With the boom of city walking activities in Shanghai, various walking guidebooks have become more and more abundant. How to read a road, understand a building, each author has his own interpretation.
Recently, a book called "Wind and Moon Agarwood Street" came out, interestingly, its incision only revolves around a road - Nanjing West Road, through the analysis of 24 modern buildings with diverse functions, taking people to appreciate the entertainment realm of "spring suburb walking horses, summer nights cool". The Paper - Private Geography chatted with wang Cheng, the author of the book, to hear how a construction professional "swung the road".
Why Nanjing West Road?
Wang Cheng's familiarity with Nanjing West Road began with a bachelor's degree at Tongji University, initially only from the perspective of architecture to look at the dense old houses on this road, and later studied the history of Chinese architecture at the master's level, and he saw the traces and contexts of urban development carried by this road.
"Wind and Moon Agarwood Street" Nanjing West Road Old Bungalow Hiking Route Map The pictures in this article are provided by Wang Cheng and Tongji University Press
"If you are walking east and west along the Nanjing Route, walking through those tall and tall houses, crowded and crowded sidewalks, crossing the Tibet Road, the road suddenly opens up, and the sound of all kinds of vehicles does not flood your ears too much because of the excessive narrowness of the road. You may feel refreshed, so you straighten up and move forward. In the preface, he quoted this passage from the Xinmin Evening News on October 17, 1947, to illustrate the unique atmosphere of prosperity in the elegance of Nanjing West Road, which is also his most intuitive feeling about this street.
"The formation and evolution of Nanjing West Road is an example of the 'urbanization effect of the concession'," wang cheng said, adding that its history of change helps to understand the layout and function of each house.
In 1862, the Jockey Club, organized by foreign expatriates, built an east-west road from Nanjing East Road to Jing'an Temple, which was used as a running horse and later handed over to the Shanghai Municipal Council (the administrative body of the public concession) for management, Chinese 'Jing'an Temple Road'.
In the twenty-fifth year of Guangxu (1899), the public concession was expanded to the west, and Nanjing West Road became part of the concession.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were not only various garden houses and country villas on both sides of Nanjing West Road, but also private gardens (such as Zhang Garden, Shen Garden, Yu Garden), country clubs, entertainment venues and other forms of buildings, which were loved by the people of the time because of their beautiful environment.
In 1927, Nanjing West Road was replaced by asphalt concrete pavement, which improved the road traffic situation at that time, and with the opening of trams and other bus lines, in the 1930s, the vicinity of Jing'an Temple became the center of the western district of the public concession with convenient transportation and commercial prosperity (in 1900, the Ministry of Works bureau divided the public concession into four districts: east, west, north and middle, of which the west of The Middle Tibet Road was assigned to the west district).
At this time, on both sides of Nanjing West Road, most of the former gardens, vacant lots and country houses have been transformed into shops, foreign firms, lanes and apartment buildings, and Nanjing West Road has jumped from "the back garden of the concession" to "the consumption circle of the metropolis".
After clarifying the history of the changes on this road, we can better understand the layout and function of the houses on the road, and it is in accordance with this idea that he carefully selected 24 old houses of different eras, different faces and characteristics, and unfolded his own narrative.
The number of words is not much, the amount of information is too large
"Wind and Moon Agarwood Street" is a thin volume, the text is concise, and the author says that each reading time is only 3 minutes.
Every building in the book is rich in historical information, and almost every building can be written as a thesis. In order to simplify and condense the text that the public can understand, Wang Cheng's method starts from several dimensions of his own "architectural reading".
The first is the technical development history of the building itself, which at first glance sounds a little too professional, but through the in-depth and simple text, ordinary readers can understand that technological breakthroughs and achievements are sometimes the key to laying the hardest core of architecture.
International Hotel, the first building in the Far East
For example, in the past, the "Far East First Building" International Hotel (No. 170, Nanjing West Road), a groundwater well up to 200 meters deep ensures the absolute cleanliness of the building's water use, "The International Hotel has 2 sets of water supply systems, one set is tap water, one set is deep underground, 200 meters means pure water", Wang Cheng said, "Information involving technology and data must be particularly rigorous and careful." I searched for historical information in libraries and archives, which were well preserved, and compared with multiple specialized books, synthesized information from all sides, and I checked that the data in the books had sources."
The Shanghai Jockey Club Building (325 Nanjing West Road) written in the book "The height of the bell tower is as high as 53.3 meters" is an example. Wang Cheng synthesized the drawings and books and found that there were differences in the figures, and specially found the design team of the restoration project of the Jockey Club Building, and their actual measurement result was that the height of the building was 53.3 meters, plus the lightning rod exceeded 60 meters. , "Height is important, which reflects the level of technology".
Shanghai Jockey Club Building (325 Nanjing West Road) details
The second is the history of the development of architectural styles. Wang Cheng said that architectural style is a key to reading architecture, but the conventional style description is somewhat abstract for non-architecture and art professionals, and not every building can find a pure style, so his depiction is placed on the feeling of style.
He summed it up, "Styles are like architectural expressions, they are either relaxed, serious, cheerful, or restrained. Sometimes they are closely related to the type of building, and sometimes they are just the creation of the architect. By reading the details and styles of the building, the context and connection between the buildings can be found. ”
For readers who want to have a deeper understanding of architecture, the "explanation of nouns" in the appendix of the book is very interesting, and the author accurately analyzes some concepts in concise sentences.
"Explanation of terms" in the appendix to the book
For example, when introducing the Xiwang Community (No. 40-52, No. 80-92, Lane 68, Fengxian Road), the earliest garden lane dwelling in Shanghai, Wang Cheng made a clear introduction to the "Li Lane Residence": "The word 'Li' is from 'Tian', which means to divide the boundary; 'Lane' means 'alley' or 'alley', i.e. passageway. The combination of the words '里' and 'lane' refers to the division of residential units by vertical and horizontal alleys. The Ministry of Works' bureau translated the LiLong residence as 'Li' house, which clearly expressed the basic characteristics of this kind of housing. ”
Rather than retracing the stories of the characters in the building, Wang Cheng spent more time finding depictions of the building in literary works. He believes that those vivid sentences or images depict the conceptual history of architecture, that is, the important role played by architecture in the change of people's concepts.
The best example is Zhang Ailing's Ai Linden Apartment (No. 195 Changde Road, also known as Changde Apartment), "The apartment is the most ideal place to escape." People who are tired of the metropolis often remember the peaceful and quiet countryside, and look forward to the day when they can return to the field... And on the top floor of the apartment house, you can just stand in front of the window to change clothes!" Wang Cheng, quoting the famous sentence of the female writer, wrote, "The apartment gives people this sense of freedom not only because of the convenience of its location in the city center, but also based on the development of modern building technology - modern construction equipment is the key factor in creating a comfortable apartment life." ”
Details of Elinden Apartment (No. 195 Changde Road, also known as Changde Apartment).
The intrinsic value of the building can be "stripped" from literary and artistic works, which shows the author's skills and insight, and the subtitle of each article is also very interesting, such as Jing'an Villa (Lane 1025, Nanjing West Road) is "the wind of the alley", which implicitly reflects the pattern of the penetration of the alley, but also reveals the unique city style of old Shanghai. In a way, the book redraws the architectural literature map of Nanjing West Road.
Another major highlight of the book is that readers can see high-definition, complete digital drawings of 24 buildings. Most buildings have no chance to see the appearance of the building when it was first completed, and he used old photos, drawings and on-site photos to complete the whole picture of the building after digital processing, which is rare in the books and guide manuals on the market about old architecture in Shanghai.
Green House Wu Tongwen House No. 333 Tongren Road
Shi Liangcai's former residence, No. 257 Tongren Road
After more than a year of writing, the advent of the new book has also made the architect who is engaged in design and restoration work think more about reading architecture, heritage preservation and other issues, he said: "We may be used to shining and dazzling new buildings, but when we look back at these old houses, we will definitely find that these historic buildings are guarded because cities need diversity, and we also protect diversity." Each such book is a re-reading of the city. As the times go by, our concept of architecture will continue to change, and architecture will continue to decay and be reborn, thus witnessing the vicissitudes of this urban change, and we are still living in the sequel to this story. ”
"A Street of Wind and Moon Agarwood", by Wang Cheng, Tongji University Press, November 2021