Can you tell us about the Shikumen culture? The more detailed the better!

When we talk about Shanghai's residential houses, we naturally think of Shikumen.

Shikumen is the most characteristic residential house in Shanghai. Shanghai's old alleys are generally Shikumen buildings, which originated in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising period, when the war forced the rich merchants, landlords, government officials along the Jiangsu and Zhejiang have to raise their families to seek refuge in the rental sector, foreign real estate developers to take advantage of the opportunity to build a large number of homes. In the twenties and thirties of the last century, the enclosure is still the main feature of the Shanghai residence, but no longer pay attention to the carving, but the pursuit of simplicity, multi-entry into a single entry, a combination of Chinese and Western Shikumen residence came into being. This building absorbed a lot of the style of the Jiangnan residence, with stone as the door frame, solid thick wood to do the door, this building is therefore named "Shikumen".

China's ordinary stamps in the 23rd group of "China's residential houses" in the Shanghai residential pattern is used in the Shikumen building. The Chinese ****production party was also born in a typical Shikumen building on Wangzhi Road (now No. 76 Xingye Road).

Shanghai has always enjoyed the reputation of "universal architectural exposition". On the Bund side of the road, a block of Gothic, Romanesque, Renaissance, Baroque and other Chinese and Western, very different styles of the towering buildings show the elegance of architectural art. Similarly, Shanghai's modern residential architecture can also be described as oceanic, colorful. Walking in the streets and alleys, savoring these Shanghai residential houses, you will feel that the unique charm of the old house is also a beautiful scenery.

The Shikumen house was born from the traditional Chinese courtyard. In the late nineteenth century, the traditional wooden structure with brick walls began to appear in Shanghai. These houses were called "Shikumen" because of the use of stone for the exterior doors. As a product of architecture and culture, the Shikumen, which is a fusion of Chinese and Western architectural art, has left a deep imprint on China's modern architectural history. Its emergence is an inevitable part of urban life. The modernized life in the western style has broken the traditional living pattern of the large courtyard family, and replaced it with the Shikumen alley culture which is suitable for single immigrants and small families to live in. In Shikumen, there are "pavilions", "parlors", "rooms", "patios", and "second landlords". Shikumen-related terms such as "second landlord", "sister-in-law of the white face" and "seventy-two tenants" have become warm memories for the old Shanghai people.

Shikumen architecture flourished in the 1920s, occupying more than three-quarters of all residential buildings at that time, and nearly 40% of the city's citizens still live in Shikumen, which has a history of more than a century.

Shikumen is a two-story house with a brick structure, a sloping roof often with slotted windows, red brick exterior walls, and a traditional Chinese pagoda at the entrance. The main door is made of two solid black lacquered wooden doors with wooden shafts to open and turn, often equipped with a door ring, and the sound of banging in and out echoes in the old Shikumen alley. The lintel of the door is made of traditional brick carving with a green tile roof, and the details of the exterior wall are carved with western architecture. There is a balcony on the second floor, and the overall layout adopts the European townhouse style. Nowadays, Shanghai pays attention to the preservation of old buildings, and some of the Shikumen Lilong, which has the characteristics of Shanghai school, is preserved as a whole group of modern excellent buildings.

The most typical feature of Shikumen lilong houses is the combination of Chinese and Western styles. Shikumen has the form of Jiangnan traditional two-story triple or quadrangle courtyard, generally entering the door is a small patio, after the patio for the living room, after another patio, the back patio is the stove and the back door, the patio and the living room on both sides of the left and right side of the room, the first floor of the stove room above the "pavilion room", and then up to the sun terrace. In general, the layout of the townhouse is of European origin, and the details of the outer walls are carved with Western architectural patterns, and the triangular or rounded header decorations on the doors are also mostly of Western patterns.

The Shanghai residence has the name of "Lane", people in other cities can not even read the word sound, in fact, "Lane" is just different from the street house "Hutong" of the general term. In fact, "Lane" is just a common name for "Hutong", which is different from street houses. In the early days, most of the Shikumen were called lanes, li, which is what we often call "li lang", or "lane hall". Lane halls were often called lanes, miles, squares, villages, apartments, villas, and so on, with the level rising gradually. The latter are also known as new-style lilong, living conditions have been significantly better than the early old Shikumen, with European-style fireplaces, roof chimneys, vents, large bathrooms, etc.

New-style lilongs are also known as new-style lilongs.

The new-style lilong houses appeared in the late 1920s in the Concession, and in general they were closer to the architectural style of modern European houses than the Shikumen. The architectural form is mostly a mixed structure, focusing on the use of function. The new-style lilong has a chic and neat appearance, exquisite and comfortable decoration, spacious outdoor lanes, green courtyard in front of the building, and a beautiful living environment, which is different from the old-style Shikumen.

The large glass balcony on the front makes the house more well-ventilated and lighted; Shaanan Village (the former Royal Garden, No. 151, South Shaanxi Road) was built by the French Catholic Church in 1930, and was inhabited by foreigners before the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and consists of butterfly-type point-like four-storey residences in an architectural cluster.

In addition to Shanghai's residential buildings, the apartment buildings reflect the elegance and splendor of modern architectural art, reflecting the cityscape of Shanghai and the ingenuity of architects. The building apartments were concentrated in the busy commercial and transportation roads at that time, and most of them were inhabited by Chinese and foreign senior staff before the liberation of the People's Republic of China. Appreciating such buildings is like appreciating a piece of art. For example, the Yongye Building on Yandang Road in Huaihai Middle Road adopts a four-sided roof and a rounded roof at the corner, forming a unique roof profile of the building. For example, the Wukang Building (Dongmeit Apartment) on Huaihai Road, the earliest corridor apartment in Shanghai, and the Mitan Apartment on Wukang Road, a characteristic bionic building. These buildings will look short and old in the modern complex, but their unique sense of vicissitude and nobility is incomparable to the high-rise nouveau riche.

In Shanghai's Xuhui, Luwan, Jing'an and other districts, there are some quiet roads, both sides of the courtyard for the deep garden houses. Garden houses emerged in the 1930s and 1940s, mainly to meet the needs of bureaucrats, foreign businessmen, buyers, industrialists, artists and other residential needs. Garden houses were romantic and charming mansions with wide lawns and trees, many with marble statues or fountains as the center of the garden, and some high-class houses had tennis courts and swimming pools to show the luxury of the house. There are more garden houses along Huaihai Road and Xinhua Road. These homes are French, Spanish, Norwegian, English country house style, comfortable and chic, soft colors, can be described as a variety of elegant and elegant. Although the years have passed, but that can not hide the luxury, that if the mystery, but it is very emotional.

After the liberation, the government built "1,002" and "20,000" houses, and in 1951 built the first post-liberation workers' village in Shanghai and the whole country - Cao Yang New Village. In 1951, the first new workers' village after the liberation of Shanghai and the whole country was built - Cao Yang Xincun. However, these "matchbox"-style "labor houses" were simple and crowded, and could only solve the urgent problem of housing for the citizens. The old houses in the city also became the "new 72 tenants" due to the dense population. With the gradual development of the city, Shanghai residential has diluted the concept of region, a beautiful environment, chic style of residential areas springing up, the turn of the century, the Shanghai residential more comfortable, beautiful, green rate, it is the Shanghai Universal Architecture Exposition added modern art charm.

Shikumen

Shikumen is the most representative residential building in Shanghai, and is often regarded as one of the symbols of Shanghai's modern urban civilization.

Early Shikumen was created in the early 1870s, and it is derived from the residential form of Jiangnan houses, which are generally three-room or five-roomed, maintaining the symmetrical layout of traditional Chinese architecture with a central axis. In the old Shikumen house, the entrance is a long horizontal patio, flanked by the left and right compartments, and directly opposite is the parlor room with long windows and floor-to-ceiling windows. The hall is about 4 meters wide and 6 meters deep, and it is a place for meeting guests and banquets. On both sides of the parlor is the second room, behind which there is a wooden escalator leading to the second floor, and then there is the back patio, the depth of which is only half of that of the front patio, and there is a water well. Behind the back patio is a single-storey sloping annex, which is usually used as kitchen, utility room and storage room. The whole house has entrances at the front and back, and the front fa?ade consists of the wall of the patio and the wall of the compartments, with the "Shikumen" in the center, which is made of stone as the door frame with black lacquered and thick wooden doors; and the back wall is roughly of the same height as the front wall, forming a nearly closed fa?ade. Therefore, although the Shikumen is located in the downtown area, there is still a little bit of high walls and deep courtyard, the benefits of quiet in the middle of the city, quite popular with the Chinese gentry who lived in the rental sector at that time, the rich merchants welcome.

After the 1910s, the old-style Shikumen was gradually replaced by the new-style Shikumen. Most of the new-style Shikumen adopt single-room or double-room, double-room Shikumen only retains the front and rear compartments on one side, and the single-room completely eliminates the compartments. The biggest change in the internal structure of the new Shikumen is that the attached house at the back is changed from a sloping roof to a flat roof, on which a small bedroom is built, i.e. the pavilion room. The roof of the pavilion room is made of reinforced concrete flat slabs, surrounded by a railing wall, which is used as a sun terrace. In order to reduce the footprint and save building materials, the new Shikumen also reduces the depth of the living room and lowers the height of the floors and walls.

Compared with the old-style Shikumen, the new-style Shikumen in the appearance is also different, the new-style Shikumen exterior wall surface more water brick, red brick or a mixture of green and red bricks, lime hooks, rather than as the old-style Shikumen as white lime stucco, the old-style Shikumen commonly used horse-head wall or the Guanyin Pocket type of wall has also been no longer used. Another important difference is that the new-style Shikumen no longer use stone for the doorframe, but instead use bricks with clear water, and the decoration of the lintel has also become more elaborate. Early Shikumen lintel often imitated the traditional architecture of Jiangnan Yi Men, made of traditional Chinese brick tile roof door head style, while the new Shikumen by the influence of Western architectural style, commonly used triangular, semi-circular, curved or rectangular decorations, similar to the Western architecture of the upper part of the door and window of the mountain flower frieze, these decorations in various forms, styles are different, is the most distinctive part of the Shikumen building. Some new-style Shikumen will also use the style of Western classical pilasters on both sides of the door frame as decoration. In short, the new Shikumen is more westernized in architectural style.

By the mid-1930s, with the rise of new lanes and garden lanes, the Shikumen was no longer in the limelight, and began to gradually degenerate into a shelter for the lower class of the city. But no one expected, Shikumen is now a salty fish, out of the limelight. Shikumen "whole old as old" Xintiandi has become Shanghai's most fashionable abode, where the Shikumen is five viscera and six bowels were hollowed out, leaving only a false shell for people to go to the memorial, remembrance.