15/04/2020
1/16的上海百年老宅| LU RESIDENCE
Qingyunli, Lane 22 on Xiangyang North Road, was originally built in 1912; The Lus, who owned this contemporary-style house, then moved to Australia, leaving the house along with all the memories behind. Years later, The immigrant family’s third generation descendant, Haode Lu, came back to Shanghai just to find only 1/16 part of the building left for him: time had eroded and erased almost all the family history --- that house he always saw in the old pictures and dreams was nowhere to be found.
The house went through multiple tenants during the century. All the interior had been renovated from the original except for the floor, doors, windows and ceiling in balcony area. This remaining 1/16 of the house was located on the third level of the house, initially designed to be a master bedroom; its later occupants added basic facilities for kitchen and bathroom functioning so that the level itself could serve as an independent living unit.
The space is only 1/16 of the old house and the large family, however will bear the full weight of 100% of the couple’s love and passion. It is the start of a brand new life embarking from the old life fragments. The idea of design is to implant a rectangular box into the space, as the most efficient solution to functioning and also a grand gesture of having the new growing inside the old.
The linear circulation from the living room, walk-in closet and bathroom significantly improves the user experience in terms of efficiency. To make sure the outcome as an infusion of the new with the old, original doors, windows and flooring are kept almost throughout the house. An entire cabinet wall with its surface curved provides sufficient room for storage while ensuring a sense of lightness at the same time. Large use of pandomo cement in the bathroom brings visual calmness into a relatively small space. Brick red on the wall together with dark walnut brown on the floor recreates the atmosphere of the old Shanghai, immediately bringing tenants back to the past time.
A house may divide and memories may split. We are never good at goodbyes. For the Lus, The 1/16 is their last but firmest connection with hometown. @ Shanghai, China
