Architectural Style of Nanjing Republican Buildings

Architectural style is the result of the integration of many factors such as politics, economy, science and technology, culture, climate, geography and national psychology of an era. During the Republic of China period, among the major cities in the country, the architecture of Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Dalian, Changchun, Shenyang, Harbin and other cities embodied more "westernization", especially Shanghai, which was called the "Architectural Exhibition Hall of Nations". These buildings for these cities, is not the inevitable development of urban history, nor is the continuation of the city's historical lineage, they are more or less with a politically and culturally imposed color, there is a passive component in it. In a sense, is China's modern history and East-West relations in the history of a "freak". Nanjing is not. Nanjing's Republic of China architecture does not contain any political and cultural imposition of ingredients in it, it is the active absorption. China's northern architecture of the rough and thick, southern architecture of the dexterity of the delicate, and the Western classical architecture of the elegant and graceful, modern architecture of the simple and bright both mutual **** existence, and intermingled with each other, constituting a beautiful picture of the city of prosperity will be. Until today, the Republic of China building is still Nanjing city architecture in a landscape, people stop and linger.

Nanjing Republic of China building existing condition, both in terms of the existing area, or in terms of the number, in the country are unique. These buildings have a variety of genres, unique shapes and styles. In a nutshell, Nanjing's Republic of China building mainly has six styles.

One is the traditional Chinese national form of architecture. Mostly wood or brick structure, most of them are single-story, a few are double, palaces, temples are mostly heavy eaves hysterical roof, residential houses are mostly herringbone roof. During the Republic of China period, this form of architecture basically inherited the old functional layout, technical system and style, maintaining the traditional character and vernacular features that are adapted to local conditions and materials. In the traditional national form of architecture in Nanjing, in addition to a large number of residential houses, ancient temples are generally composed of courtyards with multiple buildings, and the courtyards are connected by axes to form a building complex. Usually the plan is a symmetrical layout, the central axis of the distribution of the main buildings of the temple.

The second is the Western eclectic architecture. Eclectic architecture is the 1820s in Europe and the United States in some countries popular in a kind of architectural style. This style of building arbitrarily imitate the history of various types of architectural styles, or a combination of various architectural forms, do not pay attention to the fixed French, only seek proportionality, focusing on the beauty of the pure form. This type of building in the late Qing Dynasty after the opening of the port of Nanjing is more popular. After the establishment of the Republic of China, this type of building gradually faded out.

Third is the Western classical architecture (also known as Western classical architecture). It mainly refers to the classical architecture that emerged from France in the late 17th century. It is characterized by the classical columnar style as the basis of the composition, highlighting the axis, focusing on the proportion, emphasizing symmetry, and paying attention to the master-slave relationship. This style of architecture is mostly used in court buildings, monumental buildings and large public **** buildings. Classical architecture centered on France, first spread to other European countries, and later influenced some other regions of the world. Around the beginning of the 20th century, this style of architecture appeared on the campus of Nanjing. The fourth is the traditional Chinese palace style of modern architecture. This style of architecture is an attempt by Chinese and Western architects to combine traditional Chinese architectural shapes with modern Western construction techniques, which began to appear in Nanjing in the late 19th century. After the national government set its capital in Nanjing, it was clearly emphasized in the Capital Plan formulated in 1929 that the architecture of the capital Nanjing should be "in the form inherent in China, and public offices and public **** buildings should be adopted as much as possible". Because of this kind of "new function, old form" of the building both in line with the functional needs of modern architecture, but also can show the appearance of traditional Chinese architecture, in line with the requirements of the times, so in the last century 20 ~ 30 years in Nanjing, this style of building has become a wave of fashion.

This style of building appeared earlier in the church school. The reason for adopting this style of architecture in church schools was to utilize the inherent architectural forms of China to express the church's gesture of respecting Chinese culture in order to make Chinese students unconsciously accept the influence of Western culture in the atmosphere of traditional architecture. Since then, this style of architecture has expanded to include large monumental, administrative and public **** buildings.

Fifth, the new national form of architecture (also known as modernized national form of architecture). 1930s, some insightful Chinese architects saw the contradiction between traditional Chinese architectural forms and the combination of modern Western architectural technology and modern architectural functions, while taking into account the expensive cost of palatial buildings, time-consuming and labor-intensive, as well as dull architectural pattern, and thus put forward the idea of innovation, against the cumbersome Retroism form, against the big roof, exploring the organic integration of Chinese and Western architecture, to create a new national form with both the flavor of the times and traditional characteristics.

This kind of building generally adopts the planar combination of modern architectural composition, mostly adopts reinforced concrete flat roof, or adopts the modern roof frame with two slopes, simple and symmetrical modeling, and applies traditional Chinese architectural decorations in the gables, walls, doors, windows, entrances, and interiors, and is supplemented by appropriate traditional architectural patterns. This kind of building takes into account the needs of western modern building technology, modern building function, and at the same time with the Chinese national style, the pursuit of new functions, new technology, new shape and national style of the harmony and unity. In the 1930s, Nanjing's exploration of this form of architecture was in a leading position in the country.

Sixth, the Western modernist architecture (also known as Western modernist architecture). After the First World War, due to changes in the political, economic and social conditions of thought in Europe, Western modernist architecture came into being. This style of architecture emphasizes the architectural style with the times, and advocates to get rid of the historical outdated architectural style of bondage, and actively use new materials and new structures, to create a new architectural style reflecting the characteristics of the times. Because this style of architecture is practical, economical and beautiful, easy to apply new materials and new structures, so once produced, quickly spread around the world.

In the 1930s, this trend of thinking affected Chinese architects. They followed the pulse of the times and designed and built buildings in this style in Nanjing and other places. After the victory in the war, this style became the most commonly used architectural style in emerging buildings.