Renovation project brings historic buildings back to life
The Shen Family Mansion after renovation.
White walls, gray-green roof tiles, stone carvings and antique iron locks, five historical buildings including the Shen Family Mansion in Songjiang have been restored after eight months of repair work. They'll be open to the public soon.
The Shen Family Mansion was built in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) with three axes running in the east, middle and west. The layout of the east and west parts is symmetrical, consisting of a front hall, a corridor and a rear courtyard. The rear gate of the residence leads directly to the river.
The Shen family ran a successful business, and the four courtyards of the mansion showed its wealth. However, as time went by, the ancient compound suffered varying degrees of damage and became dilapidated.
Tang Xiaoxian, project manager of Changshu Ancient Architecture and Landscape Co Ltd, was in charge of the renovation project. He still remembered the first sight of the old mansion – decayed wooden pillars, cracked walls and collapsed roof.
"The difficulty of restoring project lies not only in restoring the original appearance of the mansion, but also in finding many materials that are now hard to come by."
After several rounds of preliminary investigation, the renovation team conducted detailed measurement, imaging and sample preservation of the original building structure and materials.
"We adhere to the principle of 'repairing the old as it was'," he said.
The team used traditional pier connection techniques to repair damaged load-bearing beams and columns as much as possible to restore their original appearances.
Last October, the Shen Family Mansion renovation project began, along with the renovation of other historical buildings in the area such as Kang's Mansion, Song's Mansion, Hou's Mansion and Lu's Mansion.
Tang mentioned that the most challenging work was to restore a stone gate.
"The stone is no longer available in the market, so we spent several days reprocessing the stone we had to replicate its appearance," he said.
By June this year, the 2,910-square- meter mansion had completed renovation work.
The subsequent development and utilization of the ancient mansions are also on the agenda.
Wu Huajun, director of the Renovation Center of the Songjiang District Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, said that the old houses will become the main tourism destinations, providing citizens with more cultural experience activities.
"We're working to revive the ancient buildings with new vitality," Wu said.
