The so-called Context, English is the word context, willing to refer to the "context" in literature. In linguistics, this word is called "context", which is the scene, scene and preface of using language. In a broader sense, it extends to the relationship between one thing and other things in time or space. The translation of "context" in design should be more understood as cultural context and cultural relevance.
Urban context is the way of life formed in the process of the birth and evolution of a city, and the historical imprint left by different stages. Context is an integral part of urban characteristics and an important symbol to distinguish cities. Context is the root and soul of a city, which has accumulated valuable experience in the past and is also the direction of future development. Context is not a dead specimen, not a group of protected historical blocks, not to mention those historical buildings. It is alive, like life, and it is absorbing new things. The real carrier of context is life, and all historical sites are just its storage places, so as long as life continues, context can spread. However, only by fully understanding, utilizing, transforming and inheriting can context realize its maximum value.
Over the past half century, earth-shaking changes have taken place in most cities in China, the most striking of which is undoubtedly the capital Beijing. In 1950s, a series of large-scale memorial buildings, such as the Great Hall of the People, were built in the capital of New China. These buildings have little influence on the ancient capital, but they have also injected new vitality into ancient Beijing. However, the demolition of the city wall in 1967 was opposed by many people, who thought it was a destruction of history. The transformation of the old city in the next 30 years has been relatively restrained, with almost no large-scale demolition.
1997, Wangfujing renovation project started. This is a landmark old city reconstruction, not only because Wangfujing is located in the core area of Beijing, but also because it is an old city reconstruction with commercial interests. Since then, driven by commercial interests, all parts of Beijing have been demolished and rebuilt, and hutongs have been eroded. 1999, dozens of important cultural relics were demolished. After the completion of Ping 'an Avenue, it is like a strange street with a big hole in the belly of the old city. Since 2002, Beijing has carried out an unprecedented demolition of the old city. Demolition is so rapid that the opposition has not yet sounded, and a large hutong is in ruins. Some people even asked bitterly: "Why not tear down the Forbidden City together? ! "
Large-scale old city reconstruction is not a rare phenomenon in the world, nor is it unique to China. During the industrial revolution, most cities in Europe demolished large areas of old cities. Paris, for example, has been transformed by the French government since17th century. At first, in order to promote commercial development, a large number of public facilities were built, which basically laid the foundation for the expansion of modern Paris, and the avenue in the city center was initially formed. During the Napoleonic period, large-scale construction of five-story residential apartments began, which formed a corresponding relationship with the Louvre and the Royal Garden, which is still the most distinctive building complex in Paris. Establish the city center with the Grand Arc de Triomphe-Place de la Concorde-Little Arc de Triomphe as the central axis, and take this axis as the development center of Paris. Napoleon also built many city squares centered on monuments, which made Paris have a series of block centers.
During the period from 1853 to 1868, Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte completely transformed and rebuilt the center of Paris, built a cross-shaped avenue and an inner and outer ring road running through the city, demolished a large number of winding and narrow streets and built a series of memorial buildings. At this point, the old Paris with a large number of curved narrow streets and organic blocks almost completely disappeared and was replaced by the modern Paris with geometric division of avenues. From the perspective of old city protection, the old city of Paris has taken on a new look, but no one can deny the charm of modern Paris. The so-called context did not disappear with the old city, but was inherited and carried forward.
Perhaps unlike many people's imagination, the old city reconstruction in Paris is not limited to protecting one or two historical blocks, but constantly updating blocks according to the needs of urban development. This renewal is not a split leap, but on the basis of inheriting the spirit of old blocks, it meets the needs of urban development for new functions. Corresponding to the development of urban culture, the establishment of memorial buildings is an important part of block renewal, the urban spirit is emphasized and the context is enriched.
From the example of Paris, we can see that it is not necessary to protect the cultural context to protect historical blocks, but how to inherit and carry forward the spirit of the city is the most important. But for many cities in China, the old city has been destroyed, but the new city is in chaos, and there is no spirit at all, let alone inheritance. Take Beijing as an example. After the wall was torn down, old Beijing actually no longer existed. Up to now, the hutong has been divided into several blocks, losing the integrity of the blocks. Moreover, life in the hutong has changed, and the most vivid content in the hutong has been taken away. However, the new architecture completely abandons the inheritance of the traditional architectural spirit, and largely imitates various modern architectural schools in the West. Maybe there will be some spirit in these imitations, but it must have nothing to do with the old China tradition, and the urban context has been completely cut off.
Whether it is preservation or renewal, the understanding of the city and the grasp of the context are fundamental. Patrick Geddes, an Englishman, presided over the renovation of the old cities of Edinburgh and Dublin, making Edinburgh and Dublin the best models for the protection and renovation of the old cities in the world. Patrick insisted on mastering the details of the transformed city before planning, including a detailed investigation of the city's geology, geography, humanities, economy, history and cultural relics. , as the basis of reconstruction.
Patrick 19 14 published The Evolving City. He said, "We should not start in a hurry, nor should we push forward too many projects at the same time. Maintaining smooth communication and contact is the basic principle of carrying out work. We should fully understand and consider the aesthetic essence of the city and inject ourselves into the spiritual life of the city. To understand the historical essence of the city and the evolution of life forms, we must understand its characteristics, spirit and daily life. " It is always difficult to achieve the expected results in urban protection and transformation in China. Perhaps the crux is that the preliminary investigation was not taken seriously. Whether it is protection or transformation, we don't know where to start, or we act blindly, but it often backfires.
The protection of urban context cannot be limited to one city, but also needs the support of large-scale systems, and cities cannot become isolated islands of context. For China, establishing a cultural context protection system at the village level will effectively support the inheritance and development of urban cultural context. In other words, the urban context should be included in the context protection system of city, town and village. According to the different characteristics of cities, towns and villages, they undertake different tasks of cultural context protection.
For big cities, the pressure of economic development is enormous, and it is very difficult to protect the old city. Moreover, there is almost no complete old city in the big cities of China, so we should pay attention to inheriting the context, transforming the old city and building a new city. For small cities and market towns, it is necessary to completely protect traditional blocks and focus on ensuring the reasonable continuation of the lifestyle of traditional blocks. For a village, harmony with nature is its greatest value, so it is not only the village itself but also the surrounding environment that needs to be protected.
Complete traditional small towns and villages can not only retain our traditional way of life, but also provide a good reference and nourishment for big cities to inherit and carry forward the context.
Traditional ones are not necessarily backward, and local ones are not necessarily doomed to be eliminated. They probably have passwords to make our lives happier and our society more harmonious. Decoding them, using them and creating China people's own urban form and modern lifestyle are the ultimate goals of protecting and developing the context.