Preservation and Requalification of the Shanghai Urban Heritage. The Case Study of the JingAn Villa District

Shanghai city, like most of the Asian historic towns, is undergoing a rapid urbanization, disrespectful to the urban fabric. Due to its particular history, around 80% of the Shanghai urban fabric is characterized by traditional houses called Lilongs that represent an important cultural heritage that is at risk of disappearing over time, as many districts have been demolished to give way to private development projects and skyscrapers. Lilong houses were built after the Opium Wars (1839-41) at the hands of Westerners (French, English, Germans, Italians) who colonized Shanghai, forming different “concessions areas”. The Lilong house originates as a mixture of the European traditional terraced house and the traditional Chinese house. From 1840 and 1949 Lilong houses developed spawning different typologies with common characteristics. Today local government is becoming aware of the need to consider this historic urban landscape so that it shall be preserved and rehabilitated. In this paper we trace the origin and evolution of the Lilong building typology starting from urban settlement up to defining its architectural and technological characteristics in order to develop a strategic system and obtain information to enhance the qualitative standard of rehabilitation. For this purpose we selected as a case study the district of JingAn Villa at Shanghai located in the International Concession, which comprises 183 complexes, housing nearly 3000 residents.