China News Service, Shanghai, January 23: Title: The Shanghai version of the arcade scenery is "dressed up": activating architecture to continue memory
China News Service reporter Zheng Yingying
The long walkways and high colonnades can not only block the sun but also the rain. Walking on the streets of Shanghai, tourists will be surprised to find that Shanghai also has its own arcade scenery.
"The roasted chestnuts in autumn and winter are filled with the expectations of the aunts at nine o'clock every morning, looking forward to the boss's words: Nong is here!" "You Dunzi, a classic snack that I grew up with, hides the taste of childhood and the warmth of the neighborhood in my memory. ." Xilingjiazhai Road in Shanghai's Huangpu District has recently changed its appearance. The shops under the high colonnades are neat and tidy, and some fabric display banners that can evoke people's memories are hung above.
Beside the colonnade, there are seats called "dancing chairs", which are "interlocked" and add to the scenery of the street.
Data map of the renovated and updated arcade on Jiazhai Road in Xiling.
(Photo courtesy of Bansongyuan Street, Huangpu District, Shanghai)
Xilingjiazhai Road is not long, about 333 meters. The blocks around the road were once the earlier dilapidated sheds renovated in the central city of Shanghai in the 1990s. The arcade colonnades facing the street have a Nanyang style. There are restaurants, department stores, and restaurants on both sides of the street. Food markets and other shops.
Jiang Yu, the chief designer of the Xilingjiazhai Road renewal project, said in an interview with a reporter from China News Service that arcades are not a spontaneously formed "architectural language" in Shanghai, but if we compare buildings to people, how we look at buildings is like how we look at a person. People's pride and status in this city have passed by as time goes by. Protecting one's dignity is equivalent to continuing the memory of a city.
Although Xilingjiazhai Road does not have the "identity" of a protected building, the architectural designers hope to "activate" this arcade landscape and make it rejuvenated through renovation and renewal.
When Jiang Yu's team first took over the Xilingjiazhai Road renewal project, the arcade was covered with intricate equipment in an disorderly manner, making it look a little "shabby" and "unable to make up for anything."
"We can no longer wrap it up into a 'mummy', but sort out the inside and then carry out 'beautification' from the outside," he said.
The updated arcade on Xilingjiazhai Road has greatly improved its appearance, and the corridor that can protect it from wind and rain has been tidy and widened. It is not only popular among surrounding residents, but even pedestrians passing by are more willing to pass by.
As a modern commercial and residential building, arcades with upstairs and downstairs corridors are common in Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan and other places in China. They are rare in Shanghai. However, as Jiang Yu said, buildings of different styles are witnesses of Shanghai’s development from the opening of the port to the port of Shanghai. Moving towards modernity and the "cultural capital" of the future, these buildings "fix" the era and deserve to be respected.
At present, Jinling East Road, a road to protect the arcade style that has attracted much attention in Shanghai, is also being "renovated". This road was once known as the "Four Major Commercial Streets in Shanghai" along with Nanjing East Road, Huaihai Middle Road, and Sichuan North Road.
Last year, the Kerry Jinling Road project started. In the future, it is planned to form the largest arcade architectural style protection zone in East China.
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