As early as in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the western part of Guangzhou was a place where Chinese and foreign merchants gathered. In the area of Fanfang, many merchants from different countries "lined up in the market" and formed a prosperous commercial and residential area. From that time on, a free market and trade system was introduced, and the complete service industry also showed a colorful appearance, and the tradition of the city's commercial culture is quite old.
Through the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Guangzhou city's import trade continued to develop, and many exotic cultures continued to infiltrate. As the local South Vietnamese culture was able to absorb the Han culture that had moved into the city from the Central Plains, the resulting Guangfu cultural form was also renewed and developed itself. The culture of the Central Plains and the Jiangnan culture also influenced the culture and customs of the Guangfu area and Guangzhou with the increase of exchanges of people. At this time, the culture of the people also tends to be multi-layered and diversified under the effect of economic development and exchanges with the outside world, reflecting the open-ended character of Guangzhou's commercial society.
Guangzhou in the Ming Dynasty was still a very developed commercial city, rich in commodities, densely populated, the south of the city, the west of the city is the most prosperous place, the city's many rich merchants live here, thus forming a distinctive urban commercial and residential mixed settlements.
Qing Dynasty - Qianlong twenty-second year (1757), the Qing government closed the customs of Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiang, leaving only Guangzhou, Guangdong Customs for foreign trade, that is, the implementation of the "one mouth of commerce", and entrusted the establishment of the "thirteen lines" in the twenty-fifth year of the Kangxi period (1686) to assist in the management of Guangzhou Customs of the foreign trade affairs. This undoubtedly greatly stimulated the development of trade in Guangzhou, and added impetus to the development of the urban economy and spatial environment of the location of the Thirteen Houses and neighboring areas. Over the next 150 years, Guangzhou's unique position in commerce and trade was highly developed, and foreign exchanges became more and more frequent. At this time, new achievements in advanced western astronomy, mathematics, geography, artillery, physics, medicine, architecture, fine arts and so on were brought to China by western missionaries, and Guangzhou was the first stop for most of these disciplines to land in China, further enriching the social culture of Guangzhou. The accompanying influx of Western ideology also opened people's eyes.
The development of the Xiguan area in Guangzhou is related to these historical backgrounds. In the 20th century, with the economic development, the city expanded and the roads were widened. From the middle of the Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the People's Republic of China, the construction of the urban area gradually broke through the original scope of the old city, and opened up to the east and west, and on February 15, 1921, the Provisional Regulations of Guangzhou City were published and implemented, which made the modern construction of Guangzhou City enter a new stage of development, and also made the original urban structure of Guangzhou undergo a fundamental change.
The Xiguan area of Guangzhou refers to the area west of Renmin Road, north of Liu23 Road and east of Liwan Lake in the present-day Liwan District.
During the Tongzhi and Guangxu periods of the Qing Dynasty, the area to the west of the city, outside the Taiping Gate, was called "Xiguan". At that time, the area was still mostly rural. As the inner city has been unable to meet the demand for space for commercial development, the middle decades of the Guangxu era, gentlemen, tycoons, merchants and businessmen have been outside the West Gate of Taiping Street to Pantang, a large area of land to build homes, which should be the beginning of large-scale construction of Xiguan. On the one hand, this is a gentle hilly area, on the other hand, and adjacent to the 18th, 13 lines of the commercial district and Sha Mian area, the construction of residential areas to facilitate business and handicraft processing, production. In addition, the natural environment is beautiful, rich in produce, more suitable for living in a good place.
Xiguan area due to the import and export trade and commercial development with the mainland, handicrafts, commercial population continues to increase, the demand for residential construction also increased dramatically, and then formed a lot of more complete "characteristics of the residential" area, such as opened in 1862 ~ 1882 BaoHua District, DuoBao District and BaoYuan District and other places. In the early years of the Republic of China, Guangzhou Xiguan's commercial culture and urban economy entered a period of maturity and steady development, and this was also a period of openness, absorbing Western culture and integrating its own traditions.
The existing Xiguan buildings truly reflect the traces of the development of local culture, representing the unique form created by the fusion of Guangzhou's local architecture and foreign cultures, and also reflecting the history of the mutation of local architectural forms. The characteristic residential buildings in the Republic of China period, generally in the plan layout, fa?ade modeling and other aspects of the ancient style still maintains a set of pattern and law of the big house type residential, but due to the change of the political system, scientific and technological advances and the creation of the modernization of the way of building and other factors, the building of all aspects of the building have some changes, such as the emergence of the floor of the cantilevered balcony, the building's facade appeared in the classical style of the columns of the Western-style gables and the windows of decorative lines and corners and so on. The decorative lines and corners of the windows and doors and so on.
Basic types and characteristics of Xiguan traditional houses
The Xiguan traditional houses in Liwan District include the following types:
1. The old residences in Guangzhou in the late Qing Dynasty, which is usually called "Xiguan Daiya". Its layout is based on the traditional "three rooms and two corridors" multi-unit vertical combination in Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta, and evolved from the layout of halls and chambers in mansions in Suzhou and other places.
It has a number of rooms, patios, stairwells and kitchens arranged symmetrically along the longitudinal direction. On the outside of the main body of the building, there is a "Qingyun Alley" (also known as Cold Alley), which is used for living activities and access, and can also meet the auxiliary functions. The main room is dominated by the hall, the central axis is clear and neat, along the axis of the arrangement of the porch - the door official hall (foyer) - the sedan chair hall (teahouse) - the main hall ("Hall of God" or hall) - the first room (the elders room) - the second hall (dining room) - the end of the room and so on. This pattern is suitable for the feudal big families to live together, and the functional partition is clear, the internal and external boundaries are clear, showing the master's identity. This pattern also reflects the living pattern of the residents at that time.
2, in addition to the above Xiguan big house, there is a "five side over" extra large houses, it is next to the house, behind the house attached to the garden, pavilion and water pavilions, etc. Its plane has five openings, the size of the house. Its plane has five openings, large scale. But there is no physical presence in Guangzhou.
3, relatively small in the small and medium-sized homes - bamboo house residential type of simplified style. The number of its building is not large, the opening is also less, generally one or two openings, the plane is similar to the big house, we see today in Liwan District, Guangzhou, a considerable portion of the characteristic residential building belongs to this type.
4, the plan pattern for the traditional residential bamboo house form, and the facade for the East meets West style of small and medium-sized residential features. Mostly one to two rooms, some have a separate side door, which has a narrow stairwell to the second and third floors, the interior also has a multi-level depth. The fa?ade is made of green brick, i.e., the exterior walls are plastered with water-worn large green bricks; the footing is made of granite wainscot, and the door and window sets are also made of granite. The balcony of the upper two floors is either outspread or basically flush with the fa?ade wall, and the style of the balcony railing is rich and varied. In the gable portion of the cow leg or stacked, supporting the pick not big cornice, there are a lot of buildings have been gradually adopted reinforced concrete structure, or wood structure and reinforced concrete structure with a combination.
5, completely western style of modern housing. It is large-scale, single building, two to three floors. Red brick or water-brushed stone is used for the exterior wall surface.
In the layout of the block, due to the city's land constraints, the buildings are tightly arranged, monolithic to the depth of the development, horizontal only accounted for a relatively small amount of surface width along the street. The resulting small neighborhoods are narrower, but their space is intimate and pleasantly scaled. It is characterized by the pursuit of a free and practical form of aggregation, while at the same time being accentuated by a commercial atmosphere. The construction layout of traditional houses in the area is characterized by the following features: the whole is connected and built in pieces. The general pattern is similar, but the localization and monoliths are different, and the detailed forms are distinctive. The scale of the buildings is not large, mostly two or three stories high, with narrow widths and large depths, a pleasant scale. Decoration in the simple to seek changes, seek differences, although the same with a certain pattern, but the details of the treatment is also a lot of variations. The street space is narrow and deep and long, with a width of about 4 to 5 meters. The road is paved with stones, and there is a complete drainage system. Each family more in front of the door to plant trees, or placed potted flowers, for the residents of the building inside the family streets and alleys is a relatively open public **** environment. In the balcony, gable and roof more planting flowers and plants way to make it tends to naturalize. And in the structure of the way, construction methods, materials and materials reflect the pragmatic pursuit.
The compactness of the architectural layout of the gathering can promote the formation of microclimate of the building complex, but also for the convenience of security precautions, but also to enhance the affinity of the community living environment, so that the "residence" into the social space, the state of ownership of the urban space of the residence is generally presented as a balance between the social relations.
At present, the more concentrated Xiguan Dajia clusters are distributed in the following areas.
Fung Yuen Road ~ Bao Yin South: Bao Yuen Road; West Long Jin Road ~ Duo Bao Street, Fung Yuen Street, San Lian Zhi Street, Fung Yuen Road, Fung Yuen North Horizontal Street, Fung Yuen North Street, and Fung Yuen Sandy Lane.
Wenchang North Road: Yew Wah Main Street, Yew Wah East Street (north-south, east-west) ~ Yew Wah West Street, Bowen Place, Hou Yew Wah Central (Street).
Longjin Dongro ~ Dongshenfang, Lirongli: Hwaguiro ~ Hwagui West Cross Street.
Wenchang S. Rd. ～ Jingshanli: Changshou W. Rd. ～ Hongchang St., Yukui S. Lane.
Yangxiang Rd. ~ Yangrennan and Yangrenzhong: Shibafu South Rd. ~ Sinji East, Sinji West, and Jiepang Street.
Po Wah Road: Shap Pat Po East 4th Lane, Shap Pat Po Street.
Po Wah Road: Po Wah Jung Jung Jung Jung, Po Keng Sin Jung Jung, Fifteen Po Jung Jung Jung Jung.
Duo Bao Road: Duo Bao Fang, etc.
In those areas, there are traditional houses and old-fashioned buildings scattered in various streets and lanes, which are the traditional Xiguan houses with more authentic appearance and typical and complete forms.
Through the above description, we can summarize the characteristics of the traditional Xiguan residential buildings as follows:
1. Inheriting the traditional square-shaped block structure of the group layout, forming a low-rise, high-density residential pattern.
2. Compact plan, skillful space treatment, relatively closed to the outside but transparent and private inside. And a better solution to the hot and humid climate in the south of the building in the ventilation, lighting, sunshade, heat insulation and other special requirements.
3, fa?ade modeling, detailed decoration and interior furnishings reflect strong local cultural characteristics, and has a high level of art.
4. Realistically and boldly actively draw on foreign culture and integrate it into traditional architecture. Especially in the fa?ade treatment, the use of Western classical architectural decorative elements, while the plan and section of the building still maintains and develops the reasonable shape in the traditional residence.
The residents of the old Xiguan district have some feelings for the traditional houses and the built environment in which they live, and they hope that the living environment and the living conditions can be improved accordingly in the future construction of the city, instead of a kind of forceful and hard demolition. They especially hope that the city can find for them a modern living atmosphere and environment that they can adapt to and that is similar to their original living conditions and cultural connotations. It can be said that the traditional houses in the old areas of the city once actually solved the basic functional requirements of the residents' "residence", and also reflected their special "cultural architecture" character.
Yew Wah Street and its Neighborhood
Yew Wah Street is located on the west side of Wenchang North Road. The original occupants were mostly doctors, merchants, Cantonese opera artists, overseas Chinese, newspaper men, diplomatic officials of the National Government and teachers. The street is east-west, 110m long, 4.5m wide, the road is paved with stone slabs, and the buildings are mostly of two or three floors, *** more than thirty buildings, with more than forty door numbers, arranged in close proximity. Building openings are generally 4 ~ 5 m, individual face width accounted for 7 ~ 8 m. Plane depth of 16 ~ 20 m, some deeper, the rear extends to the back side of the neighboring neighborhoods. The floor area of the residences is between 120 and 180 square meters, and the floors are equipped with outcropping or recessed balconies, and the decorations of the doors, windows, balcony balustrades, and gables are rich and varied in pattern. Most of the residences still retain stone door sets, blue brick exterior wall surfaces, granite wall foundations, residential entrances paved with stone steps, corner doors, bar and large wooden doors are basically complementary, well-preserved. The earliest existing houses in the street were built in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, and the rest of the houses were built in the late Qing Dynasty and early Civil War.
The typical layout is as follows: the first part of the entrance is the vestibule, which is divided into a living hall by a screen door. Then there is a screen cover, and the upper part of it is equipped with a divine kitchen, and the space between the antechamber and the hall is high and spacious. Side for a narrow passage, connecting the back into the living space, the front or center of the passage is equipped with a staircase, which can reach the upper floors. In the center and the back, there must be two to three small inner patios to solve the ventilation and lighting of each living room, and the doors, windows and partitions of the houses facing the patios are richly and diversely decorated. Finally, the kitchen, the upper part of the semi-open type, the top part of the roof open skylight, conducive to the elimination of smoke and the organization of the wind through the hall. The walls on both sides of the building run straight through the front and back, supporting the dense-ribbed wooden beams and floor slabs on each floor. The slope of the roof is gentle, and there are mostly air floors or skylights. There are also flat roofs.
Residents here generally agree that it is necessary to maintain and refurbish the streets and alleys to keep the street space and comfortable atmosphere and preserve the existing landscape. Not long ago, the Man Cheong Street Street Office took over Residence 14, which was donated by a relative of the owner living in Hong Kong, and turned it into the "Man Cheong Neighborhood Recreation and Community Service Center" to provide social services and meet the activity needs of the elderly in the area, which is jointly managed by the street office and the Hong Kong Counseling Association, with increasing social benefits.
The street pattern and architectural form of Yaohua Street can partly reflect the history of modern urban construction and development of the Xiguan area, which is of certain value to the study of the history of urban construction and residential form of Guangzhou. The existing buildings of Yaohua Street are still of good quality, the residents in the neighborhood are generally of high quality, and the management of the neighborhood is perfect, so it has the conditions to be preserved completely and built into a characteristic residential and cultural street of the municipal level.
Yew Wah Street has now been listed as a historical and cultural protection neighborhood in Guangzhou. To this end, the Guangzhou Urban Planning Department has formulated corresponding protection and preservation measures for it, namely:
1. Delineate the appropriate protection scope.
2. Developing a population resettlement plan. 3. Maintaining and refurbishing the existing buildings. Renovate the internal facilities of each building and improve the necessary supporting living facilities.
4, repairing the scenery, improving the road surface, and removing the inserted buildings in the street.
5, to protect the street entrance to the building of the street form.
6, wide range of financial sources, multi-faceted financing construction and maintenance funds.
7, publicity and utilization.
Shinji East and Sinji West (Street) of Shibafu South Road
During the late Qing Dynasty and the early Civil War, the area around Sinji East and West of Xiguan Shibafu was a famous medicine street in the modern Guangzhou city. Many Chinese and Western doctors practiced medicine here and set up clinics in the street, and many other drug dealers opened proprietary Chinese medicine processing farms, pharmaceutical workshops, Chinese and Western medicine bureaus and medicine stores, etc. There were also wholesale stalls selling medicinal materials and raw materials in the street, and Dr. Sun Yat-sen opened a Chinese and Western medicine bureau here in 1893, while engaging in anti-Qing Revolutionary activities.
Before the end of the Ming Dynasty, this area was once a section of the river, which was later closed and converted into a residential street, divided into two sections, Sin Kee East and Sin Kee West. The street is long and the buildings are compactly arranged, with most of them being 2- or 3-storey buildings, which are still in a good state of preservation. Part of the residential building facade using Western neo-classical style components and decorations, and the combination of the exterior wall of hemp stone footings, stone door sets, red brick or gray brick walls, the upper part of the picket balcony, and more large windows, rich in detail decorations.
Given the location of the area, the current state of the building and the connotation of modern Guangzhou medical culture, the relevant departments had considered to build it into a residential housing as the main body of the theme of the medical culture, fully reflecting the modern medical treatment in Guangzhou, the local culture of medicine, the characteristics of the tourism district.
The following protection and preservation measures have been taken in the area:
1. Determine the scope of protection. The middle section of the street is protected as a whole, i.e., the section between No. 17 Sin Kee East and No. 43 Sin Kee West is listed as the protection area.
2. Restore and maintain the original buildings. Reinforcement of the original features of the residence, the dilapidated for refurbishment, renovation and decoration. And gradually remove inserted dwellings that are now dilapidated and affect the quality of the landscape.
3. Expand new regional functions. Empty base re-planning and design, planning can be considered to insert the re-construction of Xiguan Daiya characteristics of residential or additional traditional forms and styles, at the same time with a new function of the small and medium-sized public **** building. Should be combined with the history of the development of Chinese and Western medicine in Guangzhou, arrangements for small-scale processing and sales of Chinese herbal medicines and medical equipment, as well as the preparation of medicinal diets, medicinal therapy and other elements of the business premises. Organize the construction of buildings such as medicine history exhibition halls, memorial halls of famous doctors and celebrities, medical halls and clinics.
4, the same tone and environmental greening. The style and volume of new buildings should be harmonized with the original street style. Should also be opened on individual bases of public **** green space, increase public **** activity space, and combined with the lot style landscape design.
5, Xianji section of the traffic node. Sin base east east mouth and Sin base west west mouth two places still have the possibility to leave a certain amount of space, used to set up as a people flow distribution point and small parking lot.
In the process of Guangzhou's urban development and construction, how to protect and utilize the traditional houses and related historical buildings in the old city, including Liwan Xiguan, and make the necessary development of the old part of the city, has become an urgent problem to be solved.
Thinking
In the rapid development of the city today, people's needs for space, environment, and quality of life have become completely different from those of the past, and social and economic values and lifestyles have undergone profound changes. Only by modernizing the living space, living environment and lifestyle of the residents can the material form of historical buildings be effectively preserved at a higher level.
The preservation of any heritage building is to improve the quality of life of the present generation, just as "history is often modern history". For the protection of urban settlements architectural form, but also from the protection of modern people's quality of life as a starting point, in order to improve the quality of life of modern people and taste for the purpose of protection. It should emphasize the enhancement of humanistic qualities in all aspects and the experience of the essence of traditional architecture, and reflect the respect and patience for historical fragments and urban culture with prudent and delicate alteration measures.
We hope that as mankind's understanding of itself deepens, it will be able to find an effective way of cultural development - a way that does not lose the cultural splendor of mankind's past history, does not harm the needs of contemporary life, and does not impede the sustainability of future development.
Many cities have the name "Xiguan". This place name is related to the ancient city. According to the Xinhua Dictionary, "Xiguan: the area outside the city near the city gate." Since the Ming Dynasty, the western wall of the ancient city of Guangzhou was built along the area of the present Renmin Road, so the area of the western part of the city in the present Liwan District was called "Xiguan". Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been many accounts of Xiguan in official documents and folk literature. For example, Luo Yuanhuan's "Yue Tai Zhengya Record" states: "The western suburbs of Yangcheng, the land collectively known as Xiyuan, that is, commonly known as Xiguan also." During the Qing Dynasty, the army stationed in Xiguan was called "Xiguan Flood". Nanhai County Records" is more clearly written: "Taipingmen outside the rate called Xiguan." In the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China, the strict definition of Xiguan only refers to the upper Xiguan (today's Jinhua, Longjin Street textile industrial area) and the lower Xiguan (today's Shiangshangjiu, eighteen Fu, Yangxiang, thirteen rows of the busy commercial area and Xiguan Daihua residential area), excluding Xicun, Pantang, Nanshanshi area was still a rural area. But today the extended meaning of Xiguan can include the entire Liwan District.
Xiguan Daiya, is the representative of Lingnan residential, the status of the bridge family compound like Shanxi, but always hidden in the alleys inside ...... There is a saying: Young master of Dongshan, Miss Xiguan. It means that the young master of Dongshan is very rich and the young lady of Xiguan is very beautiful. Miss refers generally to the lady of the big family in Xiguan.
Wealthy people live in Xiguan, powerful people live in Dongshan, and poor people live in Henan. Xiguan's old building alleys are very characteristic, full of the world's incense burner smoke accompanied by the crackling sound of rubbing hemp, or from the depths of the alley walked through a faded clothes, hunchbacked white-haired granny, left hand pinch three or two small onions, the right hand to carry a small piece of fish brisket, in the setting sun, long, hobbling back projected to the water washed over the masticated stone road, but also constitutes a moment of historical pause.