Design
The Elegant History of Shanghai's Rundown Communal Villas
Over the last century, old English villas became de facto apartment buildings, with pasts full of secrets and stories.
Hidden behind one of Shanghai’s key shopping arteries is a beautiful and century-old four-story villa. It is designed in the Queen Anne style with warm orange bricks, an imposing turret and flower motifs running alongside the arcs on the bay windows. A first-time visitor to the city might think he or she wandered accidentally into a private estate in the English countryside.
That is until you see a group of middle-aged to ancient residents sitting on the porch dressed in pajamas, the loungewear of choice for many Shanghainese, chattering loudly as they set up for another game of mahjong. In the hallway, a young mother fires up her wok on a portable stove.