Exploration of Renewal Model of General Historic Buildings

Yongxian Huang and Lipeng Zheng

Abstract: This article takes reconstruction and redevelopment of old buildings on

Jiefangzhong Road in Guangzhou, China, as an example to explore the assessment of

evaluation standards and renewal model of general historic buildings.

Key words: historic buildings, redevelopment of old cities, reconstruction and

redevelopment, Jiefangzhong Road

In recent years, because of continuous improvement of applicable legislation for protection,

increasing understandings of importance to protect old cities and general historic buildings

which reflect unique characters of urban fabric and city style, reconstruction and re-usage of

such historic buildings are drawing more and more attention. The general historic buildings

in this article, comparing to heritage buildings, belong to historic buildings, but they are

normally types of more exquisite workmanship of buildings with well conditional structures.

However, original functions have disappeared. When new functions are given to such

buildings, it is necessary to start to overall evaluate them. Then, the buildings will be

appropriately reconstructed. Nowadays when the socialist market is increasingly active, it is

common to reconstruct buildings.

The concept of “reconstruction and redevelopment of general historic buildings” brought up

indicates a new idea of architecture development. We treat buildings as a life form with

metabolism mechanic ability instead of still buildings. Through self-renewal, adjustment and

development, the buildings can adjust themselves to meet the needs of users. This is like a

process of a life cycle. However, due to self-protection and discrimination of all life forms,

there are similar problems to reconstruct and redevelop old buildings. How to maintain and

use existing advantages so disadvantages are overcome or transformed? For instance,

evaluation of old buildings, compatibility of new features with existing space and structural

systems, how to avoid new components to their “authenticity” and maintain “recognizable”

and “recover ability”, and how to ensure old systems and buildings with new techniques

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obtain renewal and redevelopment, etc.

Overall, there are many design methods to reconstruct and redevelop historic buildings. It is

a process of rebuilding instead of replacement of old features with new ones.

Figure 1: Overall landscape feature of Old City Redevelopment Planning and Architectural
Design Project on Jiefangzhong Road

1. Background introduction

The project named Old City Redevelopment Planning and Architectural Design on

Jiefanzhong Road in Guangzhou City is a typical example of redevelopment and

reconstruction. From November 2005 to May 2006, Architectural Design & Research Institute

and Oriental Institute of Architectural Culture of South China University of Technology

worked together and completed this project. Architectural Design & Research Institute

focused on design and construction of buildings while Oriental Institute of Architectural

Culture was responsible for the survey of featured buildings, improvement construction, and

rehabilitation programs.

The upgraded area is located in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou City, where is full of history and

local unique culture. As the starting of ancient commercial cities in southern China, there are

numerous ancient artifacts from dynasties (from Qin and Han Dynasties to Ming and Qing

Dynasties) within 9.16 square kilometers. More specifically, the project is located at the

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southwest of Guangzhou City in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In addition, both Xiangya Street at

the west of the project and Rongxian Street at the west of the project have a diverse culture

and a microcosm of the history of Guangzhou City (Figure 1).

Figure 2: Connections of new community and reserved buildings after the redevelopment

2. Existing status of reserved buildings

Total three featured buildings numbered with A, B and C need to be improved and

redeveloped (Figure 2). The status of the three buildings is overall similar as follows:

1) Most of them are two stories with a reinforced structure and flat roof. Partial buildings

are three stories. The average height of each story is 3.8 to 4.3 meters;

2) Each unit is approximate 4 to 5 meters wide except some individual units are 6 meters

wide. All units are 15 meters deep with a shape called a bamboo building. The flooring

of terrazzo is tidy and meticulous. The buildings have an exterior of exquisite clear water

bricks and colorful glass windows (Figures 3 &4);

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Figure 3: Elevation of A building along Xiangya Street after dangerous buildings demolished
3) Each corner building could get natural lights through two sides of buildings and does not

need patios. Most buildings have patios in a different location of the building. Sizes of

some patios are relatively large enough to have a small close garden, while some small

patios are shared by two neighbors in order to maximize space;

4) Approximate 90% of the units have one patio (appr. 2 to 2.5 square meters) per unit.

These patios are at the back of the buildings, fronting bedrooms and against kitchens

and washrooms. This allows natural lights and winds to be maximized (Figure 5);
5) Some attics and additional construction are added to the part of the reserved three
buildings (Figure 6). Overall, the buildings are maintained with original characters and
typical modern Southern China dwelling style.

Figure 5: 2nd story interior of a unit of A

building

Figure 4: Elevation of a unit of A building Figure 6: Existing status of A building roof

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3. Feasibility analysis of redevelopment scheme

After many surveys and inspections at the site, we have obtained detailed floor plans,

elevations and section profiles of each building. According to all the materials, we provided

three schemes (see the following) of redevelopment and reconstruction for all three

buildings to our client for their information:

1) Reconstruct each unit: community center building and bamboo buildings;

2) Reconstruct each building: A building is to be youth hotels and B building planned to be

senior apartment;

3) Reconstruct the entire area: Xiangya New Street Shopping Mall.

I personally recommend Scheme 2) as this plan could maintain the layout of the original

building features. Meanwhile, it could provide unique historic and cultural advantages for

upgraded public buildings based on original characters. Eventually, we achieve our goal to

protect and utilize the buildings at the same time. This concept not only gives new life to old

buildings by either avoiding “museum frozen” or “everything demolished” but also allows

users to re-recognize the value of general historic buildings and to become protectors and

proponents of historic and cultural heritage. Furthermore, it is meaningful and could benefit

future protection of historic and cultural heritage.

Please see the following reasons to propose A building as a youth hotel:

1) The building is facing the main street named Jiefangzhong Road in Guangzhou City.

Convenient transportation helps “backpackers ” easily locate the hotel and travel

around;

2) It is located in Yuexiu District full of historic and cultural resources of Guangzhou City.

There are lots of heritages of different dynasties. For example, Yaozhou Heritage of

South Han Dynasty, Wuxian Temple, Huaisheng Temple, Guangxiao Temple, Liurong

Temple, Stone Church, etc. Prosperous champion Square, Up and Down Nine Road and

Beijing Road are nearby. The project is in the vicinity of Xiangya Street and Rongxian

Street. The entire area has deep cultural precipitation and rich tourism resources.

3) The building itself was constructed during the period of the Republic of China. It reflects

the lifestyle and educational status of the middle class at that time. The upgrading takes

advantage of unique humanistic atmosphere and diverse culture of the building, which
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 meet young students’ curiosity about the new evaluation system and aesthetic needs;

4) Turning a residential dwelling to a hotel will only require the necessary upgrading of

space and minimize changes to the interior structure of the building. A building will be

maintained with original features without outstanding changes;

5) Most units of this building are arranged from east to west and receive lights from one

side of the building. Each floor only has one unit. Each unit has two stories and is

relatively narrow (4.1 to 4.5 meters wide and 10 to 15 meters deep). The units have

similar size of normal hotels;

4. Detailed redevelopment scheme

Detailed plans of Youth Hotel (Figures 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12) are as follows:

1) The entire exterior of the building needs to be cleaned and repaired. All doors, windows,

brick walls and each small components need to be rehabilitated by using original

materials and following original techniques;

2) The messy addition on the roof needs to be removed. The roof needs to be designed

with an addition of mechanic room and facilities in compliance with the needs of Youth

Hotel;

3) The existing entrance of each unit needs to be closed with light bricks at the inside side

of building and doors needs to be reserved in order to show the consistency of

elevation;

4) The bottom story of one unit at the northeast corner of the building will be turned to

the new entrance of the hotel facing north direction, where a relaxing square after the

upgrading is located. The entrance will be covered with a canopy made of metal framed

glass. With this design method, the entrance is adaptable to the surrounding

architectural features and could create a visual character of this building. It will increase

recognizable and have a dramatic effect on the building;

5) Architects have improved living conditions o the back of the building with a design of

patios, but it is difficult to meet light and wind requirements of modern hotels with

small and narrow patios due to the height and depth of the building. Therefore, most

kitchens, washrooms, and patios at the east corner units need to be removed and

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 connected to create a large patio (17 meters long, 4.2 meters wide and 11 meters high)

covered with a double sloped glass canopy. The new center patio will be surrounded by

a 1.3-meter wide corridor. After the upgrading, the depth of each bedroom will be

shortened and the quantity of natural lights of the entire building are increased;

6) In order to increase layouts of the central patio, the patio of a unit at the east corner will

be reserved. After decoration, original clear water red brick wall and associated

damages will come out. Meanwhile, the foundation with height from 400 to 700 mm of

other demolished patios will be reserved. Here are a picture young tourists sitting on

the foundations and share experience and feelings after one-day exploration of the city

and taking shower. Moonlights arrive at the ground through glass canopy and stay at the

door of the central patio and window holes blocked by the foundations. Only long

shallow is left on the ground. The entire space of the center patio has many interesting

layouts and is attractive to users;

7) All bedrooms are based on the original units. Offices and mechanic room are located on

the north side of the first floor. The middle of the floor is shared serve space and the

south side is living space and the restaurant. There is a special design. In order to meet

the required amount of beds for Youth Hotel, we use the 1-meter change of the

elevation of the original unit and outside level to build a garden bed where the original

marble steps are. Shrubs will be planted in the garden bed to block the vision from

pedestrians on the street. Inside of the five units at the south side is reserved entirely.

Four of the five units are designed for 12 people per room, which has bunk beds. This

will increase the flexibility of the arrangements in rooms and meet the needs of young

group tourists. The remaining unit at the west side will be reconstructed to a simple

kitchen and catering space. The north of the second floor will be a laundry room and

restroom for staff. Southwest side will be a restaurant and the remaining will be

bedrooms;

8) Washrooms of bedrooms will be designed in accordance with the requirements of Youth

Hotel. The original patios at the west side and south side are not removed so that the

new washrooms will be against patios. This allows the washrooms to receive natural

lights and winds, meanwhile, it provides interesting usage of patios of Southern China
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 dwellings to tourists;

Figure 7: 1st Floor Plan of A building before the reconstruction

Figure 8: 2nd Floor Plan of A building before the reconstruction

9) To meet the requirements of fire codes, each unit at the east side and west side will be

added with evacuation stairs. In order to maintain the consistency of elevation of the
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 exterior of the building, the edge of the stair platform will be designed 1.2 meters away

from the inside of the wall.

Figure 9: 1st Floor Plan of A building after the reconstruction

Figure 10: 2nd Floor Plan of A building after the reconstruction

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5. Conclusions

As an important pilot project to redevelop

damaged buildings as a whole in Guangzhou

City, Yuexiu District government is taking a

gradual replacement of property rights policy.

This policy allows existing residents and users of

buildings to continue occupying the buildings

until contracts end. The expired contracts will Figure 11: Overall model of
existingroofs of the reserved
not be extended or transferred to a third party
buildings
or other individuals. After receiving the

property rights, the district government will

decorate the exterior of the buildings and

remove illegal additions. Additionally, the inside

of the buildings will be reconstructed.

Therefore, the redevelopment and

reconstruction scheme for this project is an

Figure 12: Overall model of
exploration to provide a potential reference for reconstructed roofs of the reserved
buildings
evaluation and renewal model for general

historic buildings from an architectural perspective. I am hoping the phenomenon of

“renewal damages” to the buildings can be further avoided when there are increasing

reconstruction and redevelopment of old buildings.

In the long term when developers are blocked out of such redevelopment of old cities,

individuals’ participation in the redevelopment and utilization of general historic buildings is

becoming the main force of city renewal. However, the conflicts with the existing mechanic

system during the reconstruction activities have pushed us to think over roles of government

agencies, planners and architects. On the one hand, government agencies should encourage

the public to participate in redevelopment and utilization of general historic buildings; on the

other hand, government agencies should create a standard system to assess, inspect and

redevelopment reward general historic buildings. The system should also include rating

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traditional buildings of old cities and permitted measures of redevelopment at different

levels. In addition, the system can be improved by inspecting, rewarding, finding, supervising

and protecting valuable traditional buildings. Planners should follow the protection limits of

heritages and measures regulated by heritage government agencies to divide old cities into

smaller parcels and produce constructive detailed plans. Architects should introduce a

licensed mechanism of heritage architects and provide training opportunities to architects.

After passing these training, qualified architects will be responsible for the issuance of

permits for redevelopment of heritage buildings and general historic buildings. Meanwhile,

community architects need to be trained and supported by architects with professional

knowledge and techniques. The trained community architects could offer professional

support and instructions to owners and/or occupants of old buildings.

References

1. Jinghui Wang, Yishan Ruan and Lin Wang. “Protection Theory and Planning of Historic

and Cultural Cities.” Tongji Publishing House. 1999.

2. Ke Fang. “Survey of Renewal of Modern old cities in Beijing-Research-Exploration.”

China Architecture & Building Press. 2000.

3. Ke Fang and Yan Zhang. “Jane Jacobs' Thoughts on Urban Diversity and Its Revelation to

the Old Town Renovation”. City Problems. 3rd Edition in 1998.

4. Bende Li. “Reinforcement of Protective Old Buildings.” Journal of Harbin University of

Civil Engineering and Architecture. 1995.04.

5. Yonglin Long. “Renovation and utilization of old buildings.” 1994.04.

* Funded by Humanities and Social Science Research Projects of General Colleges and
Universities in Guangdong Province (File No.: 06JDXM84002)

First author: Yongxian Huang Junior Architect of Architectural Design and Research Institute
of Guangdong Province

Second author: Lipeng Zheng Associated Professor of School of Architecture of South China
University of Technology

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