Brief introduction of Guangzhou arcade

Shangxiajiu Street in Guangzhou, like Wangfujing in Beijing, Chenghuang Temple in Shanghai and Confucius Temple in Nanjing, is the most influential traditional commercial street in Guangzhou. In addition to its prosperity, this street has another feature, that is, its unique building-arcade. In this program, I will introduce the arcade buildings in Guangzhou.

The arcade building is an architectural form of commercial buildings facing the street in Guangzhou and Lingnan area in the early 20th century. It first prevailed in southern Europe and the Mediterranean. At the beginning of the 20th century, when Guangzhou opened its port, it combined the western classical architectural form with the traditional form of Guangzhou and evolved into a unique "arcade" building in Guangzhou. At that time, the arcades on the second and fourth floors were built by rich people, so today, although it is not high, it is exquisite and luxurious.

For the overall balance of the arcade, the building is supported by two legs, which are called colonnade. Looking up from the colonnade, the exterior wall has floors, mountain flowers and colorful decorative materials, and the wall under the window sill often has various patterns or bas-reliefs. Manchu windows made of glass and wooden lattice have the most architectural features in China. The mountain flowers on the roof and the breast wall are unique elements of western ancient buildings. The overall style of the arcade is a combination of Chinese and western styles, including imitation Gothic style, Nanyang style, ancient Roman coupon gallery style, imitation Baroque style and China traditional style.

The reporter looked around the arcades in Shangxiajiu, Longjinxi and Renmin Road in Guangzhou, and found that most of the arcade buildings in Guangzhou are 2 to 4 floors: the arcade colonnade is in front of the ground floor, followed by shops, and more than two floors are houses. The facade facing the street is western-style or a combination of Chinese and western styles, which form a colonnade continuously. Why is it so neat? It turns out that each arcade was designed by the owner himself according to the column spacing of 4 meters, the depth of 4 meters and the clear height of 5 or 6 meters, so different decorative styles can be clearly seen in well-preserved blocks.

At present, the most famous arcade block in Guangzhou belongs to Shangxiajiu, and the arcade in this block began to form at 1923. In 1930s, arcade was very popular in Guangzhou, and almost all major commercial streets adopted this architectural form. In Liwan District, the total length of the arcade is 8 kilometers. Because of the unique advantages of arcade, there are many people and tourists here, so doing business in arcade is of course what many businessmen yearn for. In fact, many time-honored brands in Guangzhou rose from Qilou Street in their early years and then became famous all over the country, even at home and abroad.

Now, where can I see the arcade in Guangzhou? Liwan District Shangxiajiu, Shifu, 623 Renmin South Road and Jinlong West (under construction); Chang Di Avenue, Zhongshan 4th Road, Zhongshan 5th Road, Beijing Road, Dade Road and Haizhu South Road in Yuexiu District; Nanhua Road, Haizhu District; Dongshan District: You can see this characteristic arcade building on Donghua Road. Guangzhou's arcade architecture has the following masterpieces:

1, Gothic masterpiece:

The original Xinhua Bookstore on Beijing Road presents obvious Gothic decoration, with strong vertical lines and elongated arched windows. Aiqun Mansion flexibly uses and improves the Gothic style. The facade is dominated by vertical composition with imitation Gothic windows, and the arcade colonnade on the ground floor is also treated as imitation Gothic windows, which makes people feel a strong Gothic style.

2. Nanyang masterpiece:

This style can be found in Wen Ming Road and Haizhu Road. It is a very unique and creative form in Nanyang area, that is, there are one or more circular or other holes in the daughter's wall. It was originally designed to prevent the strong typhoon attack in Nanyang area and reduce the wind load on buildings, thus forming a unique architectural art form.

3. Masterpiece of ancient Roman coupon gallery:

Xinhua Hotel in Long Beach is one of the representative works. The arcade on the ground floor is in the form of a ticket column, and the center of the ticket is decorated with a whirlpool, which has a magnificent style, clear line angle and rich details. Some parts also use simplified Roman columns to make their Roman style stronger.

4. Imitate baroque masterpieces:

Among the arcades in Guangzhou, baroque decoration is mostly used for mountain flower decoration and the curve of parapet, which is found in Xiajiu Road, Jinlong West Road and Wanfu Road.

5. Modern masterpieces:

This kind of arcade along Taikang Road was generally built after 1980s, and it is obviously different from the traditional arcade in scale, structure, material and modeling style. Generally speaking, the complex decoration is abandoned in the facade treatment, and a simple, lively and practical functionalism treatment method is adopted.

6. China's traditional masterpieces:

Dezheng South Road 139, this arcade style continues the characteristics of traditional houses in southern China. The ground floor is picked out along the street, and the corridor is arranged along the street across the sidewalk. There are two or three windows side by side on the front wall of the floor, and the facade is basically unadorned. This kind of arcade is only kept sporadically in Nanhua Road, Tongfu Road, Wanfu Road, Dezheng Road and Uprising Road.

Among the many arcades, there are "two most" worth seeing: first, the 623 lot has the most architectural style of the new era; The second floor is the ground floor of China Travel Agency Building. In the high-rise independent building, the building with arcade style on the ground floor is reserved.