Since the beginning of 1960s, to carry through China’s foreign policy, the “Two Institutes” began to undertake foreign aid projects. The East China Institute undertook the design of sports centers in Mali, Garner, Tanzania, Congo and Benin, the new government building complex in Zambia, Kemolong Hall and embassies of Romania, Bulgaria and Czech. The Shanghai Institute undertook the design of foreign aid such as Friendship Hall of Sudan, Sudan Children's Hospital, Vietnam Thanh Hoa Hospital, embassies of Brazil, Chile and Sudan. Among those, the Friendship Hall of Sudan became one of the UN recognized international meeting sites and the project won the National Excellent Design Award.
The expert group sent to Nigeria by the Shanghai Institute and Mr. Geng Biao, then Vice Premier of the State Council, 1978
In the fall of 1964, I joined the aid project of Tanzania Police Academy. Mr. Ni Tianzeng was in the design team with me. It totally took us over 20 hours to fly to Tanzania from China and we had to transfer flight for four times in the trip. On the scene overseas, we designed schemes, surveyed topography and negotiated together. All of Mr. Ni’s designs were practical with succinct shapes and focused on practical functions. He was also good at drawing perspective charts. We worked together for about 5 months in all.
——Mr. Fang Jianquan
In 1976, after the “Gang of Four” was gone, the Shanghai Institute assumed the project design of Egyptian Convention Center. I took part in the whole process from 1976 to 1989. I was affected by Director Chen Zhi’s idea- “The architectural style should be ‘traditional and new’, that is, while inheriting the tradition, the designer must have innovative spirit and make the style modern”. We combined the style with an ancient Egyptian civilization and culture flavor with the modern spirit. Finally, the result was satisfactory in both shape and function of the building. We must cherish legacy of the previous generation and historical opportunities of our generation.
Quoted from Mr. Teng Dian’s speech at the Symposium on the Past 60 Years
