I-Shin Chow is not simply one of those expats who seek to bring greater attention to the architectural treasures of 1930s Shanghai.

 

As one of the design principals at sciSKEW Collaborative, the 31-year-old Singaporean is especially intrigued by the way in which a city's inhabitants embed their own stories into the architecture around them.

 

While exploring Shanghai's domestic spaces, he found his own home.

 

"I pretty much stumbled upon the house during one of my excursions and immediately felt a special connection," Chow explains. "It is rare to find an old house with such a great combination of factors: location, building condition, and understated charm.

 

"Growing up in a laid-back place like Singapore, I naturally gravitate towards spaces that are unassuming rather than ostentatious," he adds.

 

Located in the heart of Puxi, the house itself is an almost textbook-perfect example of the archetypal three-story Shanghainese xinshi lilong (new-style lane house), one of the many that were churned out in the 1930s according to a modular plan.

 

"This one in particular belongs to the two-bay type, which are less easy to find than the one and one-and-a-half bay houses, but are generally much brighter and airier," he says.

 

Together with his two New York-based partners, Chow set about restoring the house, and putting the firm's unique stamp on the place. According to him, the firm's experience in preserving historic buildings in New York was an asset.

 

"The approach we took towards the renovation was typical of our design process," Chow says. "As an architectural practice focused on telling stories -- excavating old ones, as well as weaving new -- sciSKEW was naturally committed to restoring, as far as possible, the house to its original Bauhaus-inspired state.

 

"Throughout the main living spaces of the house, our strategy was to intervene as minimally as possible, replacing worn-out and rotted members only where needed," he adds.

 

The original cast iron windows were retained and even the old furniture and light fixtures were rescued from the trash pile. "I wanted the house to tell its own story," he explains.

 

That is not to say, though, that Chow and his partners were only interested in unearthing the history of the house. "The house had some distinct peculiarities typical of the lane house type," he says.

 

These houses very often have rather dingy air wells, small bathrooms, and dark north-facing rooms the locals call tingzijian. In the case of the Dagu Road house, these "useless spaces" needed to be reworked into areas that could support the needs of a contemporary lifestyle.

 

"Our solution was a translation of the modern circulation and utility cores that allow today's condos and high rises to exist," Chow says.

 

The existing problem spaces were reorganized into a continuous white spiral rising from the ground floor and emerging on the roof as a viewing terrace with panoramic views of the city. The materials used for this spiral were simply taken from the existing "useless spaces" -- terrazzo, mosaic and light.

 

"By inserting a modern core into the old house this way, we were able to retain and restore much of the original interior while simultaneously providing new support spaces for daily activities," Chow says.

 

For him though, the coexistence of the two intertwined stories -- the old xinshi lilong and the new condominium core -- speaks of a larger reality of our time.

 

"We live in an age where technology has allowed the unprecedented exchange of information across the world, yet conflicts are raging on because of a lack of translation between people, ideologies and societies," Chow says. "I believe the task of the architect is to create spaces for new dialogues to exist."

 

Chow obtained his Master of Architecture degree in Columbia University after an undergraduate education at Princeton University. He spent much time living in New York, as well as working in Berlin.

 

He says moving to Shanghai four years ago seemed like a natural next step for him. "I have always been most comfortable in cities that are meeting places for different peoples, different cultures."

 

It seems clear that like the city of Shanghai itself, the designs of Chow and sciSKEW Collaborative emerge from a confluence of East and West, old and new.

 

(Shanghai Daily April 3, 2007)