David Chipperfield Architects picked for tower and restoration project
David Chipperfield Architects has won a major project in the centre of Shanghai.
The competition win comes just weeks after the practice broke ground on the redevelopment of Shanghai City Hall – another heritage project – and completed a riverside art museum for the Pompidou on the Chinese city’s West Bund.
The new competition win will see David Chipperfield Architects Shanghai act as lead architect on a project to restore and develop Zhangyuan in the centre of the city. The project will also feature new-build elements including a tower.
Zhangyuan is a historic lilong, also known as a longtang – an alleyway community, typical of early 20th-century Shanghai.
The architect said Zhangyuan it was possibly the best-preserved “Shikumen museum” in Shanghai.
The district contains a rich series of different Shikumen typologies (buildings that combine Western and Chinese elements) from different time periods and of varying materials and ornamentation.
>> Also read: Chipperfield wins contest to complete Shanghai city hall
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“The project will see the restoration of the historic buildings and several new interventions that will allow visitors a new layer of experience and understanding of Shanghai’s unique Shikumen architecture,” said a practice spokesperson.
DCA has had an office in Shanghai for about 15 years. In 2014 it was commissioned to undertake an urban study of the relationship between historic low-density housing and a new high-density development in the Shikumen neighbourhood of DongSiWenLi.
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