Traveling in China often gives people an embarrassing feeling, similar to "deja vu". The so-called visual sense is that in the real environment, human beings suddenly feel that something or a scene they have never experienced seems to have experienced at a certain time and place. In short, it is "deja vu". Vision is the result of the interaction between perception system and memory system in human brain, which should be formed under the stimulation of external environment. Obviously, the cities in China have sufficient conditions to become objective visual stimuli: thousands of cities have the same roots. Guangzhou is a famous cultural city with a history of more than 2,000 years. Before modern times, it was the only foreign trade port in China.
Thousands of years' accumulation and diversified opening of commercial culture have made Guangzhou's urban architecture integrate traditional Lingnan style and western architectural skills, forming an urban architectural style of combining Chinese and western styles represented by Xiguan arcade and Shamian concession complex, making Guangzhou a representative city of Lingnan architecture. Take the arcade as an example, the corridor faces the street, people live upstairs and do business downstairs. The arcade is sheltered from the wind and rain, and it is full of deep humanistic care. However, in the wave of urbanization sweeping across the country in the past 30 years, in order to achieve the goal of building an international metropolis, more and more old buildings in Guangzhou have been replaced by architectural forests shaped by reinforced concrete. In just over ten years, the transformation of the old city in Guangzhou has destroyed the collective memory and buried some history and culture in a seemingly gorgeous way.
1, blind destruction, blind creation
In recent years, many historical buildings have been demolished in Guangzhou, including the Customs Inspection Pier, the Republic of China building before the Customs, the xiguan big house and Yanglou Villa on Enning Road, some Xiaoyanglou in Xinhe Pu, the arcade and Xiaoguwei on Xihu Road. Of course, urbanization and old city reconstruction need to demolish old houses, but the reality is that when people regard old buildings as obstacles to the process of urban modernization and push them to ruins, they stand on their own ruins, but they are not vibrant new life. High-rise buildings are the same, the same goods, signs, fast food restaurants, hotels and high-rise apartments are displayed on the streets of urban areas ... small and medium-sized cities imitate big cities, and big cities imitate international metropolises. There is no starting point and end point, but the names of the station and the airport are different.
2. Rough imitation and lack of characteristics
Observing the urban architecture in Guangzhou, many forms can be described as "learning to walk in Handan": blindly copying foreign cultures or blindly antique and retro, resulting in the lack of local regional characteristics. In recent years, there have been waves of "western" and "cottage" winds in Guangzhou's urban construction. Baroque and Rococo ... largely imitated European architectural styles. In addition, many places are competing to build European-style towns. Regardless of the harmony with the surrounding cultural landscape, urban buildings often bring their own dome columns and European squares, losing the possibility of spirituality and spreading culture.
In addition, it is the deliberate "retro" of employing people to create new works. Many cities in China, including Guangzhou, are playing drums with retro style intentionally or unintentionally, adding things like gates, cornices or glazed roofs to buildings without antique styles, and playing the card of Chinese return and the combination of Chinese and Western styles. However, direct grafting of this representation element is lack of cultural foundation and is essentially pseudo-culture. These buildings will leave some wrong information for future generations, and it is easy to have deviations when interpreting Lingnan architectural culture. Such traditional cultural elements are just "empty shells", and it is difficult for Chinese people to identify with them.
3. The proliferation of foreign designs.
China's tallest tower, Guang Zhouta, cost 2.95 billion yuan and was designed by Dutch designer Mark? Harmo design. In the core area of Guangzhou CBD, the Grand Theatre was designed by British and Iraqi designers, and IFC (International Financial Center) was also designed by foreign designers. China City seems to be a "testing ground for foreign architects". Yin Zhi, president of Tsinghua Urban Planning and Design Institute, said that China worships the West blindly, and even accepts western values and aesthetics almost uncritically. In addition, in my opinion, China City is eager to establish a new image, but lacks confidence in its own culture, trying to make a breakthrough with the help of foreign design masters, which is also the reason for the proliferation of foreign architectural styles.
Second, the cultural dilemma behind urban construction diseases
Urban architectural culture is a unique language of a city, with the breath of urban people. Looking for this unique smell, city people can find their own "roots". This "root" should include the city's past: the relationship between the height of the city wall and a war, and the dents in the streets and lanes of Shi Zhuan are all traces of old business dealings ... The city should hide its past like a palm print, write it on the street corner, in the pane, on the handrail of the stairs, and on the flagpole, so that the memory of the city can circulate in historical buildings and the culture of the city can be passed down from generation to generation. When the "urban disease" is increasingly exposed, culture is also losing.
In the blind destruction and new construction of urban buildings, we only see "transformation" but not "innovation", and this "transformation" also cuts off the good and the bad together. I don't know that context exists and develops under the interaction of "new" and "old". Without "old", the context is impossible to talk about; Without "new", the context cannot continue. A city can't innovate only with modern architecture and without the construction and protection of traditional culture. Such a city has a bright surface and no vitality in essence, and the final result can only be reduced to a cycle of demolition and construction. The lack of innovation in urban construction can only be the proliferation of copying, imitation and empty production without cultural connotation, which will eventually lead to the decline of space and the tearing of local culture in a certain period of time. Maybe we can look at the world. In Paris, France, most of the buildings in the city are old stone houses left before the last century. The outer wall is made of a big stone called Bordeaux Stone, which is thicker and harder than many reinforced concrete buildings. Such an old building is protected by the government.
According to the regulations of the Paris municipal government, if any building with a room age of more than 80 years needs to be rebuilt, it is generally not allowed to move the external wall, especially the building designated as a historical building by the municipal government, and it is not allowed to be damaged. Under the strict management of the Paris municipal government on urban architecture, traditional buildings are in harmony with new buildings and skyscrapers with novel styles, so that people can still feel the smell of French traditional culture while enjoying modern culture. Many cities in the western world are full of vitality and dazzling, not because of their gorgeous central areas and skyscrapers, but because of the cultural brand and humanistic spirit left over in the long historical process. Citizens living in such cities are influenced by education, knowledge, personality and openness, and cultivate good civic literacy, which is precisely the key factor related to the future of the country.
"China's urban construction is now losing its basic norms. Some people ignore China culture, ignore the inheritance and development of historical context, and give up the exploration of historical and cultural connotations. " Respecting China's urban architectural culture and protecting historical buildings is essentially respecting China's excellent traditional culture. The effective spread of culture needs to be based on the accurate understanding and positioning of its own culture. As the material media of cultural communication, urban architecture should give full play to its function of spreading spiritual culture and enhance the image of China. Therefore, we should control and gradually solve the "urban disease" in China. First of all, we should stop the blind demolition of buildings, pay special attention to cultural construction in urban planning and construction, highlight local characteristics, and create a space full of humanistic care. We should protect and build our own traditional culture, preserve the collective memory of urban people, and at the same time combine history with modernity, so that new and old cities will not interfere with each other and complement each other.
In addition, in order to strengthen the binding force of laws and regulations on urban construction, we must build a harmonious, orderly, healthy and sustainable urban form with strict systems, put an end to the idea of greed for foreign countries and quick success, restrain administrative power, and ensure citizens' "creation based on freedom." At the same time, learning western culture is not a simple and rude copy, but a way of learning western architecture, which consciously reflects the personality characteristics of China culture.
For more information about project/service/procurement bidding, and to improve the winning rate, please click on the bottom of official website Customer Service for free consultation:/#/? source=bdzd