Proud of a new 'heaven on earth'
A decade ago, the Shanghai district now known asXintiandi looked like most of the city's old, neglected neighbourhoods. Made up of longtangs - narrow lanes flanked by stone-gated shikumen houses - and covering about 30,000 sq metres, it housed about 2,380 Chinese families. But it had fallen into serious disrepair, hidden in the shadows of new luxury hotels and futuristic skyscrapers. As in the longtangs that still exist today, laundry was strung up like bunting between the houses and washing facilities were outdoors. Rows of sinks - taps locked to prevent unauthorised use by neighbours - lined the alleyways, and the inner courtyards of the houses were crammed with the bicycles of hundreds of tenants. Residents often took their meals on makeshift tables in the alleys and there was little, if any, privacy.
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Today, Xintiandi - which means "new heaven on earth" - is filled with modern restaurants and shops, many of them behindtraditional fa?ades. Ben Wood,the US architect behind the redevelopment, now lives in one of five luxury apartment buildings overlooking the area. And there are eight more upscale tower blocks on the way.
It has been a remarkable - and controversial - transformation. And, in a city where two-thirds of longtangs (as well as finer art deco architecture) have been razed for new construction, it has served as a rallying cry - both for preservationists who oppose such redevelopment projects and for government officials and developers who think Xintiandi made the best of a bad situation.
First, a bit of history. The region is "culturally significant" for the Chinese because, in 1921, a shikumen building there served as the site for the founding of the Communist party. Three years before the 50th anniversary of Communist rule, the Luwan District Government decided the neighbourhood needed sprucing up and awarded a development contract to Vincent Lo, head of the Hong Kong-based Shui On Group, who had been responsible for one of the first quality, high-rise office buildings in Shanghai.
Lo surprised the Boston-based Wood by calling him in for a consultation, along with four other firms. "I was summoned to go to Shanghai immediately," the architect recalls. "Everybody else wanted to pull the place down and start again".
But Lo hoped to retain the area's historic character where possible. So, Wood says, even though "the amount of work involved in . . . restoring the buildings, and maintaining the same scale, made ours by far the most expensive, and apparently the least remunerative, proposal . . . we won the project."
The current residents - who were, Wood says, living in traditional shikumen "without one flush loo between them" - were compensated by the developer at a rate set by the government and moved out, many to modern housing on Shanghai's outskirts. (It is almost impossible to verify figures but the sum of Yn4,000 - about ￡285 -per sq metre has been mentioned.) The buildings were then underpinned, the fa?ades repaired, extra windows added and the interiors gutted to create space for modern businesses around a piazza-style setting.
"This is not an 'authentic' restoration," Wood acknowledges. "I am not a conservationist. My aim was to respect the . . . special characteristics of the area but to create a living environment that would be commercially viable."
Xintiandi launched at the end of 2000 with international restaurant openings, followed by the arrival of the first boutique, Xavier, in April 2001. "It proved a hit from the beginning, among locals, expats and tourists alike," says Anthony Edwards, the Australian owner of Xavier. "Xintiandi became a showcase to which visiting VIPs were brought and now serves as a model throughout China. Everyone wants to 'Do a Xintiandi'."
Preservationists disagree, decrying the relocation of Chinese residents, the destruction of traditional houses and the invasion of western brands, including Starbucks and H?agen-Dazs. "Some of the buildings have been completely recreated rather than restored," says Shanghai historian Peter Hibbard. But even he shows a bit of grudging admiration. "At least the place was not destroyed," he says. And "Xintiandi has changed perceptions. People now see shikumens as fashionable instead of as something they can't wait to tear down. Things could have been much worse."
The commercial success of the area has made the surrounding residential property some of the most sought-after in Shanghai. The first five of the Lakeville apartment buildings, conceived at the same time as Xintiandi as part of the 52-hectare Taipingqiao Redevelopment Project, was completed in 2003. Values on the 277 apartments have risen from $300 per sq ft at its launch six years ago to $800 per sq ft. Wood, who has relocated his business to Shanghai, paid $525,000 for his 13th floor Lakeville penthouse in 1998 and says he was recently offered $1.1.m for it.
The apartments have views over commercial Xintiandi, landscaped parks and a lake. With secure parking, a swimming pool overlooking a Japanese-style garden and full concierge service, they attract mostly foreign buyers, especially from Taiwan and Hong Kong, reversing the flow of earlier migrations.
Lakeville's second phase - an additional 645 apartments in eight buildings designed by architects Palmer & Turner and fitted with Poggenpohl kitchen cabinets and Gaggenau appliances - is scheduled for completion by the end of this year. A 7,000 sq metre residential club will be built to serve the complex with facilities including a spa, indoor swimming pool and indoor tennis court.
Prices have not yet been announced but, even withmeasures introduced by thegovernment last June to stem property speculation and the subsequent downturn in the residential market, more than 1,000 potential buyers have asked to be notified when the flats go on sale. Opposite Xintiandi, and scheduled for completion next year, is yet another five-building complex, the Richgate apartments marketed as the "famous dwelling of the powerful and wealthy".
Old Shanghai is still in evidence outside Wood's apartment. Bicycles dodge the traffic and disappear down a narrow longtang, where local Chinese are preparing their evening meal, al fresco. But "it won't be here much longer," Wood says. "With the rise in real estate value, it would be just too expensive to maintain."
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By Sara Murray
Amid the bristling skyscrapers dominating today’s Shanghai, Xintiandi is sometimes cited as the city’sfirst successful preservation project. But visitors to a small house museum there, which presents a clear picture of life in a 1920s shikumen house - and a disappearing history - are unlikely to come away thinking it a sensitive redevelopment.
Built as communal courtyard houses, the shikumen emerged as a response to turmoil. During the Taiping rebellion of the mid-19thcentury, citizens from neighbouring Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces took refuge in Shanghai’s foreign neighbourhoods, or concessions.
As the city’s population surged, developers - often from abroad - started building houses in vastnumbers to accommodate the newcomers. Between the 1850s and the 1940s, shikumen-style buildings made up about 60 per cent of Shanghai’s residential housing.
With security a high priority for people who had been shaken by violence, theshikumen were essentially an early form of gated community (shikumen means stone gate) with a single entrance often guarded by a watchman. But unlike the grim bollards, electronically operated steel gates and ugly concrete barriers that are today’s response to security threats, the shikumen gates provided an elegant solution to the desire for protection, with stone lintels at the top of the entrances decorated with elaborate baroque, classical - and later art nouveau and art deco - carvings.
Built along narrow alleys running down from the main entrance gate, the shikumen residences combined European townhouse architecture with the traditional courtyard-based homes found around the Yangtse river delta at the time. The result was a fusion of western and Chinese styles found nowhere else in China.
While these houses were humble compared with the grand mansions built for members of Shanghai’s foreign community, the residents of these buildings were by no means poor. As the Xintiandi house museum reveals, interiors reflected the tastes of Chinese families that were relatively affluent and happy to adopt elements of western living. European furniture, large clocks and Italian fans share space with rosewood furniture, Chinese ceramics and traditional watercolours.
Behind the courtyard, the living room was where guests would be received while the kitchen adjoins a second smaller courtyard, used by maids and servants. On the second floor directly above the living room are bedrooms for family members as well as a maid’s bedroom and a balcony for drying laundry. A single family would occupy the entire building, usually two or three storeys high.
Today most have disappeared, and the remaining homes await their fate at the hands of demolition teams as the relentless surge of Shanghai construction continues. With many in a parlous state of repair and lacking proper sanitation and services, the cost of restoring them would prove impractical.
In any case, their residents no doubt welcome the chance to move to a modern tower block with large, well-lit rooms and a constant supply of water, heating and electricity.
However, wandering through the last surviving streets with their impossibly tiny alleys and charming arched stone doorwaysone cannot help butbe intoxicated by a style of living so far removed from the concrete, neon andplastic engulfing the rest of the city.
Here, the relentless sound of traffic fades in streets where the elderly gather on bamboo chairs to sip teaand indulge in a leisurely game of cards. Diesel fumes give way to the aroma of fresh dumplings and awhiff of Chinese herbal medicine. Even the city’s heat seems to subside beneath the shade of the shikumens’ tiled roofs.
So the sight of a half-demolished house on an open plot of land at the end of the street - the last occupant of what is now a rubble-littered site - comes as a painful shock. Watchingits roof being violently wrenched away by a bulldozer’s jaws, it is hard notto be overcome by sadness as yet another corner of Shanghai’s past disappears forever.
怀旧的上海“新天地”
10年前，上海新天地所在地区看上去与其它老街区一样，不被人注意。该地区由弄堂(即狭窄的小巷，巷子两侧是石库门房子)组成，占地约3万平米，居住着大约2380户中国家庭。该地区已明显年久失修，埋没在新建豪华酒店和未来主义风格摩天大厦的阴影之中。在目前保留下来的弄堂里，晾挂的衣物一字排开，如同家家户户悬挂的彩旗，洗漱设施都在户外。一排排的水槽排列在弄堂两侧，为了防止邻居盗用，水龙头都上了锁。房屋的院子内摆满了数百户住家的自行车。居民们通常会在弄堂里临时支张桌子吃饭，在这里压根就谈不上什么私人空间。
今日的新天地（意为“新的人间天堂”）汇集了众多摩登的餐厅和商店，其中很多门面看上去是传统风格。负责改建工作的美国建筑师本杰明?伍德(Ben Wood)，目前就居住在俯瞰该地区的5幢豪华公寓楼中的一幢。该地区还有8幢高档住宅楼正在建造之中。
这是一种引人瞩目的转变，同时也存在争议。在上海，为了新建工程，三分之二的弄堂(以及出色的装饰派艺术建筑)被夷为平地，这成为了双方争议的焦点――保护主义者反对此类改建工程，而政府官员和开发商则认为，把新天地原先糟糕的状况改建到最好水平。
首先，要谈点儿这片地区的历史。该地区对于中国人而言“有着很重要的文化意义”，因为在1921年，这里的石库门建筑曾是中国共产党创建的旧址。在中国共产党建党50周年前3年，上海卢湾区政府决定对该地区实施改造，并与香港瑞安地产集团(Shui On Group)总裁罗康瑞(Vincent Lo)签订了地产开发合同，该公司此前一直负责建设上海首批甲级高层写字楼之一。
罗康瑞致电邀请波士顿的伍德及另外四家公司提供咨询服务，这令伍德感到吃惊。“他们召我立即前往上海，”伍德回忆道，“其他人都希望把这一地区推倒重建”。
但罗康瑞希望尽可能保留该地区的历史特色。因此，伍德表示，尽管“建筑重建并维持原有规模……涉及到的工作量，使我们提出的方案在目前最为昂贵，同时明显是回报最低的……但我们还是赢得了这个项目。”
目前的住户，得到了开发商根据政府制定的标准支付的补偿款，迁出了该地区，其中许多人住进了上海郊区的现代化住宅(其价格几乎无法核定，但提到了每平米4000元人民币这个数目)。伍德称，他们过去居住在传统的石库门建筑中，“没有安装抽水马桶的卫生间”。此后，开发商开始加固楼体、翻修外观、加装窗户，并全面改造了内部结构，按照露天广场风格布局，创造了可供现代企业进驻的空间。
“这并不是‘忠实的’复原重建。”伍德承认，“我不是一个保护主义者。我的目的是尊重……这一地区的特色风貌，但要创建一种商业上可行的居住环境。”
新天地携数家国际知名餐厅于2000年底开张，此后在2001年4月迎来首家时装精品店Xavier。“从一开始起，新天地证明在本地人、外地人和游客中都获得了成功。”Xavier老板、澳大利亚人安东尼?爱德华兹(Anthony Edwards)表示，“新天地成为一个向到访贵宾展示的场所，目前已成为全中国（效仿）的一种模式，人人都希望‘打造一个新天地’。”
保护主义者们可不这样看，他们谴责重新安置当地居民、破坏传统房舍、以及星巴克(Starbucks)和哈根达斯(H?agen-Dazs)等西方品牌的侵入。研究上海的历史学家彼得?希巴德(Peter Hibbard)称：“某些建筑物被完全改建，而不是翻修。”即便如此，他还是略带勉强地恭维了一句，“至少这个地区没有被毁掉。”他表示，同时“新天地改变了人们的观念。如今人们把石库门视为时尚，而不是迫不及待要拆除的东西。情况本来有可能还会更糟。”
这一地区在商业上的成功，使周边住宅地产在上海炙手可热。翠湖天地 (Lakeville)公寓，作为占地52公顷的太平桥地区重建项目的一部分，与新天地同时开始规划，其中第一期的5幢公寓楼于2003年竣工。该楼盘277套公寓房的价格，已从6年前开盘时的3229美元/平方米（300美元/平方英尺），涨至8611美元/平方米（800美元/平方英尺）。伍德1998年将业务迁至上海时，出资52.5万美元，购买了翠湖天地一套位于13楼的豪华顶层公寓。他表示，最近有人出价110万美元购买这套公寓。
这些公寓可以鸟瞰新天地商业区景观，景色优美的公园和一个湖泊。翠湖天地配有安全可靠的停车场、一个能够俯瞰日式花园的游泳池、以及24小时门卫服务，该楼盘吸引的买家主要是海外人士，特别是台湾和香港客户。
翠湖天地的二期工程计划于今年年底竣工，包括新建的8幢楼宇，共计645套公寓，由建筑公司公和洋行(Palmer & Turner)设计，室内配备德国博得宝(Poggenpohl)厨具和Gaggenau家用电器。此处还将建造占地7000平米的会所，提供水疗中心(Spa)、室内游泳池和室内网球场等综合设施。
翠湖天地二期的售价目前尚未公布。虽然政府为了抑制房地产投机行为，于去年6月份出台了相关措施，此后住宅地产市场步入低迷，但已有逾1000位潜在买家要求在该公寓开盘时通知他们。新天地对面的华府天地(Richgate)公寓计划于明年竣工，是另一处由5幢楼组成的小区项目。华府天地的营销口号是“权贵名邸”。
显然，从伍德的公寓望出去，老上海仍在视线之内。自行车穿梭于车流之间，而后消失在一条狭窄的弄堂里，在这里，当地人正在露天准备着他们的晚餐。然而，伍德表示：“这种弄堂不会留得太久，随着房地产价格的上涨，保留它们的成本实在是太高了。”
