Upon recommendation from our Shanghai-based friends, we headed to Tian Zi Fang on Tai Kang Lu, which features a mix of old brick houses and refurbished ones, turning most of the interiors into art studios, galleries, trendy shops, bars and restaurants. Whats nice about it was that the exterior brick facades and telecommunication lines were kept mostly intact and the atmosphere retained very much a residential quality. It's not surprising to see a couple of old grannies with their grandsons in tow sitting at the corner of a block chit-chatting the evening away. Charming.
Trendy art studios and galleries
Art, art and more art!
Souvenior shops, which proved repetitive after a while.
Old grannies taking a rest from their evening stroll
Art gallery
Tee-shirt shop
One of the many Thai restaurants
Corner tailor shop
The alleyways were packed with restaurants to the likes of Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Western food, with posh interiors and stylish furniture. We were spoilt for choice and i wondered if i preferred that the whole area was smaller for a more intimate setting or that the choices were endless and streets after streets sprouted more such restaurants.
Met up with Wei Loong at Consumme for drinks followed by a splendid dinner at Pho, a vietnamese restaurant near the New York pizza place, where we were joined by another bunch of Shanghai World Expo troopers from Singapore, led by our fellow archi classmate Yvonne, who is now working in Bahrain.
On the last morning of my week-long Shanghai trip, i paid a visit to the much-talked about 1933 slaughter house or Lao Chang Fang.
Um, this is NOT it.
This is then the one... check out its formidable concrete exterior!
Sidetrack abit... this window display of retro goods along the facade reminds me of that in Selfridges & Co. in London.
Entrance lobby to 1933.
Open-to-sky courtyards surrounded by retrofitted cafes and shops.
Another of those communist-products souvenior shops.
The start of my self-guided cattle-path tour of the former slaughter-house. The darkness beyond was a little eerie. I took a short video clip in case you don't believe me. The ramps were rough and it wasn't hard to imagine herds of cattle being led to their fate up this path.
Then there were the flowering columns which were reinforced with steel throughout the massive concrete building. I thought the splaying or blossoming if you like, of the columns where it meets the slab soffit was effective in carving out arch-like spaces, making for interesting architecture.
Uh, someone dropped a cattle bone?
The walls were high, i suppose cos this was a slaughterhouse for cows instead of pigs.
Posh restaurants occupy presumably what used to be holding pens for the cattle.
Kinda morbid don't you think? Although apparently the beef noodles here was excellent.
Air bridges which had different widths to control the flow of cattle. Minus the cattle, these now create a mysterious composition of voids throughout the multi-volume open-air atrium space which proves to be visually stunning.
Lattice windows served to bring in light and natural ventilation to the originally open-air concept building.
Bottom-up view of the glass podium floor on the 4th storey sky theatre. Negotiations for venue rental for an upcoming event was taking place between two caucasians as i clicked away on my camera. Elsewhere in the big sky theatre, a chinese couple were lip-locked for the longest time. I tried not to look.
Narrow spiral staircases from the 2nd to 3rd storey were nicely carved into the inner atrium space. Except that emerging from these stairs, i couldn't find the entrance into the shanghai creative design industry shop despite making a few turns around the atrium. Well i guess that possibly saved me some money.
Poor cattle. But i must say i was quite impressed with the new life injected into this old slaughterhouse. What a delightful project and evocative place to dine at or to hold a function. There's even a wedding gown shop here to boot. Wedding venue for couples born in the year of the cow perhaps? Uh. maybe not.
With about 2 hours left before i had to be back in the hotel, i cabbed to Xin Tian Di, only cos i couldn't seem to remember exactly how it was like, other than the outdoor Starbucks cafe table set against a brick wall facade we hung out at 5 years ago. And because Wei Loong says the place never fails to excite him after some 6 years of working in Shanghai.
I leave you with other random Shanghai scenes, and further down, visits to the tops of JinMao Tower and the World Financial Centre, which is now the tallest at 492m and at 100 floors.
Jin Mao Tower
View of World Financial Centre from the 88th storey of Jin Mao.
Skybridge at the top floor of the World Financial Centre. It had a glass floor down the middle and i found it funny that i was totally fine walking along the opaque parts of the bridge but the moment i had to walk across the glazed floor portion my heart skipped a beat and my fingers hurt. The mind does wonders to you.
Did i mention that we had to queue a total of 2 hours before we reached the skybridge?
Soon to be completed International Financial Centre.
Circular overhead pedestrian crossing blending in quite well to the urbanscape.
Pearl of the Orient
Night view of the skyline along the Bund.
Attended the DesignS Forum at the Waterhouse on Southbund which was a stylish old warehouse converted into a conference venue with restaurants apparently but we didn't stay long enough to check them out.
Fooling around with Baby Adrea at a shanghainese dinner place in the French Concession area with ex-Archi schoolmates Wei Loong & Pam, Howe Choon, Rayvees & Anng and Ivan & Lai Yeow. And later on with Lip Khoon at an Irish pub just a few doors down the road.
Next up: Suzhou
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