The Origin and Definition of Lingnan Architecture
1949 Before the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), until the first 10 year after the founding of the People's Republic of China, although the architectural community occasionally called it Guangdong architecture, it did not refer to Lingnan architecture. With the development of new China architecture and the outstanding achievements of Guangdong architecture, the name of Lingnan architecture is gradually accepted by people. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, all walks of life were in full swing, and China architecture ushered in a good opportunity for great development. In the mid-1950s, retro-ism prevailed in the construction industry at that time, which caused a "big roof" wind, leading to the invisible rule that "all buildings must build big roofs". Facing the rolling trend of retro-ism, Guangdong architects who are deeply influenced by Lingnan culture and "dare to be the first in the world" have not followed suit. They showed flexibility in their actions (for example, Guangdong Science Museum designed by Mr. Ke completed in 1956, and Building No.2 of South China University of Technology designed by Mr. Xia Changshi completed in 1954, which made flexibility in the roof form and the use of bucket arches) and began to consciously explore the local and artistic characteristics of Guangdong architecture. From 65438 to 0959, Comrade Liu Xiufeng, then Minister of Architectural Engineering of China, put forward the requirements and initiatives of "creating a new socialist architectural style in China" at the national symposium on architectural art. Since 1960, Guangdong architectural circles have had a heated and serious discussion on "new architecture" and "new style". The central topic of discussion is: Should Guangdong architecture have its own characteristics? In the discussion, everyone agreed that Guangdong has its own characteristics, and Guangdong architecture should also have its own characteristics, that is, it should have the characteristics of Lingnan architecture. At the same time, Guangdong architectural circles also began to try to summarize and summarize the previous architectural practices.
Theoretically speaking, the time when Lingnan architecture was formally put forward was 1957. Its symbol is that Mr. Xia Changshi, a professor of architecture at South China University of Technology (1988 renamed South China University of Technology), published a paper entitled "Ventilation, Heat Insulation and Shading" in 1957 Journal of Architecture. Professor Xia Changshi pointed out that Lingnan architecture should have its own characteristics to meet the requirements of ventilation, heat insulation and shading. The characteristics of Lingnan architecture (Guangdong new architecture) are discussed for the first time. This is the theoretical origin of Lingnan architecture. Since then, Lingnan architecture has been gradually recognized, accepted and recognized by people, enjoying a high reputation in the national architectural community and becoming synonymous with new architecture in Guangdong. "Lingnan" originally refers to the vast area south of the five geographical mountains (Yuechengling, Dupangling, Mingzhu, Qitianling and Dayuling), but "Lingnan Architecture" refers to the buildings in Guangdong after the founding of the People's Republic of China, or the new buildings in Guangdong. It is in this sense that the ancient buildings in Guangdong are called Lingnan ancient buildings, and the modern buildings in Guangdong from 1840 to 1949 are called Lingnan modern buildings. As far as Guangdong architecture is concerned, its focus is on the Pearl River Delta region of Guangfu language family. Therefore, the Pearl River Delta architecture with Guangzhou as the center has become the most important content of Lingnan architecture.
Due to the uniqueness and superiority of Guangdong in terms of geographical conditions, historical conditions, economic conditions and human conditions, Guangdong's architecture often dominated the national atmosphere in various construction periods of new China, such as the Mineral Spring Villa and Guangzhou Friendship Theatre in the 1950s and 1960s, the Canton Fair and baiyun hotel in the 1970s, the White Swan Hotel and the International Trade Building in the 1980s.
With the prosperity and successful practice of new buildings in Guangdong, on the one hand, domestic architectural circles have learned and summarized the successful experience of this practice, on the other hand, they have begun theoretical debates and academic discussions on the regionality, times and culture of new buildings in Guangdong represented by the above buildings. In this debate, one of the most fundamental issues is the academic definition of Lingnan architecture. At present, there are three main viewpoints in academic circles. The first is the "regional theory". Starting from the geographical concept of Lingnan, this view holds that Lingnan architecture is built in Lingnan area, including buildings in Guangdong, Hainan, Hong Kong and Macao, southern Fujian, southwestern Guangxi and southern Taiwan Province Province. The second is "style theory". People who hold this view believe that Lingnan architecture is a building with unique Lingnan cultural and artistic style, which is mainly manifested in plane elevation design, structural modeling of building components and architectural decoration rich in Lingnan regional culture. The third is "process theory". Different from the first two viewpoints, the process theorists focus on the creative subject of architectural art and its creative practice activities, and think that Lingnan architecture refers to the creative practice activities of innovation, change and continuous exploration in this specific land in Lingnan area. In other words, Lingnan architecture is the abbreviation of Lingnan architectural creation practice.
We believe that the above three viewpoints have their relative rationality and reference significance, but they also have certain limitations, and it is difficult to explain the rich essential connotation of Lingnan architecture. The "regional theory" emphasizes the regionality of architecture, which is helpful to reveal the regional characteristics and technical individuality of Lingnan architecture. However, "Lingnan architecture is a school of architectural creation with its own pursuit and style. Just as not all Lingnan painting schools can be attributed to Lingnan painting schools, not all buildings built in Lingnan area can be called Lingnan architecture. " Style theory is closer to revealing the artistic characteristics of Lingnan architecture, emphasizing the cultural nature of architecture, which is helpful to grasp the cultural and artistic essence of Lingnan architecture. However, denying the technical individuality of architecture in order to emphasize the artistry of architecture is not only contrary to the objective fact that architecture is a combination of technology and art, but also difficult to really explain the style of architecture. Because the artistic style of architecture depends on the technical treatment of building materials, and even the technical level and development of architecture largely determine the formation and evolution of architectural style. The "process theory" emphasizes that architecture is purely creative practice, ignoring the theoretical exploration and experience summary of regional cultural architecture, revealing an irrational tendency that "architectural creation does not need theoretical guidance", which is not conducive to the creative development and theoretical research of Lingnan architecture. In view of this, we put forward a new viewpoint of "cultural regionality" to define Lingnan architecture, so as to express our academic reference and rational recognition of the current Lingnan architecture "regionalism", "style" and "process". The highest standard of architectural aesthetic attribute lies in the unity of regionality, culture and times of architecture. The significance of the theory of "cultural regionality" lies in comprehensively revealing the regionality, culture and times of Lingnan architecture. The theory of "cultural regionality" explains the connotation of Lingnan architecture from three levels, namely, the regional technical characteristics of Lingnan architecture, the spirit of cultural times and the humanistic and artistic character. Lingnan architecture, as an aesthetic object, evokes people's aesthetic feelings and endows people with aesthetic enjoyment, which is often based on its regional technical characteristics, with the spirit of cultural times as the core and humanistic and artistic character as the core. As pioneers of Lingnan architecture, Xia Changshi and Mo pointed out that Lingnan area includes "Guangdong, southern Fujian and southern Guangxi" when discussing Lingnan gardens. These areas are not only similar in geographical environment, but also in people's living habits. Is it the natural, social and humanistic environment of Lingnan that has influenced the formation and development of Lingnan architecture? It has cast the technical personality and humanistic character of Lingnan architecture.
Humanistic character of Lingnan architecture
The humanistic character of architecture mainly refers to the artistic philosophy, design thinking, cultural spirit and aesthetic taste expressed by architectural image elements such as architectural layout, style modeling, spatial combination and detail treatment. The humanism of architecture is based on the technicality of architecture. The technical individuality of architecture refers to the technical expression and characteristics of architecture in plane layout, facade modeling, spatial organization and detail treatment. The technical expression of architecture, from the plane layout of the building to the facade modeling, or the spatial organization and details processing, must follow the principle of objective adaptability of the building. Architecture is man-made, which is the living environment of human beings. Therefore, when designing "man-made" buildings, on the one hand, we should seriously consider the local climate characteristics and topography to consider the layout and modeling of buildings; On the other hand, adhere to people-oriented, always remember that architecture is used by people to meet people's practical and aesthetic needs, realize the architectural design ideal of "returning to nature, returning to the environment and returning to humanity", and show architectural technology. Lingnan architecture has its unique advantages here, and numerous architectural masterpieces have emerged, which has won people's universal praise. The humanistic character of architecture is implicit, indirect and abstract, while the technical character of architecture is explicit, intuitive and vivid. The organic combination of humanistic character and technical personality of architecture constitutes the objective conditions for the generation of architectural beauty.
The humanistic character of architecture is the concrete embodiment of the cultural spirit of a nation, a region and an era, and the humanistic character of Lingnan architecture also reflects the essential characteristics and basic spirit of Lingnan culture. To sum up, there are mainly the following aspects.
The first is tolerant and open personality. The inclusiveness and openness of Lingnan architecture is the external expression of Lingnan culture. Lingnan culture itself is a fusion of different characteristic cultures, and openness and tolerance are its important cultural mechanisms. The forming process of Lingnan culture itself is a process of blending, synthesizing and refining. Especially in the modern culture of Lingnan, "the cultural elites in Lingnan rationally adjusted the conflict between patriotism and the rationality of pursuing progress with an open and sound mind, which not only realized the creative cultural transformation and cultural reconstruction, but also completed the leap from' getting the ethos first' to' opening the ethos first', which gave birth to the modern cultural spirit of Lingnan and promoted the transformation of China culture to the modern form." The inclusiveness and openness of Lingnan architecture have been clearly reflected in many architectural types such as gardens and houses in modern Lingnan. For example, Kaiping Liyuan was built in 1926. "It was built by Xie Weili, an overseas Chinese living in the United States, according to the layout of the Grand View Garden in A Dream of Red Mansions, with the characteristics of western architecture and the beautiful and elegant style of China gardens." Another example is the Lian Fang Building in Baigong Town, Meixian County, Guangdong Province, which was built at 1934. It is a magnificent Hakka residential building that combines Chinese and western styles. The plane layout of the building basically maintains the traditional pattern of "three halls and four horizontals" of Hakka dwellings, but the facade is full of foreign flavor, and the western baroque and rococo style reliefs are adopted on the stigma and column top of the facade. In the decorative content, there are both Chinese Dapeng spreading its wings and lion rolling hydrangea, as well as western culture. Modern and contemporary Lingnan architecture integrates Chinese and western with a stronger consciousness in order to inherit, innovate and develop in an all-round way.