As the building boom heats up in cities like Shanghai, against foreign influences over the new architecture:
Most of the area’s narrow rows of traditional shop-houses and dimly lit tea houses have been torn down to make room for luxurious glass-fronted malls. The few traditional structures that remain have been revamped to house avant-garde fashion boutiques, designer bistros, and chic martini bars.
The district’s new look is the work of Hong Kong developer Vincent Lo and American architect Ben Wood — a protégé of architect Benjamin Thompson, who revitalized Boston’s Faneuil Hall. Wood said he wanted to bequeath Shanghai “a great European-style public space where people could go enjoy themselves.”
But Xintiandi and other Western-designed projects in Shanghai are causing much resentment among some Chinese architects, who say new buildings in the booming city should be more reflective of China’s culture, history, and modern reality. The new glass and steel towers rising over the city, they say, are alienating local people and turning this historic city into a soulless shell.
Some Chinese architects say they are so upset with the post-modern skyline framing Chinese cities that they have launched a “New Culture Movement” that rallies around the slogan, “Chinese houses created by Chinese.”
“A building is an integral part of cultural origin [and] to show our due respect and passion for Chinese culture, we are advocating designs that are in tune with our lifestyle and adaptable to China’s realities,” Chen Shimin, chief executive of the China Real Estate Design League and an initiator of the movement, said at its launch this April.
As China continues to grow, expect more expressions of these sentiments.
