terrace architecture

wandering at beijing road and shangxiajiu commercial walking street, you will be interested in the architectures on the two sides of the road for you never once find or visit such buildings in any city of north china, we give it name terrace architecture.

terrace architecture is one of the leading characters of the commercial streets in the neoteric cities in lingnan area and guangzhou, as well as guangzhou architecture. terrace architecture will most embody the city lives in guangzhou. from one end of the street to the other, buildings of terrace architectures of different styles stand on the both sides. no matter in rainy or hot days, terrace building just like a magic umbrella protect the passengers silently, as soon as you are in the surrounding of the terrace buildings, you will naturally feel very safe, and never worry about the galloping vehicles. rambling over the long veranda without an end at a breezing night, you are sure to feel relaxed and cheerful.

concerning the origin of the structure of terrace architecture, there are two different opinions. one opinion reckons its origin is the tradition residence of yue nationality in lingnan area, while the other option says it is from the west countries, and a amalgamation of the occidental classical architecture and guangzhou’s traditional architecture structure, and the second opinion is approved by the mass as it closely accords with the features of lingnan culture, open and compatible.

terrace architecture is a kind of commercial building with open porches, and we can trace its existence first in the cities in the south europe and ancient greek along the mediterranean sea in 500 b.c. or 400 b.c. the appearance of it has a close relationship with the booming business in ancient greek and its torrid and rainy climate. the terrace architecture is a good place for visitors to get out of the hot and rain, as well as adapts to the commercial need and enriches the cityscape. during the period of ancient rome, terrace architecture was widely applied and developed. meanwhile, byzantium inherited the architecture civilization of ancient rome, and he established a central street with terrace architectures on the two sides of it in constantinople, according to the record, it was one of the most magnificent streets in the world at that time. at the beginning of the middle ages and the renaissance, terrace style became popular in europe, and you will still find it in many famous historical cities at present, for instance, berne in swiss, florence in italy and paris in france.

in modern times, with the expansion of colonialism, capital export and spread of science and technology, and civilization, the style of terrace architecture spread worldwide rapidly, guangzhou was influenced as well. in 1840, after the end of opium war, china entered its stage of modern history, and the introverted policy carried out by qing government was broken by the western intruders. new technology, new material, new structure and new style of the foreign architecture were introduced in china, especially in guangzhou, the dominant wharf for foreign trade. therefore, from 19th century to 1920’s, in some roads of guangzhou, for example, changdi road, yide road and renmin south road and yat-sen road etc., there firstly built the terrace architecture, among which, terrace architecture was first to be constructed on changdi road ( its construction began in 1886, and finished in 1920.)

it was after 1925 that the terrace architecture got fast development in guangzhou. at that time, in order to accelerate the constructions of roads and terrace architecture, guangzhou government issued adoption measures of lands of terrace architecture, and the constructions of terrace architecture were mostly centralized on the roads in today dongshan district, for instance, no.4 yat-sen road, yuexiu south road, yuexiuzhong road, beijing road(north portion), baiyun road, dongchuan road; yuexiu district, weixin road, danan road, renmin road, dade road, xihaoer road, xiaobei road, fazheng road etc; liwan district, thirteen hongsroad, liuersan road; haizhu district, nanhua road and tongfu road. in 1930, guangzhou municipality again issued rules of banning the terrace architecture construction, and the rules said, it was not allowed to build terrace architecture on the narrow road, or the road planted with a lot of trees, or in the outskirts, or the underdeveloped area, or beside the park, university, residence or the other public departments, however, terrace architecture still got wide development due to the following factors, among which, the most important are: social changes and urban progress; torrid and rainy climate; with the leading of the municipal policy, a group of returnees were put in important positions in guangzhou municipal departments, by influence of the western advanced ideas, those talents actively participated into and encouraged the constructions of terrace architecture, especially the walking street, and numbers of rich overseas chinese also invested in guangzhou real estate industry; in addition, the terrace architecture also improved the shopping environment and stimulated the development of guangzhou commerce; contrarily, the development of commerce also promoted the evolutions of terrace architecture. thereby, from 1930 to 1937 was the booming period of the constructions of terrace architecture. during that period, large quantities of roads were built in dongshan district, yuexiu district, liwan district and tianhe district, and in an area of over 10 square kilometers, there were 36 roads built with terrace architecture, over 20 kilometers in length, of which, the most famous were dishipu road, shangxiajiu road, yat-sen road, jiefang road, renmin south road etc, and the most representative and magnificent terrace architectures were new asia hotel, nanfang mansion and aiqun mansion etc..

as guangzhou walking streets with terrace architecture possess many advantages, it obtains rapid growth and achieves great success in urban construction, as well as leads the way for the southern cities similar to guangzhou. accordingly, from 1920’s to 1930’s, the constructions of terrace architecture were radiated from guzhong to guangxi, fujian, hainan and the south china area, cantonese neighborhood. in wuzhou, naning, xiameng, zhangzhou, quanzhou, fuzhou, haikou and wenchang, which belong to tropic or subtropical zone, numerous terrace architectures were built in those cities thanks to the similar factors in guangzhou.

recently, the relational departments of guangzhou municipal government are producing a planning project to conserve terrace architecture, aiming at developing the street with terrace architecture into the longest street with buildings of lingnan architecture style in china, so this unique and precious culture of architecture will be well preserved for our offspring.