Villa restoration project wins national award for heritage preservation
Visitors pose in front of four preserved villas at 100 Wukang Road. The renovation project has been listed among China’s five “excellent preservation projects.”
Preservation work on several century-old garden villas in Xuhui District has won nationwide honors and serves as a model of how heritage can be carried to future generations.
The renovation of four attached villas at 100 Wukang Road has been listed among China’s five “excellent preservation projects” by a panel of judges from the Chinese National Committee for the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University.
Other awarded projects are the restoration work on a nearly 1,000-year-old Buddhist temple tower in North China's Shanxi Province, a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) temple in Fujian Province dedicated to the worship of General Guan Yu (160-220) and the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, a national landmark over the country's longest river.
The Shanghai villa project, at first glance, is somewhat dwarfed by such heavyweights but still represents a valuable lesson in creative rehabilitation.
The villas were built as dormitories for senior staff by a US fuel company in a quiet area of downtown Shanghai that once housed the rich and famous. Renowned local scholar Wang Yuanhua (1920-2008) lived in one of the villas between 1951 and 1955.
The three-story, English-style garden villas later passed through a succession of functions and users, sustaining damage along the way.
A rehabilitation project began about three years ago to restore the structures and convert them into a boutique hotel with about 20 Shanghai-style rooms. It has been open since early this year.
"The project repaired interior and exterior elements and restored historical features," according to the national judging panel. New technologies, such as 3D laser scanning and Building Information Modeling, were applied to repair of walls, roofs, doors and windows.
Prior to the renovation, the villas were occupied by people living in deteriorating conditions, according to an expert in charge of the project.
"Due to lack of maintenance, shrubbery had grown on the rooftop, the doors had almost collapsed, and wooden beams, pillars and floors had been damaged by termites," said Shen Xiaoming, a senior architect and expert on the preservation of historical buildings. “The walls were covered with mildew.”
The cobblestone appearance of the historical villas has been restored along with the original wooden doors and windows.
The cobblestone appearance of the historical villas has been restored along with the original wooden doors and windows.
State-owned Xufang Group, which oversaw the project, relocated all the residents before reconstruction began. Designers spent six months searching for historical photos and original construction materials.
Illegal structures built by former inhabitants were demolished, and the characteristic pebble stone walls and rooftop tiles were restored.
Many original elements of the villas, such as the stone steps at the entrances and some red bricks, had been covered by concrete, Shen said. Workers carefully removed all that to expose the original features of the buildings.
Some broken parts of the steps and exterior walls have been retained to showcase their history and weathering, he added.
Inside the villas, only the original wooden stairways and several other key elements had survived. The architects redesigned the inner space, infusing many modern, fashionable features.
Visitors to the site are entranced by both the vintage architecture and the Art Deco interior décor adorned with metal and geometrical elements, and vine plants.
The 20 rooms in the hotel have been named with words common in local dialect, such as nong (you), dia (good), wu (me) and yi (he/she). A French restaurant is on the ground floor.
"The charm of this place is the blending of Shanghai's heritage architecture with modern decor," said a visitor surnamed Hu from the city of Hangzhou.
A photo taken in 2017 shows workers repairing the historical villas.
A photo taken in 2017 shows workers restoring the cobblestone walls for the historical villas.
The award-wining project demonstrates how the city government is acting to preserve historical structures while endowing heritage building with new life, according to the Shanghai Culture Heritage Administration.
"It represents a major trend to both preserve and give new functionality to heritage structures with the lowest protection level," said Ou Xiaochuan, an official with the administration.
The four villas are listed as a "cultural preservation site" by the Xuhui government.
According to a judge for the award, the project "has attained the heritage protection principles of authenticity, completeness and recognizability. It has helped enhance urban cultural quality and the spirit for the Hengshan-Fuxing Road Historical Conservation Zone."
The historical area, also known as Hengfu, features thousands of historical villas, including many former residences of men of letters and celebrities.
According to a blueprint, the area will have a "historical and cultural" section near Wukang and Fuxing roads, a "music and culture" section along Fenyang and Fuxing roads and a "slow life" section on Yueyang and Jianguo roads. Many historical villas will be turned into boutique hotels, shops and restaurants.
Citywide, Shanghai has 3,435 listed “immovable” heritage structures under protective status. Some 2,700 of them are at fourth-level status, the lowest, such as the garden villas on Wukang Road. Most of the structures are still inhabited, while some have been converted into public cultural and commercial facilities.
Several blocks away, the Cloisters Apartments at 62 Fuxing Road will open to public as soon as the Hengfu Exhibition Hall opens to showcase the century-old history of the whole Hengfu area.
A two-story brick-and-wood building at 178 Wulumuqi Road S, built by the American Masonic Temple Association in 1932, will be opened to the public in July as the Hengfu Art Center for lectures, forums and exhibitions.
The interior of the villas features Art Deco décor adorned with metal and geometrical elements and vine plants.
The Interior of the villas features Art Deco décor adorned with metal and geometrical elements and vine plants.
