China Papers: The architecture archives of the building company Crédit Foncier d’Extrême-Orient (1907-59)

The Far East Land Property Credit Company (CFEO Crédit Foncier d’Extrême-Orient) is a Franco-Belgian company that specializes in mortgages and infrastructure financing and modern technology, but also in the construction and maintenance of buildings. From 1907 to 1959, about thirty mainly Belgian and French architects worked for this company in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. After introducing problems and issues relating to the archives of Belgian companies in general and Belgian companies in China more specifically, the article will present an outline of the history of the CFEO and its archives before lingering on specific architect’s firms, architects, projects and constructions. In addition to the archives of the company’s headquarters in Brussels, additional collections (architects, clients, municipal) and monumental sources (considered to be patrimony more or less) are considered. The potential and limits of the CFEO archives for the architectural historian serve as a guiding line for a critical approach.