Written by Kwan Chung Yao
Guangdong Kaiping Overseas Chinese Township is famous for having 1833 surviving watchtowers, on the way to see the watchtowers, but because of navigation errors into the new area of Chikan Ancient Town, unexpectedly, a commercial complex with a breathtaking appearance was found next to the reinforced concrete high-rise asphalt road, "Chikan Overseas Chinese Restaurant".
I really want to wake up Mr. Liang Sicheng, the master of the construction method, to get up and see, how have I ever seen a mason with a brick knife and pick up mortar to play with bricks so badly? !
The exterior of this building is indescribable in words alone. I have seen all kinds of brick carvings, relief openwork carvings, hollow carvings, flowers, birds, fish, insects, birds and beasts, ancient and modern character legends, how realistic, how delicate, can be described in words.
Only this kind of façade built of bricks: square, round, flat, beveled, abrupt, concave, right angle, sharp corner, can be described as staggered, varied, staggered, intrigued. I don't know how to describe it for a while!
If the building is solidified music, the scene in front of you is like the guqin played at will "Autumn Moon on the Peaceful Lake", overtones and scattered tones, treble bass and glissando, one after another, echoing from far and near, familiar with the technique, and interesting nature.
I only know that the wall is horizontal and vertical, and the gray seam is full, and the hanging hammer is not a millimeter difference with the naked eye. Walking into the "Chikan Overseas Chinese Restaurant", inside and out, up and down, with appreciation, I looked at the brick walls in the corners of the big and small places, and admired it, only to know that "there is a sky outside the sky, and there are people on people" is not a lie.
The cookie-cutter 24x12 cm dull and silent blue and red bricks have been improvised and combined to become a rare masterpiece by skilled craftsmen, so that tourists in cloth clothes who are accustomed to seeing the flat right-angle brick wall can't bear to let go of their hands after repeated strokes.
Some people say that the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has long banned the use of clay bricks as building materials! That's right, that's right!
There are about 1 million bricks on the façade of this building, of which 700,000 are selected from the demolition and construction waste and polished for recycling, and 300,000 are missing from modern antique materials used in the corners, which are added together and are known as "millions of old bricks".
At that time, after the completion of the main concrete pouring project, a group of energetic elites in the design team boldly broke the frame of standardized planning, design and construction, and handed over the exterior wall decoration to the 25 rural masons of the construction team, so that they could spread their wings and give full play to their imagination, and maximize the use of the "Cantonese culture" architectural symbol creation in the hometown of overseas Chinese, so that what it looks like is what it looks like!
"卑贱者最聪明".
The 25 "mud legs" who were covered with thick calluses in the sun and rain really lived up to their expectations, got together, gossiped, fiddled on the ground, implemented on the shelf, drew a big picture on the first day, went into battle shirtless the next day, got up early and returned late, day after day, painstakingly and achieved positive results.
I am pleased, the team is satisfied, the management appreciates, and the passers-by are amazing! Compared with the increasingly homogeneous XX square and XX center of the dry-hung stone glass curtain wall in domestic cities, the skillful work is natural, and the flower blooms alone.
On the occasion of the completion of the "Chikan Overseas Chinese Restaurant" in Kaiping, 25 peasant craftsmen solemnly pressed their handprints on the cement wall and signed them, happily attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and won the applause of the crowd.
This original, unique, artistic, and national architectural work cannot be replicated, and it can break the Guinness World Record, and it is a permanent landmark no matter where it is placed, and it is not too much to call it a "national treasure", right?!