Shanghai Transforming

The Washington Post’s Maureen Fan went to homes designed by her grandfather, architect Fan Wenzhao, or Robert Fan, who left Shanghai when the Communists took over in 1949.

“Memory City is about my personal memory of Shanghai, which is real yet also full of fantasy and becoming more faint by the day. After being resorted, reordered and recombined, those well-worn buildings in the photographs and my broken memories have been called back to life in an integral and centralized way, only to disappear again soon.” Sun Ji

Different shades of red will be used on different levels to make the pavilion look as if it is all the same color in sunlight, said Ni Yang, deputy chief designer of the pavilion. The red will be darker on upper part and lighter nearer the ground. (Shanghai Daily)

Photo by Charlie Xia

It seems that the luxury hotel, situated by the popular Xintiandi, are on hold and their official opening has been postponed until the end of this year due to the economic crisis. Named Shanghai’s ‘Most Expected Hotel‘ by members of the industry elite and World Traveller Magazine readers, it seems that we’ll have to wait to see if the wait is worth the hype

Photo by Iker Gil

Shanghai is to apply to have shikumen (stone-gated) buildings named as one of China’s intangible cultural heritages. (Shanghai Daily)

The merging of Nanhui District with Pudong New Area will help accelerate Shanghai’s development in shipping, business and manufacturing. (Shanghai Daily)

After its successful presentation in the New Museum in New York, the exhibition Urban China: Informal Cities is on display at Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. The exhibition explores the dynamic and innovative content of Urban China, the only magazine published in China devoted to issues of urbanism. Curated by Benjamin Godsill, the exhibition runs until July 19, 2009.

Also, on May 19 don’t miss the opportunity of attending the lecture Conversations on Urban China with Sylvia Lavin with Hou Hanru and Qingyun Ma.