The Paper's reporter Lu Yi
On the Huangpu River, the architectural complex of all nations stands as an urban totem, with Greek domes and Ionic columns, witnessing the rise of modern finance.
On the banks of the Suzhou River, the Sihang Warehouse stands as the backbone of the nation, and the bullet-riddled western wall reverberates with the efforts of eight hundred brave men to defend the land and protect the country.
Agitated, prosperous, inquisitive, heroic, Shanghai's architecture is like the rings of history, allowing the city to evolve into an open book.
In December 2020, Tang Yuen, a master of national engineering survey and design and chief architect of Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute, reviewed the history of urban renewal in Shanghai since the 1950s in his speech "The Road is Long - Exploration of Historical Building Protection Design", shanghai architectural design and research institute has undertaken nearly 100 historical building protection designs since the 1950s, Yu Garden, Bund No. 12 (former HSBC Bank Building), the site of the First Congress of the Communist Party of China, behind the buildings that have been reborn from the ashes of history. It is a long seventy years of protection and repair of several generations of masters.
"Urban renewal is not a cut-off from the past, which is neither in line with the development of history nor the development of the city." Tang Yuen, who has presided over the protection and expansion of the Peace Hotel, the restoration and renovation of the Sihang Warehouse, and the renovation of the former Jockey Club building (now the Shanghai History Museum), believes that after the long-term development of the city, it will surely leave generations or even more historical memories. "After screening the construction quality and retention significance of historical buildings, it is determined that 'retention', 'reform' and 'demolition'. In the process of urban renewal, there should be both protection and remodeling, the new and the old should continue to integrate and develop, and the cultures of different eras should be superimposed and coexisted, reflecting the sense of hierarchy, inclusiveness and sustainable development of the city. ”
The road is long and long, spanning 70 years of historical building protection
In 1923, the Bund welcomed the largest, widest façade and most expensive building, the HSBC Tower. The Greek dome that supported Shanghai's first skyline, with six Ionic columns running through the second to fourth floors, was seen as "the most architectural aspect of the canal from the Suez Canal to the Bering Strait", and to this day, it is still the most magnificent scenery on the Bund.
After the liberation of Shanghai, foreign banks withdrew from the Bund, government offices moved in, and the "Wanguo Architectural Complex", which rose around the 1920s, ushered in the first "renewal", of which the HSBC Building at No. 12 the Bund was changed to the Shanghai Municipal People's Government Building in 1955.
Tang Yuen introduced that the predecessors of the Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute adopted the method of protection and repair, and completed the functional transformation of the Bund 70 years ago. "The nature of the use of the building has changed, covering different contents, and it should be modified according to the needs of use. For example, above the octagonal foyer of the original HSBC Bank building, there are eight city-themed murals painted by HSBC at that time, which do not match the image of the government. ”
Chen Zhi, then president of the Shanghai Civil Architecture Design Institute (later the Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute), believed that the eight mosaic murals reflected the artistic value of architecture, and the leader of China's first generation of architects did not choose the way to demolish, but used paint to cover the murals, this "minimal intervention" method of protection and renewal, which reserved the possibility of a second butterfly change for the Bund building decades later.
In the 1990s, in order to strengthen Shanghai's status as an economic center, the Shanghai Municipal Government decided to restore the attributes of the Bund Financial Street, and the Bund line, which was originally an office building, was gradually replaced by Chinese and foreign financial and commercial institutions. Large-scale protection and repair projects were launched with the replacement plan, and in 1996, the Bund complex was awarded the national key cultural relics protection unit, which further promoted the "protection and rational utilization" of the Bund.
In 1995, the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and the Shanghai Municipal Government took the lead in moving out of No. 12 on the Bund, and SPDB settled in the "façade" of the Bund. Before it was put back into use as a bank building, the most expensive and magnificent building in the entire Bund began a two-year conservation and repair project, and the Chinese leader of the entire project was Zhang Ming, then chief architect of the Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute.
As if it were an echo of the air, the mosaic murals that were originally protected by the old dean were re-seen under the auspices of Zhang Ming, and after 40 working days of "no knife and claws, no muscles and bones" was removed, the 200 square meters of murals were fully revealed from the 4 layers of covering.
"Reverence for history is like walking on thin ice." Recalling the exploration of the predecessors of the Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute in the protection and repair of historical buildings, Tang Yuen said that Chen Zhi and other predecessors have maintained the authenticity and integrity of historical buildings with their profound academic skills and craftsman spirit. Generations of architects have stitched fine stitches into history, and together with the Bund complex, the history and culture of the city have been awakened. "Historical buildings stand quietly all over the city, expounding the cultural quality, historical process and urban spirit of the city from different angles and at different levels."
Tang Yuen also stressed that a city's attitude toward historical buildings reflects the degree of civilization, scientificity, and advanced nature of the city, and if only the architect has "wishful thinking", it is absolutely impossible:
"Which buildings need to be protected, which parts must be preserved, which parts can be transformed, these issues must be carefully investigated and scientifically analyzed." From this point of view, Shanghai is at the forefront of China. In addition to the laws at the national level, Shanghai has always been exploring and promoting relevant laws and regulations, and everyone has seen many results over the years. ”
Let historic buildings move into the future with dignity
"No building is more qualified to be a monument to Shanghai than the Peace Hotel."
Writer Chen Danyan once made the above evaluation of the former "tallest building in the Far East". In 1929, Shanghai's first skyscraper of more than 10 stories rose at the intersection of East Nanjing Road and the Bund, and Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, and Marshall all visited Shanghai thereafter.
"The hotel is about to be overhauled, restored to its appearance at the end of the thirties, on the eve of the Great War, when it was one of the most luxurious hotels in the Far East." In "Becoming a Peace Hotel", Chen Danyan mentioned that the Peace Hotel was first suspended for "overhaul" after nearly 80 years of opening, the project was approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, personally approved by the then Mayor of Shanghai, and issued by the Municipal Cultural Management Commission, in 2007, under the guidance of more than ten experts such as Luo Xiaowei, then chairman of the Shanghai Architectural Society, Tang Yuen led the design team of the Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute to start a three-year protection, repair and renovation expansion.
Tang Yun's team first faced the separation of property rights and the flow of the line, because after the liberation of the building by three systems to take over, the ground floor of the "Feng" font gallery was divided into three parts before the update: China Telecom occupied the west; the bank occupied the east; foreign trade stores occupied the octagonal atrium, and built mezzanines and stairs in it, and it was from this that the Peace Hotel entered.
With the support of all parties concerned, while protecting and repairing the old building, the new building was expanded on the backlog site of only 2200 square meters on the west side of the old building to replace the office space of China Telecom and supplement the supporting rooms required by the top hotels. When the city from the industrial era into the post-industrial era, this has the most advanced steel structure, elevators, hot and cold water, heating and other equipment and facilities of the building can not meet the hardware needs of contemporary top hotels, Tang Yuen team in the new building on the 2 floors of the additional swimming pool, 8 floors of the additional computer room, kitchen, etc., for the old building, in the comprehensive renovation of the east, south and north three facades, re-do the air conditioning hot and cold source and water system design, fire design, electrical design, etc., and rearrange the room plan, enlarge the bathroom.
"One of the difficulties of the design is how to use hidden parts or non-key protection areas under the premise of protection, and cleverly implant the device design." Tang Yun recalled that in order to meet the protection requirements and improve the adaptability to modern norms, the design team used a variety of hidden spaces to systematically improve the quality of use. "For example, the skylight of the octagonal atrium is equipped with automatic smoke extraction for fire fighting in the side window of the central raised part; the long and narrow strips are designed above and on both sides of the four oblique wall reliefs in the octagonal atrium to send back the air outlet; the ground floor 'Feng' glyph corridor is hidden in the decorative cabinet to protect the ceiling algae well."
While modernizing the interior, Tang's team also answered the question of "symbiosis of old and new" in urban renewal. "The cornices and windows of the nanjing east road façade of the new building echo the old building, the color of the granite stone on the outer wall is close to the old building and recognizable, and the aluminum alloy insulating glass window is the same as the color and style of the window of the old building."
History is always very similar. In the mid-1990s, Tang Yuen's predecessor Zhang Ming brought back eight murals hidden in paint during the protection and repair of No. 12 Bund (formerly the HSBC Bank Building), and more than a decade later, when her team was repairing No. 20 on the Bund (the north building of the Peace Hotel), the concrete slabs and curved staircases built in the octagonal atrium were demolished, and the public space of the "Feng" glyph corridor on the ground floor was penetrated and restored.
"After moving out of the China Telecom and Foreign Trade Store, we restored the historic appearance of the octagonal atrium as the center of the hotel's public space, and the huge octagonal skylight steel frame remained in place." Tang Yuen recalled that because of the material restrictions at that time, the octagonal skylight built two layers of metal mesh inside and outside in later use to prevent glass chipping, "after removing the metal mesh, apply new materials, update the inner and outer glass as laminated safety glass." At the same time, the inner glass color imitates the original glass slightly old color. ”
2010 Peace Hotel protection and expansion after Chen Borong photo
After the update, the movie "The Wind Listener" was filmed here, and the agent played by Zhou Xun pushed open the glass door and stepped into the grace of the octagonal atrium, and the texture of the golden age of old Shanghai came to the fore, and the history was vividly reproduced here.
In 2013, Tang Yuen published "The Protection and Expansion of the Peace Hotel", and Professor Wu Jiang, former vice president of Tongji University, pointed out in the preface: "This book tells us a story about the past and present life of the Peace Hotel; tells how a group of architects can revitalize a building in its old age; and let us see the great charm of historical and cultural heritage." ”
Every repair deserves a real deal
If the Peace Hotel is a monument to the Bund, then the Sihang Warehouse is a historical monument to China's War of Resistance.
This national key cultural relics protection unit is the hometown where Xie Jinyuan led the "Eight Hundred Heroes" to launch the Sihang Warehouse Defense War in 1937.
In 2014, led by Tang Yuen, the Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute undertook the design of the protection and utilization of the Sihang Warehouse and the partial restoration of the anti-Japanese war sites, in order to achieve the design requirements of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee to "respect history and comprehensively, completely and accurately reproduce the war scene at that time", for the western wall with the most intense fighting and the most damaged, the design team used a variety of technical methods to deeply explore the remains of its shell hole. "First, the infrared thermal imager was used to conduct non-destructive exploration of whether there was a hole in the western wall, masonry with a similar thermal conductivity; at the same time, the historical photos of the western wall of the battle opening were recorded by photogrammetry technology analysis, and the location of the opening was accurately restored on the façade drawings; after positioning and stripping off the painting of the inner wall of the wall, it was finally found that the initial wall of the Sihang warehouse was red brick masonry, and after the war in 1937, the shell opening was sealed with green bricks, and then the history of internal and external painting was made. The green and red brick masonry border basically reflects the situation of the wall opening at that time, and the location of the shell opening in the historical photos is really confirmed by the physical object. ”
2015 Protected and restored the western wall of the four-line warehouse photographed by Chen Borong
In the face of history that cannot be forgotten, every repair is worthy of truth. Tang Yuen believes that the protection and repair of historical buildings should always adhere to the basic principles of "respecting history", "authenticity" and "integrity", strengthen research, hierarchical classification protection, and scientifically select appropriate new functions.
In 2021, urban renewal rose to the level of national strategy, and relevant policies also entered an intensive introduction period in August: the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council recently issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Protection and Inheritance of History and Culture in Urban and Rural Construction, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued a notice on preventing large-scale demolition and construction in the implementation of urban renewal actions a month ago, and the Shanghai Urban Renewal Regulations were officially implemented from September 1.
On September 15, at the seminar on the latest policies for urban renewal organized by the Shanghai Architectural Society, Tang Yuen once again emphasized the importance and necessity of classified and hierarchical protection of historical buildings and preserved buildings: "The Shanghai Urban Renewal Regulations are very much in line with the urgent issue of Large-scale Old Renovation in Shanghai. In terms of historical and cultural protection and inheritance, Shanghai has long had this awareness, among which there is a very clear classification and grading protection of excellent historical buildings, which is usually called protection buildings; for retained buildings, the current guiding policy gives room for operation, hoping to strengthen the implementation guidelines for classification and grading retention and transformation on the basis of this regulation. ”
Editor-in-charge: Chen Yun
Proofreader: Liu Wei