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Q:

So first of all, what do you think is the popular way to renovate those old architecture?

A:

I think there are two possibilities or two approaches. As far as I can see, one is restoration. you restore the building to its original condition, and a second possibility, I think it is more relevant to the modern life and in modern world is preservation and adaptive reuse, because buildings no longer served its original purpose. So therefore, you have to consider the new use the new functions.

Q:

Now we have seen Xintiandi we have genuinely. We have quite a lot of places that has been done this for many years now. So, do you think commercialized is the right way for those architectures to have new functions nowadays?

A:

I think it's very important, I think, whether or not the preservation project adaptive reuse project, whether it's developed by a private developer or in conjunction with the government grants and or as a collaboration, this has to be considered, and there is no doubt about that. And when I talk about restoration, so you restore a building to its original condition and too often the difficulty is its afterlife. So, what are we going to do with it? And I think one way of using it is to use it as a museum. There's a fine example in Shanghai in recent years, the house of Chen Wang Tao, who was the first to translate of communism manifesto Into Chinese. And I think the building has been carefully restored to reflect as much as We can. It's the original conditions.

Q:

Do you have any examples from overseas? Do you think there are some great examples we can learn from?

A:

There are many examples, not only in overseas, but they're also the recently gone post in Shanghai Russian orthodox church that has been turned into a bookstore, a bookstore that specializes in poetry. And that's a wonderful fit, as far as I can see, because the church building has the showing dome and a bookstore where the bookshelves are designed to follow the layer of the dome. Another fine example, again in Shanghai and those in many other countries, is to turn the power stations in the industrial heritage in the early twentieth century or maybe late nineteenth century to turn these buildings into art museums, to Tate modern in London and also our power station art museum in Shanghai.

Q:

For areas like Tianzifang, those residents are still living in those areas. But suddenly when they open the door in the morning, they see tourists. They see visitors everywhere, and it gets very noisy. So how do you see that conflicts.

A:

Stricter regulations and laws would apply to them when it comes to restore Asian or adaptive reuse. But there are other areas which are not regarded as the built fabric of high significance, such as Tianzifang. And what do we have seen in this area? Is gentrification or a form of gentrification knowing western world. So that's a bottom up approach, and it's a kind of if you call it the organic process. And there are commercial forces and also the need of local residents, and they happened to become something with a distinctive character. But the problem is always, how do you strike the balance? And when it becomes too popular, whether or not the local lives would be affected?

Q:

Well, thank you so much for talking to us to share your insights. And it's a great pleasure talking to you.

A:

Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure, Thank you.