Essay on Chinese Architectural Culture

Lingnan Architecture is a marvelous flower of Chinese architectural art, with distinctive local characteristics and personality traits and rich cultural connotations. In recent years, the exploration of the artistic characteristics of Lingnan architecture is being carried out from all levels, and has received extensive attention and growing importance in the academic world. This paper only on the definition of Lingnan architecture and its humanistic character to make a peep, in order to throw a brick to attract jade.

The origin and definition of Lingnan architecture

Before the founding of the country in 1949, until the first 10 years after the founding of the country, the architectural community, although occasionally called Guangdong building, but there is no mention of Lingnan architecture. Lingnan architecture is accompanied by the development of new China's architectural and construction of Guangdong outstanding achievements and gradually accepted by the people. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, all industries were waiting to flourish, and China's architecture ushered in a good opportunity for great development. in the mid-1950s, the architectural profession was prevalent in retroism, and there was a wind of "big roofs", which gave rise to the invisible rule that "all buildings must be built with big roofs". In the face of the rolling tide of retroism, Guangdong architects, who were y nurtured by Lingnan culture and "dared to be the first in the world", did not follow the trend. They showed flexible adaptability in action (for example, the Guangdong Science Museum designed by Mr. Lin Keming, completed in 1956, and the second building of the present South China University of Technology designed by Mr. Xia Changshi, completed in 1954, made adaptations in the roof form and the use of arches), and began to consciously explore the local characteristics and artistic features of Guangdong's architecture in their thinking. 1959, Comrade Liu Xiufeng, who was the minister of the Ministry of Architecture and Engineering at the time, made a statement at the National Architecture and Construction Conference in Beijing. In 1959, Comrade Liu Xiufeng, who was then the Minister of Architecture and Engineering of China, put forward the request and initiative of "creating a new style of Chinese socialist architecture" at the National Symposium on Architecture and Art. Since 1960, the Guangdong architectural circles have started a warm and serious discussion around "new architecture" and "new style". The central theme of the discussion was: should Guangdong architecture have its own characteristics? It was unanimously agreed that Guangdong has its own characteristics, and Guangdong architecture should also have its own characteristics, i.e. it should have the characteristics of Lingnan architecture. At the same time, the Guangdong architectural community has begun to try to summarize and generalize past architectural practices.

From the theoretical level, the formal proposal of "Lingnan architecture" was made in 1957. The symbol is the then South China Institute of Technology (renamed South China University of Technology in 1988), Professor of the Department of Architecture, Mr. Xia Changshi in 1957 in the Journal of Architecture published a paper entitled "ventilation, heat insulation, shading". Prof. Xia Changshi pointed out that Lingnan buildings should have their own characteristics to meet the requirements of ventilation, heat insulation and sun shading. For the first time, he discussed the characteristics of Lingnan architecture (Guangdong new architecture). This is the origin of Lingnan architecture. Since then, Lingnan architecture has gradually become known, accepted and recognized by the people, well-known in the national architectural circles, and has become synonymous with the new architecture of Guangdong. The term "Lingnan" originally refers to the geographical area south of the Five Ridges (Yuecheng Ridge, Dupang Ridge, Mingzhu Ridge, Riding Field Ridge and Dayu Ridge), but "Lingnan Architecture", from the point of view of the original intention of the theology and the background of the era in which it was proposed and recognized, refers to the architecture of Guangdong after the founding of the PRC, or the new architecture of Guangdong. architecture, or the new architecture of Guangdong. It is in this sense that the ancient architecture of Guangdong is called Lingnan ancient architecture, and the modern architecture of Guangdong from 1840 to 1949 is called Lingnan modern architecture. As far as Guangdong architecture is concerned, its focus is on the Pearl River Delta region of the Guangfu language family. Therefore, the architecture of the Pearl River Delta centered on Guangzhou became the most important element of Lingnan architecture.

Because of the uniqueness and superiority of Guangdong in terms of geography, history, economy and humanities, Guangdong's architecture in the various construction periods of the new China is often the first to open up the national trend, such as the "Mineral Springs Villa" in the 50s and 60s, "Guangzhou Friendship Theater In the 50's and 60's, such as "Mineral Spring Villa" and "Guangzhou Friendship Theater", in the 70's, "Canton Fair" and "Baiyun Hotel", in the 80's, "White Swan Hotel" and "China World Trade Center". The "White Swan Hotel" and "China World Trade Center" in the 80's led the nation's architectural industry to a prosperous situation of architectural creation for several times.

With the prosperous creation and successful practice of Guangdong's new architecture, the domestic architectural circles, on the one hand, studied and summarized the successful experience of this practice, and, on the other hand, started the theoretical controversy and academic discussion on the locality, epochal and cultural nature of Guangdong's new architecture represented by the above mentioned buildings. In this flourishing discussion, one of the most fundamental problems is the academic definition of Lingnan architecture. In this regard, there are currently three main views in the academic community. First, the "regional theory". This point of view from the "Lingnan" geographic concept, that Lingnan building is built in the Lingnan region of the building, including Guangdong, Hainan, Hong Kong and Macao, as well as southern Fujian, southern Guangxi, southern Taiwan and other regions of the building. The second is the "style theory". Holders of this thesis believe that the Lingnan architecture that has a unique Lingnan cultural and artistic style of architecture, this style features are mainly manifested in the Lingnan climate and geographic conditions suitable for the design of the fa?ade, the structure and shape of the building components and rich in the Lingnan regional cultural connotations of the architectural decorations. Third, "process theory". Different from the previous two points of view, process theorists focus on the creative body of architectural art and its creative practice activities, that Lingnan architecture refers to the Lingnan region in this particular piece of land and carry out and carry out the search for new ideas, changes, and continuous exploration of architectural creation and practice activities. In other words, Lingnan Architecture is the abbreviation of Lingnan architectural creative practice activities.

We believe that the above three points of view have their relative rationality and significance, but there are certain limitations, it is difficult to illustrate the richness of the essence of Lingnan architecture. The "regional theory" emphasizes the regionality of architecture, which helps to reveal the regional characteristics and certain aspects of the technical personality of Lingnan architecture. However, "Lingnan architecture is a genre of architectural creation with its own pursuit and style. Just as not all Lingnan paintings can be categorized as 'Lingnan School of Painting', not all buildings built in the Lingnan region can be called 'Lingnan Architecture'". The "style theory" is closer to revealing the artistic characteristics of Lingnan architecture, emphasizing the cultural nature of architecture and helping to grasp the cultural and artistic nature of Lingnan architecture. However, in order to emphasize the artistry of architecture and deny the technical individuality of architecture, it is not only contrary to the objective fact that architecture is a combination of technology and art, but also difficult to truly explain the style of architecture. Because the artistic style of architecture depends on the technical processing of building materials, and even the technical level and development of architecture largely determines the formation and evolution of architectural style. The "Process Theory" emphasizes that architecture is a purely creative and practical activity, disregarding the theoretical exploration and experience of the regional and cultural nature of architecture, which reveals an irrational tendency of "no theoretical guidance is needed for architectural creation", which is not conducive to the creation and development of Lingnan architecture, and is not conducive to the theory and development of Lingnan architecture. This is not conducive to the creation and development of Lingnan architecture, and is not conducive to the theoretical study of Lingnan architecture. In view of this, we put forward the new viewpoint of "cultural and regional character" to define Lingnan architecture, in order to express our concern about the current "regional theory", "style theory" and "process theory" of Lingnan architecture, "process theory" of Lingnan architecture. The highest standard of architectural aesthetic attributes lies in the unity of regional, cultural and contemporary architecture. The significance of the theory of "cultural and regional character" lies in the comprehensive revelation of Lingnan architecture's regional, cultural and contemporary character. The theory of "cultural and regional character" interprets the connotation of Lingnan architecture on three major levels, namely, the regional technical characteristics of Lingnan architecture, the cultural spirit of the times, and the humanistic and artistic character. Lingnan architecture, as an aesthetic object, stirs up people's aesthetic feelings and gives them aesthetic enjoyment, often with its regional technical characteristics as the surface, cultural zeitgeist as the core of humanistic and artistic character. Xia Changshi and Mo Bozhi two predecessors, as a pioneer of Lingnan architecture, in the discussion of Lingnan garden, pointed out that the Lingnan region includes "Guangdong, southern Fujian and southern Guangxi? These areas are not only geographically similar, people's habits also have a lot of **** the same place". It is the Lingnan region's natural, social and human environment, affecting the formation and development of Lingnan architecture? Cast the technical personality and humanistic character of Lingnan architecture.

The humanistic character of Lingnan architecture

The humanistic character of architecture mainly refers to the artistic philosophy, design thinking, cultural spirit and aesthetic interest expressed through the architectural layout, style modeling, spatial combinations and detailed treatment of architectural image elements. The humanistic character of architecture is based on the technical personality of architecture. The technical personality of the building refers to the technical performance methods and characteristics of the building's plan layout, fa?ade modeling, spatial organization, detail treatment and other aspects. The technical performance of architecture, from plan layout to fa?ade modeling, or spatial organization and detailing, must follow the principle of objective adaptability of architecture1. Architecture is man-made and for people's living environment, so, in the "man-made" that is, when designing and constructing buildings, on the one hand, we should seriously consider the local climatic characteristics, topography and terrain to consider the layout and modeling of the building, and on the other hand, we should adhere to the principle of human-centeredness, and always keep in mind that the building is for the use of people to meet the practical and aesthetic needs of the people. On the other hand, it should adhere to the principle of people-oriented and always keep in mind that buildings are for people's use and meet people's practical and aesthetic needs, thus realizing the architectural design ideals of "returning to nature, returning to the environment, and returning to human nature", so as to reveal the technical individuality and humanistic character of buildings. Lingnan architecture has its unique strengths in this regard, and has produced countless architectural masterpieces that have won people's general praise. The humanistic character of architecture is implicit, indirect and abstract, while the technical personality of architecture is explicit, intuitive and figurative. The organic combination of humanistic character and technical personality of the building, *** with the objective conditions that constitute the generation of architectural beauty.

The humanistic character of architecture is a nation, a region, a specific embodiment of the cultural spirit of the times, the humanistic character of Lingnan architecture also reflects the essential characteristics of Lingnan culture and the basic spirit. To summarize, there are mainly the following aspects.

One is the eclectic and open character. Lingnan building inclusive and open character is Lingnan culture integration and openness of an external manifestation. Lingnan culture itself is a blend of many different qualities of culture, openness, integration is an important cultural mechanism. The formation process of Lingnan culture itself is a kind of integration, synthesis and condensation. Especially in the modern Lingnan culture, "after a reasonable adjustment to the conflict between patriotic emotion and rationality in pursuit of progress, the cultural elites in Lingnan region, with an open and sound mind, not only realized a creative cultural transformation and cultural reconstruction on the basis of the integration of Chinese and Western cultural traditions of excellence, but also accomplished the transition from 'being the first in the trend' to 'being the first in the culture'. the first of the trend' to 'opening the first of the trend', giving birth to the Lingnan modern cultural spirit that promotes the transformation of Chinese culture into its modern form." The inclusive and open character of Lingnan architecture is clearly expressed in the modern gardens, residential buildings and other building types in Lingnan. For example, the Kaiping Liyuan Garden, built in 1926, "was constructed by Xie Weili, an overseas Chinese who traveled to the United States, in accordance with the layout of the Grand View Garden in The Dream of the Red Chamber, by combining the characteristics of Western architecture with the beautiful and elegant style of Chinese gardens." Another example is the Lianfang Building in Baigong Town, Meixian County, Guangdong Province, which was completed in 1934 and is a Hakka residential building that combines Chinese and Western styles with opulence and splendor. The building's layout basically maintains the traditional pattern of Hakka houses "three halls and four horizontals", but the fa?ade modeling is full of foreign style, the front fa?ade in the columns, the top of the columns in the Western Baroque, Rococo style reliefs. In the decoration of the content of the subject, both Chinese-style roc wings, lions rolling embroidered balls and other subjects, but also reveals the content of Western cultural flavor. Contemporary Lingnan architecture with a stronger sense of self-awareness of the integration of Chinese and Western, in order to inheritance and innovation, comprehensive development.