Hefei Street Transformation: Retaining the "Nostalgia" in the City

Old streets and alleys carry the memory of the city. In the process of urban renewal and transformation, Hefei has worked refinement, made a fuss about characteristics, and used the micro and new initiative to retain the old taste in the old streets and alleys——

Respect history and inherit cultural context

Dingjia Lane is located in the old town of Hefei, from Tongcheng Road in the west to Hongxing Road in the south, with a total length of 267 meters. The alley is not long, but it has a deep historical and cultural heritage, and the former residence of Hefei's famous "Four Sisters of Zhang" is located here.

On September 17, the reporter came to Dingjia Lane, came in from the south entrance of the alley, and saw a picture of a fairy painted on the wall, and the surrounding residents told the reporter that this picture was taken from the myth and legend of the "Nine-Curved Water Rising Immortal Bridge" in the old Hefei, and the fairy was He Xiangu in the "Eight Immortals". Stepping into the depths of the alley, the stone road is flat and neat, and a stone sculpture is inlaid every ten steps on the two sides of the wall, depicting childhood play memories such as jumping rope and rolling iron rings. The residential buildings in the alley are the former dormitories of the Health Department, and many of them are still red brick facades, which have been renovated under the reflection of orange street lamps, showing the sense of age of the years, making people feel like a century of tranquility. Unconsciously walking to the alley near Tongcheng Road, the picture wall of the "Four Sisters of Zhang" tells the moving story of the alley.

Zhong Ming, director of the Xiaoyaojin Street Civilization Office in Luyang District, told reporters that the previous Dingjia Lane was dim, the road was damaged, and the drainage was not smooth. In April 2018, the upgrading project of Dingjia Lane began to be implemented, improving the quality of roads, drainage, landscapes, facades, lighting and other aspects. Focusing on the problems existing in Dingjia Lane, the local community solicited public opinion face to face, improved the transformation plan, and clearly adhered to the principle of "integration of ancient and modern" in the transformation, fully displaying the history and culture of the alley and the memory of Hefei. After the transformation, Dingjia Lane has changed the original vicissitudes and ruins, the stone road is flat and neat and clean, the cultural wall adds humanistic charm, and the inheritance continues the cultural context of the alley. "After the renovation, the alley has become new and beautiful, and the history and culture have been preserved." Jiang Aiping, a resident of the south courtyard of the former health department dormitory, said.

"Streets and alleys are an important carrier of urban culture, and each street has an endless historical story." Wang Jie, a staff member of the Old City Office of Luyang District, said that many old streets and alleys have a long history, and residents are actually familiar with the cultural memory of the past, if they can restore or retain some characteristic cultural symbols as much as possible, they can not only increase the popularity of residence, but also attract sightseeing heat. Since Luyang District began to launch the old city renewal strategy in 2018, the district has fully respected the original ecology and indigenous wishes of streets and alleys in the transformation of streets and alleys, and combined with the functions of history and architecture, close to the people, close to life, highlighting cultural characteristics, and restoring the old taste of streets and alleys.

One lane and one policy to create a unique scenery

On September 14, with the completion of the marking work by the maintenance personnel, the labor lane upgrading project located in Wuhu Road Street, Baohe District, Hefei City was successfully completed.

Labor Lane is surrounded by dormitories of the former Provincial Construction Department, the former Hefei Labor Bureau and other units, and the streets and alleys have become dilapidated and dirty due to their age. According to the relevant person in charge of the Baohe District Urban Management Bureau, Baohe District transformed the Labor Lane, combined with the meaning of the Labor Lane and the changes in the production and labor methods, and finally decided to take the theme of "Striving for a New Era", comprehensively use sculptures, bas-reliefs, sketches and other elements to complete the road surface trimming, façade beautification, functional improvement, cultural implantation and other contents, create a "labor" characteristic cultural wall, and realize the combination of memory and inheritance.

"'One lane, one policy' is an important principle for the transformation of streets and alleys in Hefei in recent years." Zhong Wei, deputy director of the Urban Construction Department of the Hefei Urban and Rural Construction Bureau, told reporters that many streets and alleys in Hefei carry a unique history and culture and the nostalgic memories of residents, so in the process of transformation, we cannot pursue "uniform" transformation, and we must have a sense of quality and highlight the characteristics of the alleys. In order to avoid the "uniformity" of street and alley transformation, Hefei City has clearly defined the characteristics and positioning of each street and alley that needs to be transformed before the transformation, designed in accordance with the principle of "one lane and one policy", created a street and alley environment that integrates "facilities + humanities", and realized one street and one culture, one lane and one characteristic.

Gongchen Street is a century-old street in Hefei, integrating a variety of formats such as vegetable markets and snacks, and the entrance to the southern part of the block is not far from the famous Ruins of the Dong family's old residence. Gongchen Street is very popular, but there are many safety hazards. In 2019, Gongchen Street was transformed and upgraded, and the first phase of the renovation has been completed and the second phase is underway. Hu Zhenyong, head of the Anhui Huanyu Architectural Design Institute, who is directing the renovation project, told reporters that in accordance with the transformation requirements of the relevant departments at the higher level, before the transformation of Gongchen Street, the historical and cultural characteristics of the streets and alleys were fully investigated and investigated, and then positioned in combination with the opinions of residents and the development of the area. The entire transformation plan fully excavates the historical and cultural connotation of the block, integrates elements such as Jianghuai culture and Ming and Qing culture into the transformation, and on the basis of retaining fireworks, comprehensively upgrades Gongchen Street from the aspects of architectural landscape improvement and business optimization, and determines the architectural style as a Ming and Qing style building, and the architectural color is mainly based on white wall gray tiles.

"Streets and alleys are the carriers of cultural precipitation, involving architecture, color and other aspects of knowledge." Zhong Wei said. When transforming the streets and alleys, the relevant departments of Hefei City strictly supervise the relevant construction and design units to understand the history of each street, clarify the style of each building, and carry out construction according to its original pattern and material, so as to restore the old taste of the streets and alleys. Nowadays, in Hefei, the transformation of The Mountain Lane in Puzhen Town, Luyang District, relies on the strong commercial atmosphere and historical and cultural relics in the surrounding area to create a tourist block that integrates "commercial + cultural tourism"; the Feidong Road around the Old An Textile Factory in Yaohai District has been transformed and a 10-meter an textile historical wall has been built... The unique back streets and alleys have become a unique landscape in Hefei.

Fine transformation takes into account the "face" and "lizi"

An alley less than 200 meters, a place name that has been used for 200 years, and a world-renowned physicist was born... On September 17, the reporter came to Sigu Lane on Anqing Road in Luyang District, where a unified silver-gray store signboard, a smooth asphalt pavement, and cultural symbols on both sides of the alley wall came into view.

"It's different from before, it's clean, tidy and beautiful." Ms. Hu, a resident of an Annan community next to Sigu Lane, told reporters. She has lived here for nearly 20 years, and the road surface was previously potholed, and the storefronts along the street were also messy, neither tidy nor safe. "Every time I ride a battery car, it makes a clanging sound, and I've fallen a few times." Thinking back to the past, Ms. Hu couldn't help but sigh.

It is understood that Sigu Lane is bordered by Anqing Road in the north and Changjiang Road in the south, which is an old alley with a long history. According to the "Gazetteer of Hefei City, Anhui Province", Sigu Lane was also known as Sigu Tomb Lane, Nun (Shigu) Lane, and Sixin Lane. The former residence of yang Zhenning, a famous scientist and Nobel laureate in physics, is located in the fifth entrance to the East Main House in the alley. However, due to the disrepair of the old lane, the sense of history of the past has become the "trauma" of the residents' lives, which needs to be repaired urgently.

In 2018, the renovation of Sigu Lane was put on the agenda, and the renovation project was started in April of that year and completed in August. Ling Yong, deputy chief of the planning and construction section of the Luyang District Landscaping Management Center, told reporters that the renovation mainly includes the road surface network, the storefront signboard along the street, the wall in the alley and the façade of the residential building. The entire renovation project has always adhered to the principle of fine transformation, combined with the characteristics of the alley and the opinions of residents, not only repairing and upgrading the infrastructure, but also refining and refining the humanistic shaping. "It not only meets the functional needs of residents, but also restores the residents' memory and humanities." Ling Yong said.

The transformation of streets and alleys should not only do a good job in the "face" of urban construction, but also do a good job in the "lizi" of the masses' needs. It is understood that Hefei has issued a series of urban renewal policies and implemented a number of urban renewal projects. According to incomplete statistics, as of the end of August this year, Hefei has transformed a total of 149 small streets and alleys by repairing damaged roads, rebuilding rainwater and sewage pipelines, replacing lighting street lamps, improving street greenery, and adding landscape sketches.

■ Li Mingjie, trainee reporter of this newspaper