Description:

My project is an ongoing study of urban change in Shanghai's French Concession—and in particular, the ways in which the old "lane housing" (longtang or nongtang in Mandarin and Shanghainese) is being adapted both formally and programmatically to meet new pressures in the rapid transformation of that city. In this process, the old Art Deco housing stock is being radically adapted to new functions, incorporating spaces for small business, illicit industries, and an ever-increasing human density. Rooms are subdivided in both plan and section, leading to novel arrangements, spaces, and distributions.

The work has been very exciting in practice. For the most part, it involves wandering Shanghai's lanes, looking for promising architectural and urban conditions, and knocking on doors to ask residents about their experiences of the changing nongtang fabric. To this end, I have undertaken four research trips in late 2004 and 2005. Throughout these trips, I have been accompanied by a research assistant from Shanghai Tongji University. Together we have surveyed a range of urban conditions, using a mixed strategy of photography and architectural survey to create a visual and metrical record of new conditions.

Additionally, I have been accumulating a large archive of photographs that chronicle the almost daily transformations in the French Concession. These are taken during research visits, during interviews, and at night with a four-inch folding tripod which can be positioned on the ground, on windowsills, and attached to Shanghai's ubiquitous street-trees with a velcro strap. The images shown above provide a brief sense of this developing archive, which will be published in a forthcoming volume.

Ker-Shing Ong MArch/MLA'02