Liang Sicheng The National Style
2 min readWhen Liang was later given the responsibility to develop a national style of architecture by the Communist Party of China，his intention was to pass on the essence of Chinese architecture.Thisspecific“essence”was considered to be the“large roof”，the temple-
style concave curved roofs and overhanging eaves to denote theirChinese origin.Though he was severely criticized for this during political campaigns，a wave of the National Style had already spread out and even continued to be influential after one or two decades.
Famous examples include China Fine Arts Gallery（1959），National Library of China（1987），Beijing west railway station（1996），which are all typical of their large roofs.
Beloved Educator
Liang was also respected by his colleagues and students as a humorous，dedicated and responsible teacher.He founded two design programs and endeavored to integrate modernity and best practice into design education.He believed that architecture should be seen in thecontext of its greater physical environment and that students should learn an array of subjects in an integrated manner.
Urban planning of Beijing
With such a deep respect for tradition and the nation’s cultural heritage，Liang came up with his biggest ambition:preserving Old Beijing in its entirety.Under the Communist government，he was named Vice-Director of the Beijing City Planning Commission.In his early recommendations for transforming Beijing into the new nationalcapital，he insisted that the city should be a political and culturalcenter，not an industrial zone.He later put forward a proposal that a new administrative center for government buildings with a north-south axis be established west of the Forbidden City，far away from the Inner City.He also advocated that the city walls and gates be preserved.He even published an article entitled“Beijing:a Masterpiece of Urban Planning”，hoping to win the support of the general public.Very regretfully，these dreams of Liang were not realized，ending only in frustration.Despite his best efforts，most of Beijing’s ancient gates and city walls had been torn down，depriving the world of a spectacular example of cultural history.
