How to balance updating and improving the lives of residents?, The Renovation Achievements of Shanyin Road Historical Landscape Area Showcased in Lane | Residents | Life

On April 14, 1927, Chen Yannian served as the acting secretary of the Shanghai District Committee and relocated the district committee office to No. 104 Hengfengli. After the Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee was still located in Hengfengli, and Chen Yannian was the first secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee. On June 26, 1927, he was arrested in Hengfeng.

On March 21, 1933, Lu Xun recorded in his diary that he had decided to reside in a new village on the mainland and had paid in advance for housing and other expenses; On April 11th, the diary recorded: "On that day, I moved to a new village on the mainland.". Here, he spent the last three and a half years of his life.

The Shanyin Road Historical and Cultural Area, covering an area of approximately 129 hectares, is one of the 12 municipal level historical and cultural protection areas in Shanghai. It is also a must visit place for Zhang Jiahe, the chief lecturer of Hongkou Memory Communication Studio, to give lectures. "There are many excellent historical buildings in the region, with typical features such as revolutionary sites, alleyway houses, garden houses, etc. The red resources are very rich, and Zhou Enlai, Lu Xun, Chen Yannian, Zhao Shiyan, Qu Qiubai, Guo Moruo, and others have all worked and lived here."

Starting from 2022, 21 excellent historical buildings and 27 alleyway houses in the Shanyin Road Historical Style Protection Area have started large-scale renovation projects. A large number of red culture and Shanghai style cultural landmarks are under renovation, involving about 15000 residents. At present, the achievements of repair have gradually emerged. How to balance the renewal of historical and scenic areas with the improvement of residents' lives?

Repair adheres to the principle of restoring the old as it is and balancing protection and utilization

Entering Shanyin Road from Sichuan North Road, there is a large architectural complex on the east side consisting of three alleys: Sida Li, Hengfeng Li, and Hengsheng Li. The buildings in these three alleys are mostly three story buildings with clear water and red bricks, totaling over 300 buildings. The alleys and paths crisscross between the alleys, resembling a maze.

Entering Hengfeng Village, the red brick and Daiwa of Shikumen exude elegance and tranquility, with a mix of bird songs, floral fragrance, and lush greenery, telling the story of the peaceful times ahead. This is also the "Three Fragrance Alley" marked by the fragrance of flowers, books, and tea.

Upon careful observation, one will discover various ingenious ideas after the repair: the hanging air conditioner is hidden in a rusty red hollow iron frame, complementing the color of the exterior wall; The mailbox at the doorstep of a resident's house has an antique bronze shape; Even some wires that have not yet been grounded are embedded in rusty red wooden strips

In order to create a floral alleyway without affecting the residents' travel in the narrow alleyway, the residents came up with a small "trick": drill a hole at a certain distance on the roadside, fill it with soil and sprinkle seeds, plant climbing plants such as grapes, pumpkins, and luffa, and when the fruits are ripe, the neighbors share the organic vegetables and fruits at their doorstep. "The Malu grape seeds given to us by the neighborhood committee have now taken root and sprouted, and we can eat Malu grapes at home!"

What impressed residents even more was the transformation of the original "six rooms" into a "five sense garden". The "Six Rooms" was a lane processing factory built in 1958, which was later rented out to people coming to Shanghai. Due to occupying 2/3 of the alleyway, the house has seriously affected the lives of surrounding residents. In order to solve this long-standing problem, Sichuan North Road Street conducted multiple on-site investigations and finally broke through the resistance, successfully demolishing it.

After the demolition, the Shanyi residential area solicited opinions from residents and drew on the concept of health and wellness to create a "Five Senses Garden" in the original six room location. The reporter saw that the elderly would sit down here to chat and drink tea, meet friends through chess, take walks, exercise, and share the scenery of lush greenery and colorful scenery. "We improve the art healing space by massaging the floor, using fragrant plants, creating artificial sounds, and creating warm colored environments to stimulate the elderly's touch, smell, taste, hearing, and vision. We hope to introduce healthy and scientific elderly care into the century old Shikumen Alley," said Chen Rongqing, the secretary of Shanyi Residential Area.

The Liuqing Xiaozhu, not far from Hengfeng Li, is an excellent historical building built in the 1930s. Nowadays, through repairs, the light gray brushed walls on the exterior of the building have regained their former charm, and the public kitchen and bathroom renovation project has also benefited residents.

70 year old Aunt Li has lived here for 35 years and is an "old land". "The kitchen used to be a mess, with mice, cockroaches, and slugs inside, but it made me uncomfortable." Aunt Li said, "It's much cleaner now!"

The reporter saw that the upgraded kitchen walls and floors have been tiled, and facilities such as cabinets and stainless steel sinks for residents are also in place. Aunt Li said that all four households in the building have independent operating stoves, and now there is no need to queue up to wash vegetables and cook.

Similarly, Zhang Zequn, a resident of No. 22 Yong'anli, lived here for 70 years and witnessed three or four renovations to his old house. However, he felt that "the government has indeed put in a lot of effort in this renovation." He recalled that previously, it was mostly minor repairs to the eaves and down pipes, and this renovation project involved roof renovation, exterior wall renovation, road renovation, kitchen and bathroom public area renovation, etc., which can improve the living function of the house and enhance the safety performance of the building. It is worth mentioning that the entire renovation adheres to the principle of restoring the old as it is and balancing protection and utilization, faithfully restoring the style of Shikumen from the 1920s and 1930s.

Harmonious integration of cultural context and urban life

The Shanyin Road Historical Landscape Protection Area is also known as the "open-air museum" of Shanghai style residential buildings. For a century, the streets, alleys, and historic buildings have jointly formed the urban context and texture, presenting a unique overall style.

The important goal of urban renewal is to protect the overall historical relationship and spatial texture pattern of historical blocks, and promote environmental improvement under strict protection. Therefore, the shift from "piecemeal" to "overall improvement", fully considering the needs of local residents for service content, expanding public cultural spaces, and harmoniously integrating cultural heritage with urban life, has gradually become a consensus in the renewal and planning of historical landscape protection areas.

On November 26, 2022, after nearly a year of planning, design, and repair, the brand new "1927 Lu Xun and Neishan Memorial Bookstore" was put into use. Before the renovation, the former site of Neishan Bookstore was once divided into three spaces: Xinhua Bookstore, Bank, and Enterprise Office. With the support of the Hongkou District government, Shanghai Xinhua Media has connected the old site of Neishan Bookstore, the former Xinhua Bookstore Shanyin Road store, and the surrounding space, allowing this cultural relic building to inherit historical connotations with a new name.

The bookstore has three floors, with the exterior facade restored based on historical photographs. At that time, the first floor of the wall was made of cut stones, the second and third floors were made of pebbles, there was an iron fence at the entrance, and the balcony had a retractable sunshade. The former site of Neishan Bookstore has been restored one by one. Entering the interior, the pine ocean floor and chandelier are also designed and restored based on historical features.

The small building where Neishan Bookstore is located still has 20 households to this day. "Especially for the elderly residents who grew up here, they hope for the restoration of the bookstore, but are afraid that it will become a 'high-end' place." Xu Ping, the secretary of the Shan'er residential area, told reporters that during the construction process of the bookstore, the surrounding residents worked together, using the alley governance committee as a platform, tea aroma meetings, weekend coordination meetings, and other forms to smooth public opinion. "Everyone still hopes that this is a place where you can walk in, sit down, taste, and have a smoky atmosphere."

Nowadays, this has become a "scholarly reception hall" for residents. The "Mr. Da's Reception Hall" series of cultural lectures attracted many nearby residents to listen and learn many stories about "Lu Xun and the Movie" and "Lu Xun and the Neighbors". On July 15th, a cultural event called "Shanghai Tokyo Twin Cities" was also held here, with experts and scholars from Duke University, Tongji University, and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics exchanging and discussing ideas.

It takes less than 10 minutes to walk out of the 1927 Lu Xun and Neishan Memorial Bookstore to reach another community reception hall: the former site of the woodcut workshop.

From August 17th to 22nd, 1931, Lu Xun held the "Woodcut Workshop" here, which was the earliest woodcut workshop in Chinese history. The renovated exhibition hall of the former site of the woodcut workshop has a rusty red vintage fence at the entrance. The names of the 13 students who participated in the 1931 summer woodcut workshop were hollowed out, making it low-key and not abrupt.

At 9:30 am on July 11th, the reporter ran into 81 year old Ji Jindi here. She is a resident of Changchun Apartment across from her and also a volunteer. Every day, she comes here to take a stroll. Firstly, it's cool with the air conditioning, and secondly, she also provides some explanations for visitors. On that day, a young girl happened to come and visit. Ji Grandma took the initiative to introduce herself, "Look at the photos. It was with this woodcut workshop that the emerging woodcut movement in China began..."

On the second floor, the former internal space of the neighborhood committee has been converted into a community reception hall, and efforts have been made to ensure that the public space is open 24/7, forming a "five space" of open sharing, deliberation and consultation, neighborhood communication, lifelong learning, and convenient services.

Taking the renovation as an opportunity, No. 41, Lane 69, Hengfeng Lane has also created the "Party History School of Lane", which not only preserves the century old changes of Hengfeng Lane but also showcases the happy life of lane residents. At the same time, it presents the early red stories of the Sichuan North Road area, allowing residents to rediscover the red memories of the old lane when they leave their homes.

Provide professional property services with "all elements" for the old alley

Residents also experience the improvement of the soft environment.

Previously, the old alleyway houses generally lacked comprehensive property management and services, and were mostly operated through "government guaranteed" and "property guaranteed custody" methods. Property management and services only provide the most basic ordinary housing warranty services, and the burden of security, cleaning, and greenery basically falls on the streets and local neighborhood committees, making it difficult for human and material resources to meet the needs of residents.

Sichuan North Road Sub district first took the old alley Yonglefang Community, which was built in 1931, as a pilot project to implement integrated management of directly managed public housing properties, transforming "one guarantee into four guarantees", breaking through the bottleneck of property management in old communities, and providing "all factor" professional property services for this old alley.

Shanghai Jialingjie Property has set up a property management office in Yongle Fang, with property managers, project administrators, specialized security and cleaning personnel stationed there. Together with the street, they will renovate the community's guard room, enhance the functionality of garbage bins, maintain and update public video probes, and significantly improve the appearance of the alleyway environment. "In the past, the lights and faucets at home were broken and had to be repaired at a high price from a street vendor. Now, property management personnel are on call, which is very convenient," Li Xiang, a resident who has lived in Yongle Fang for 40 years, told reporters.

From the "pilot ice breaking" of Yongle Fang until 2023, all 14 residential areas in the alleys of Sichuan North Road Street have implemented integrated management of directly managed public housing properties. Following the concept of "breaking down into smaller units, grouping and coordinating resources", the property management of old residential areas has been implemented through "big integration".

Thoroughly improving the living conditions of residents still has a long way to go

The century old alleyway has been revitalized, with improvements in hardware and software. However, some residents still have concerns: it is normal for four or five households to live in an old house, most of whom share kitchen and bathroom facilities, and their living conditions are not optimistic.

Residents Dai Qirong bought a house in Hengfengli 10 years ago mainly for the convenience of life here, but also personally felt the limitations of living conditions. "The drainage pipe upstairs was blocked, and maintenance personnel had to come to my house to clear it. Later, I made up my mind to spend more than 10000 yuan to install an independent pipeline." Dai Qirong said, "There are not many people like my home who can have renovation conditions, and it is still normal for residents to queue up to use the toilet in the morning."

Why can't complete renovation be implemented? The relevant person in charge of the Hongkou District Housing Management Bureau revealed that most of the houses here are over aged and overloaded, which has accelerated the aging of the houses. If a complete renovation is implemented, on the one hand, incremental space is required, such as through adding floors or expanding, but the buildings that have been added or expanded cannot maintain their original appearance and texture. On the other hand, some excellent historical buildings or cultural relics with high protection levels often have many protected areas inside, which makes it difficult to re divide the internal space.

In the view of industry insiders, it is necessary to not only protect the authenticity and integrity of historical buildings, but also improve people's livelihoods by appropriately reducing the population density of old houses.

Yu Jing, a Ph.D. in Planning from Tongji University, stated after conducting follow-up research on the scenic area that in recent years, there has also been a situation where a household has purchased one floor or one building, but the quantity is limited. She suggests that the government can provide policy guidance on this; In addition, household extraction is also a method, but whoever leaves and stays must respect the wishes of residents. The operational level involves multi-party collaboration, and corresponding detailed rules still need to be formulated.

The reporter learned that Beijing has carried out practices such as voluntary application for rent termination by residents in the renewal of historical and scenic protection areas, and then carried out restorative construction and renovation in different spatial forms, introducing corresponding industries, creating a new type of symbiotic block, and improving the quality of life of residents.

The relevant person in charge of Sichuan North Road Street introduced that for the Shanyin Road Historical Style Protection Area, how to do a good job in urban renewal and cultural heritage protection and inheritance, it is still necessary to carry out value identification and evaluation of various types of houses in the area, gradually improve the corresponding protection list and classification and grading management mechanism for repair, renewal, replacement, relocation, and business format adjustment. At the same time, we will explore the formation of a special plan around the integration and development of landscape protection blocks, coordinating economic development, cultural inheritance, functional creation, urban renewal, and so on.