a desire for progress, these practices were immense forces in shaping modern architecture in the Chinese urban landscape. Their impacts upon urbanism and detailed accounts of individual architects are however rarely discussed, or are often overshadowed by and limited to more renowned cases. The Credit Foncier d'Extreme-Orient (C.F.E.O.) was such an overlooked example: founded in Tianjin in 1907 as a land investment and development company with French and Belgian investment in exploiting land purchased from Catholic (Lazarist) missionaries in the French concession, it followed on to establish branches and architectural offices in Shanghai in 1909, and in Hankou and Hong Kong in 1911. How did the C.F.E.O., in the context of the many foreign players in China, bring an adaptive modern approach in architecture amidst speculative activity to Chinese cities in the early twentieth century? How did their branch offices and architects in the treaty ports negotiate with the agenda of their company as a developer in the respective cities? Based on extensive archival research, analysis of maps, architectural drawings, and interviews with descendants of C.F.E.O. architects, this investigation sets out to analyse the C.F.E.O.'s architectural development that transformed China's urban landscape. By tracing the personal drawings, writings and own designs of the architects, this research reveals that certain C.F.E.O. architects combined Western modern comfort, technology and spaces with Chinese elements and lifestyle, resulting at times in a "semi-foreign" approach in their own words. These aspects are reflected in the architecture particularly of a Belgian architect, Gabriel Van Wylick, arguably his unique regional response to an adaptive modern architecture in the Chinese cities. This research links the C.F.E.O.'s architecture in the treaty ports of China with modern architecture in Europe in the first decades of the twentieth century. Belgium, in this period of time, was experiencing a struggle to balance between a rich historical context and as a colonial power with prevailing debates in modern architecture. This context, together with local societal and market-driven issues, explains the influences upon the decision-making process of the C.F.E.O. that resulted in unique urban typologies in their residential designs in Hong Kong during 1920s and 1930s. This research will act as a bridge to understand the framework of architectural practices in early twentieth century China, with a focus on a particular Belgian-French land investment company with the function of an architectural practice, and its contribution towards modernist architecture in their urban manifestations in the Chinese cities.