Shanghai traditional residential area

Lane is a unique residential building in Shanghai, just like countless hutongs in Beijing. Shikumen is the endorsement of Shanghai.

If you come to Shanghai and want to feel the real Shanghai life and the original Shanghai life, you have to mention a very special building here in Shanghai, which is a unique product of Shanghai, that is Shikumen. How many story allusions and celebrity memories are intertwined here, happening here and staged here.

Shikumen is the most representative residential building in Shanghai, and is usually regarded as one of the symbols of modern urban civilization in Shanghai. There are many old Shikumen houses near Xintiandi, Zizhong Road and Tianzifang. After the government's re-planning and transformation, it has become a fashionable model. But for friends who come to visit and travel, this appreciation can only stay on the surface. If you want to feel the real Shanghai, you should go to the old city of Shanghai and really feel the Shikumen where ordinary people still live.

When you walk in the streets of Shanghai, in those old cities, you can see the alleys everywhere, houses with a sense of the times, hanging bamboo poles, shining stoves, and the smell of food floating outside the window. If you open the window in spring and summer, you can't look up at the phoenix tree. This is the real life in Shanghai.

Shikumen can be said to be a microcosm of Shanghai society. In the long years, Shanghai residents worked hard here, revolutionaries worked secretly here, and scholars and artists bred their works here.

Shikumen dwellings originated in the middle and late19th century. When Shanghai opened its port, the concession was formed. The social war forced a large number of wealthy businessmen and bureaucrats from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to gather and flood into the Shanghai Concession. Seek asylum. Foreign developers took the opportunity to build a large number of townhouses and rent them to China people.

Shikumen dwellings were born out of traditional quadrangles in China. /kloc-In the late 20th century, houses built with traditional wooden structures and brick walls began to appear in Shanghai. Because the outer door of this kind of residence is made of stone, it is called "Shikumen". As a product of architecture and culture, Shikumen, a combination of Chinese and Western culture, left a deep impression on the modern architectural history of China. Its appearance is a necessity of city life.

In terms of pattern, Shikumen is the product of the combination of Chinese and western cultures, and the western connection arrangement, European roof and pattern are obviously the brand of western culture; The elements of Jiangnan folk houses have also been absorbed in large quantities: dark solid thick wood as the gate and stone as the door frame; Of course, this typical Shanghai flavor between the patio and the living room is also integrated into it. It is definitely a "mixed-blood building" with historical representativeness and a combination of Chinese and western.

Shikumen is mostly a two-story building with brick and wood structure, which has the form of traditional two-story quadrangles or quadrangles in the south of the Yangtze River. Generally, the entrance is a small patio, followed by a living room, followed by a sun well, and the patio behind is a stove and a back door. There are left and right wings on both sides of the patio and living room. On the first floor, there is a "pavilion" above the kitchen, and then a terrace. Inclined roofs often have tiger windows and cantilevered balconies on the second floor.

The gate adopts two Chinese wooden doors with solid black paint, with wooden shafts as the pivot, and is often equipped with knockers. The lintel adopts the traditional brick-carved green tile roof, and the exterior wall is carved with western-style buildings in detail. European townhouse style is adopted between buildings. The carved patterns of western architecture are mostly used in the details of red brick exterior walls, and the triangular or round door heads on the doors are mostly decorated with western patterns. There is a traditional archway in China.

At that time, Shikumen Hutong was one of the most powerful hutongs in Shanghai. They inherited some deep houses and courtyards and had the face of an official residence. They made all the strict barriers on a door and a wall. After more than a century's evolution, this new Shikumen residence imitated the western townhouses in appearance, and kept the traditional pattern of China, which was very popular with the middle class families at that time.

However, with the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, some middle-income families began to lack money, and renting out some space in the house became the simplest and most effective way to make money. As a result, Shikumen, which originally paid attention to the pattern and cultural beauty, was randomly and eagerly transformed. The original living space was rapidly squeezed, and the influx of refugees changed the class of Shikumen.

After the 20th century 10, the old Shikumen was gradually replaced by the new Shikumen. The modern life with foreign flavor has broken the traditional life mode of quadrangle-style big family and replaced it with Shikumen Hutong culture suitable for single immigrants and small families.

From the initial design of a house number to a family, and later lived in many families, most of the public areas of Shikumen were occupied by several people, such as bringing a bathroom in the patio, and people who didn't bring it could not bring it. Today's Shikumen is full of Shikumen outside, but it is crowded and tight inside. So the scene we see today, from the present Shikumen life, is difficult to imagine its original appearance from the elegant life of meat.

Now the city is updated, not giving up day and night. The old Shikumen building, which appeared almost at the same time as the opening history of Shanghai, has been listed as a protected area by the government. Different from other protected cultural relics, it is a living thing in continuous use, not a cold exhibit in a museum exhibition hall. Each Shikumen has its own different construction years, different living styles and different modes. The general principle is to protect the essence of old alleys, and then put in new elements belonging to modern life to meet the development needs of the times.

The Shikumen in Lane 96 of Shaoxing Road is one of the best preserved Shikumen in Shanghai. Many movies and TV series that show the theme of old Shanghai like to come here to take pictures. The residents here have seen the world, and they will not be surprised to see someone carrying a camera or running around in the alley. It seems that the cultural atmosphere on Shaoxing Road has penetrated into their bone marrow.

If you have time, you might as well take a walk on Shaoxing Road. After visiting Shikumen, you can feel this well-known road full of humanistic atmosphere.