Memories of life in city’s heritage treasures
Print Edition
IF you have lived in one of Xuhui District’s many historic buildings, the local authorities would like to hear your stories.
District officials are interviewing residents to record their memories for use in videos and books being produced to serve as reference materials to complement heritage preservation work being undertaken in the area, officials said yesterday.
The preservation of heritage must transcend physical protection, which means creating a record of residential life in the buildings, said Chen Baoping, a senior long-term planning advisor for the city who has led the “memory collection” campaign.
The Hunan Road Subdistrict of Xuhui yesterday released a collection of residents’ memories of the Normandie Apartments, which was built by Hungarian architect Laszlo Hudec on Huaihai Road M. in 1924. Those interviewed included those who spent their childhood in the building and expatriate residents.
The French Renaissance-style building, which was funded by the International Savings Society, was built on a triangle of land at the intersection of Wukang Road and Huaihai Road M. The oldest veranda-style apartment block in Shanghai, it looks like a ship when viewed from one direction and was built to commemorate a warship sunk during World War I.
After its construction, garden villas, new-style alleyway houses and highrise apartments sprouted up in the area during the 1920s and 1930s.
“I found it looked exactly the same as the Flatiron Building in New York when I first saw it,” said interviewee Adam Sinykin from the United States, who moved into the building in 2007 with his wife and daughter.
“The original residents were foreigners, and our parents were the second-generation residents. Now we are the third-generation residents living there,” said Qin Zhongming, a professor with the Shanghai Theater Academy, who has lived in the building since 1967.
A 40-minute video telling the residents’ stories can be viewed in the main hall of the building and will be played in stores and cafes along Huaihai Road M., said Lu Yun, deputy head of the Hunan Road Subdistrict government.
City planners are also using the memory collection drive as an opportunity to solicit input from residents on what shape the community should take in the future, Sha Yongjie, an architecture and urban planning professor at Tongji University and the chief planner for the Wukang Road area, where most of the city’s garden villas and historic buildings are located.
“During the interviews, the residents said they want more wet markets and parking spaces but fewer tourists and visitors to their residences, which will be taken into account during future planning,” he said.
“We will specifically avoid allowing the Wukang Road area to become another commercial district like Tianzifang,” he told Shanghai Daily.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
