Q: Can you tell us about the development of Tianzifang?

A: This place used to be occupied by some state-owned factories dating from the 1940s and residential shikumen built in the 1920s. After 1999 the factories were gradually pushed out by the market economy and some small businesses, such as a barber shop, a scissors shop, a noodle shop and a bath house set up in the lane. These caused a big mess both to the historical buildings and to the nearby residences.

After years of on-again-off-again rumors, Shanghai Daily reports that Disney has signed a deal with the Shanghai government to open a park in Pudong.

At the former site of General Electric, at 2200 Yangshupu Lu, one of Shanghai's most astonishing architectural achievements can be found. Deng Kunyan, an architect best known for his conversion of an abandoned 1930s warehouse that is credited with sparking an artistic renewal along the banks of Suzhou creek, has transformed this disused factory into an urban Zen oasis.  Inside the gates a remarkable mutation of industrial waste and pillaged recycled materials has taken place: floors are made of old roof tiles, walls are constructed of pottery molds, gutted buildings reveal the raw beauty of exposed brick and wooden beams. Throughout a garden grows. Giant vines climb through rusted metal frames, lotus flowers bloom in ponds made from molded concrete, masses of wild flowers struggle through the tiles. Light touches of design guide the scene; glass structures, an angled mirror, an oversized door, a curving wall, an innovative staircase, transforming this overgrown historical debris into a showcase complex of design studios, galleries and coffee shops.

Throughout the city abandoned factories and warehouses are being converted into 'creative clusters' that house a mixture of design and architectural studios, innovative boutiques, cafés, hotels and restaurants. The temporal juxtapositions embodied in these sites are a vital part of the city's 'neomodernist' revival in which looking back and looking forward become indistinguishable and a nostalgia for the past plugs directly into the desire to take hold of the future. Taken together, then, these ultramodern refurbishments of the city's industrial core provide a crucial key to the aesthetics, economics and culture of contemporary Shanghai.

Deng Kunyan is a pioneer of this new cultural trend. Urbanatomy was able to talk to him at his office at the creative complex at 2200 Yangshupu.

The New York Times magazine is tighly tuned to the City Scanner wavelength this week, as evidenced by film critic A. O. Scott's short but suggestive story on the metropolis in science fiction cinema.

The New York Times' Nicolai Ouroussoff grapples with neomodernism and the "New, New City"

The article mainly focuses on Shenzhen and Dubai, with Beijing figuring prominently as well. Shanghai is oddly absent, perhaps because its success at preservation, hybrid communities and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods means that it doesn't quite fit the mold being applied. Some key quotes:

Neomodernism can be compared to the emergence from a dark tunnel. It refers back to a moment in history that spun together intoxicating change and gathering menace – even apocalyptic presentiment. The climactic, giddy hedonism of an over-ripened age was overshadowed by an impending epoch of financial crisis, hyper-technologized global warfare, genocide, virtual Armageddon, command-control economics and ubiquitous totalitarian temptation. If the cosmopolitan cultures of the 1920s and '30s were already stumbling into the abyss – and obscurely aware of the fact – those of the early 21st century are still staggering out of it, battered, traumatized, yet euphorically revitalized.

Shanghai is still waiting for a Zaha Hadid building (Guangzhou is luckier), but even without an obvious development pretext, this quote was just too good to miss:

Jen Lin-Liu reports on the transformation of Qingpu into a world showcase of architectural innovation.

Re-animation of urban industrial heritage is the dominant development craze in Shanghai, with The Highstreet Loft being one of the most recent examples of the genre. Located off Jianguo Lu, this former factory complex has been renovated with the usual light design touches: bamboo gardens, giant monitors, glass and wooden skins. Kokaistudios (the team behind Bund 18) was responsible for transforming this former textile factory into a contemporary centre of fashion and design. The original building was known as Three Guns (the owner was apparently very fond of firearms).