Team biography
Shanghai Xufang Construction Industry Co., Ltd. Hengfu Landscape District Protection Building Repair Team was established in 1998, with the responsibility of protecting and maintaining historical protected buildings. In recent years, it has undertaken a number of architectural repair projects such as Song Qingling's former residence, Xia Yan's former residence, monastery apartment, Xujiahui Catholic Church, Wukang Building, Huaihai Building, etc.; it has been awarded the Shanghai Construction Project "Red Flower Cup" Quality Project Award, the National Excellent Monuments and Sites Protection Project, and the Shanghai Architectural Heritage Protection and Utilization Demonstration Project.
Autumn and winter communication, wukang building in front of the traffic, pedestrians weaving. Citizens and tourists prefer to shoot here - even the façade of the Wukang Building deliberately retains the unique vertical texture of the Qingshui Wall due to wind and rain, and the "shanghai of history" and "shanghai of the present" meet unexpectedly.
This is one of the "works" that the Shanghai Xufang Construction Industry Co., Ltd. Hengfu Style District Protection Building Repair Team is proud of.
In the Xuhui District section of Hengfu Historical and Cultural Landscape Zone, there are 950 excellent historical buildings, 1774 preserved historical buildings and 2259 general historical buildings on 4.3 square kilometers of land, which are an important bearing area of Shanghai's urban context. The burden of "guarding" these old buildings falls on the shoulders of this young team with an average age of 35 years.
Following the principle of authenticity, the principle of minimal intervention, the principle of integrity, the principle of readability, and the principle of reversibility, the team inherits the craft, reproduces the classics, and balances the repair and protection with livability and livability, so that the historical buildings can be continued and renewed in the present, and "organic growth" is in time.
Repair is not easy, a wall to go through nearly ten processes
In Lane 291, Yongjia Road, a 55-year-old mason Yu Anju held sandpaper in his hand and carefully polished the qingshui wall.
This is one of the most complete Shikumen Lanes in Shanghai to date. In between, there are three-story buildings in Shikumen, with red tiles, slope roofs, tiger skylights, and red bricks. The "Former Site of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China", as a cultural relics protection unit in Xuhui District, is also located in Shenchengli.
"The 15 houses involved are all clear water walls, and the walls are full of stories of the passage of time." Gu Zhifeng, the leader of the repair team who grew up in the Well Lane Hall in Shanghai, said that the Qingshui wall is not too decorated, and the focus of repair and protection lies precisely in the overall coordination of the color and texture of the wall itself, "just like patching clothes, and the needles and needles are in harmony with the original part."
In order to reproduce the appearance of the old building in the "first sight" of the 1930s, even if it is a wall, it must go through nearly ten processes to repair, "a craftsman can repair up to one square meter a day". Chen Qi, project manager of Shenchengli's protective building repair, lamented that repair is not easy, and it is difficult to find a match. Originally, after "removing makeup" for the wall layers before the repair, it was found that many of the original bricks had been weathered, and it was necessary to find the same material and color similar to the surface tiles, polish them and inlay them, and then use 1 to 0.4 cement yellow sand caulking treatment.
After the road process is in place, the last step is to polish the wall to make it "flat and smooth as a mirror". In order to avoid dust and noise disturbing residents, the masters used to manually sand with sandpaper. "After such a round, the clay master knows every brick and wall for which he is responsible, as if he grows in their hearts." Chen Qi said.
Tailor-made, "Heshun" connects residents with quality life
"Heshun" is a word that Yue Jiayong, the core member of the team, hangs on his lips. The old house spits out the old and the new, and the most exquisite is also "Heshun".
More than 90 percent of the old buildings he renovated were "solid rooms" — where residents still live. Therefore, whether it is harmonious or not depends not only on the overall coordination of the repair process and the building texture, but also on the degree of harmony between the construction unit and the residents, and whether the repaired building can be connected to the quality of life.
Yue Jiayong told reporters that in order to avoid affecting the lives of residents, during construction, "race against the clock", high-power vacuum cleaners are in place to ensure that the garbage at the construction site does not fall to the ground and there is no dust, "these are 'routine actions'".
More importantly, tailor-made. In the comprehensive renovation project of kitchen and bathroom (Lane House) at No. 1887 Huaihai Middle Road, the team found that most of the original wooden windows were seriously aging and not tightly closed, "it rained heavily outside, it rained lightly inside the house, and at least a row of washbasins was placed by the window." After many discussions, it was finally decided to replace it with aluminum alloy material and customize the original window frame style, which will improve the watertightness and airtightness of the window while also continuing the original style.
The Huaihai Building and Ruihua Apartment, which were just completed a few months ago, have a repair plan of more than 100 pages. Combined with external repairs, the internal synchronous "micro-update" covers almost all the details: repairing the wall floor, re-setting the stove and cabinets according to the number of households; replacing bathroom accessories; overhauling and rearranging aging water pipes, circuits, etc., "really improving the living experience".
Passed down from generation to generation, "always treat the building with awe"
Gu Zhifeng, post-70s; Yue Jiayong, post-80s; Qu Qi, post-90s. Three generations of craftsmen, the division of labor is different, but the daily work is no exception: walking the streets and alleys, constantly examining, polishing the bricks and tiles of old buildings.
12 years ago, Yue Jiayong just entered the industry, followed the master Gu Zhifeng for the first time to participate in the repair of the Wukang building, "careful, like walking on thin ice"; now, he has long been handy, while improving his business ability, while leading his apprentice Qu Qi.
"Such a simple link as hair drawing requires so many processes!" Qu Qi, who was born in 1991, has just been employed for a year, and the crafts of washing sand, water brushing stone, clear water walls, and brushing are still fresh to him, "The master taught me to always treat the buildings and the old houses of the people's livelihood with a reverential heart."
Such "master-apprentice pairing" has become a tradition, with the inheritance and practice of the craftsman spirit as the core, in addition to the technical guidance, professional theoretical teaching, practical training in the repair process, the inheritance is to continue the history, the people's livelihood for the great rigorous work attitude.
At the end of last year, the "Training Base · 345 Transmission Workshop" was unveiled, with 9 external wall painting operation stations and 5 roof and detail operation stations, integrating "teaching, learning, exercise and examination". Traditional crafts such as bristle pressing, fish scale shaving, water brush stone, and terrazzo are readily available.
At the training base, the craftsmen grasped the contact with the old craft
Efforts also bear fruit. In July this year, in the first Shanghai Housing Repair Skills Competition, the team led by Gu Zhifeng won a number of awards such as gold, bronze and second prizes for repair technical experts, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent cultivation of professional and technical talents.
"The repair, maintenance and revitalization of the historical protection buildings in the Hengfu Landscape Area must be done year after year, generation after generation." Yue Jiayong's tone was filled with pride.
Author: Wang Wanyi
Photo: Zhao Lirong Xing Qianli Is provided in part by the interviewee
Editor: Zhang Xiaoming
Editor-in-Charge: Gu Yiqiong
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.