私立南开大学八里台校区规划总图新探——兼论大学规划的美式近代化内涵

Campus Beautification: Reexamining the First Master Plan ofNankai University and the Origins of Comprehensive Plan ofAmerican Universities in Early 20th

关键词:  风景园林  校园规划  中国近代建筑  南开大学  关颂声

Key words:  landscape architecture  campus planning  modern Chinese architecture  Nankai University  Kwan Sung Sing

摘要:

以近代私立南开大学八里台校区1921年原初总体规划案的发掘为基础，缕析建筑师关颂声、张伯苓等于南开校方、清华学校、美国哥伦比亚大学师范学 院间的学缘及业缘关联，勾勒南大方面借鉴同期美国大学的建设经验理念制定自身校园总体规划案的历史图景。以“大学本体观念”“公共空间目标”“建筑知识 体系”3条历史线索为阐释框架，缕析和揭示同期美式大学校园总体规划的内涵特征，并以南大为例，审视近代美式大学校园总体规划作为一种实践潮流、知识工 具、思维理念而为中国近代知识精英所学习移植和融通内化的历史过程

Abstract:

This study reconstructs the original 1921 general plan for the Balitai campus of the Private Nankai University, a significant yet underexamined case in modern Chinese university planning history. Through archival investigation, this paper confirms the plan's existence, delineates its features, and traces the intellectual and professional networks that facilitated its creation. The central argument posits that the Nankai plan represented a conscious appropriation of contemporary American university planning paradigms, reflecting a process of transplantation and indigenization by Chinese educational elites. The research compares the unrealized 1921 comprehensive plan - designed by renowned Chinese architect Guan Songsheng of Kwan, Chu & Yang Architects - with the campus as actually developed before 1937. While only partially realized, the original plan's underlying logic - characterized by formal axial layout, functional zoning, and integrated landscape features - persisted in the campus core. The study investigates connections between Guan, the Nankai administration led by President Zhang Boling, and American institutions. Guan's Tsinghua College alumni network and his early professional success with the Lijian Alkali Company, whose founders were Nankai board members, established crucial trust. Furthermore, Zhang Boling's 1917-1918 study tour at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Nankai's familiarity with campus development at American-influenced Tsinghua and Lingnan University created a receptive environment for American planning concepts. To provide an analytical framework, the paper identifies three intertwined historical threads defining American university campus planning between the 1890s and 1920s. First, the evolving American conception of the "university" as a comprehensive, large-scale institution integrating teaching, research, and community life necessitated physical expansion. Second, the City Beautification Movement promoted comprehensive planning as a means to create morally uplifting civic environments, a principle applied to campuses conceived as "micro-cities". Third, the ascendancy of the Beaux-Arts architectural model, emphasizing formal "composition" and the primacy of the architectural plan, provided the intellectual toolkit for designing integrated building groups. These threads coalesced into a practice where the "general plan" became not just a construction blueprint, but a fundraising tool and conceptual framework for imagining institutional futures. Applying this framework to Guan's 1921 plan reveals a clear embodiment of American principles. The formal layout, with axial organization and emphasis on dramatic "vista" perspectives, directly echoes contemporary American campus designs. Guan skillfully adapted these formal ideas to Nankai's irregular and constrained site, demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of Beaux-Arts planning logic. Critically, the study uncovers distinct indigenization: the central formal water basin was intentionally designated as a "Lily Pond", transforming a Western design feature into a Chinese cultural landscape by invoking Confucian lotus symbolism treasured by Yan Xiu, Nankai's "founder". This fusion represents a conscious blending of Western planning forms with Chinese cultural values. Furthermore, the ambitious scale of Guan's plan - envisioning a university for over a thousand students, far exceeding actual enrollment - strategically served as a compelling visual argument to inspire donor confidence, a recognized function of American-style master plans in fundraising. In conclusion, Nankai's Balitai campus plan of 1921 demonstrates how the American model of university general planning - as cohesive practice integrating new institutional ideals, social reform aesthetics, and professional design methodology - was actively studied and selectively integrated by modern Chinese educators and architects. The resulting plan was a creative synthesis: an Americanized framework for modernity consciously adapted to local conditions and cultural sensibilities. This study expands the historiography of modern Chinese university planning beyond missionary or government projects, illuminating the crucial role of private Chinese initiative and the complex trans-Pacific flow of architectural and educational ideas. The legacy of this original plan continues to inform the cultural landscape and spatial heritage of Nankai University today.