Restoration of the model of the China House

When architect Alexandre Marcel was commissioned to design and build the China House, as well as its annex and the Japanese Tower, he first asked Shanghai craftsmen to make a 1/10 scale model. The pieces of this detailed wooden model were later found in the annex, rather by chance, and stored at the Art & History Museum where is was painstakingly restored from November 2024 to July 2025 thanks to a collaboration between the Art & History Museum, the King Baudouin Foundation and the Jonckheere Fund.

Originally made in Shanghai in the workshops of Tushanwan (formerly Romanized as T’ou-Sè-Wè) in 1903-1904 under the direction of Aloysus Beck and later preserved by the Art & History Museum. Restoration by Sofie Gonnissen, Thibaut De Coster, Charly Kleinermann, Anna de Callataÿ and Thomas S. at the Art & History Museum. With the collaboration of Gwenaëlle de Spa (digitization and 3D printing) and architect Nicolas Godelet.

Thanks to the Consul General of Belgium in Shanghai, Mr. Bruno Jans, the model makers in charge of the restoration obtained old photographs and a drawing from the Tushanwan album which was originally intended for King Leopold II and kept in Shanghai. This allowed them to faithfully reconstruct the model and scan the missing elements in order to 3D print them.

Carved wood, 3D printed elements of wood filaments, resin elements obtained by casting, 3,80 m (width), 1,80 m (height), 80 cm (depth), Collection of the non-profit organisation China House and the Silk Road Countries