上海 Shanghai : Day 1

– Shanghai, China

The very first day, we woke up bright and early to partake in our bundled buffet breakfast (bringing back memories of buffets with my grandparents!) before starting on our walking tour of 里弄 lilong and 单位 danwei housing neighborhoods. The following pictures are some of my favorites from just the first day. It was tricky selecting what to share, because there were so many beautiful moments. Such a culturally rich city!

We met with our instructors, our dean and associate dean, and an architect from the Shanghai office of the firm, who arranged the tour. Because our project is a mixed-use, residential urban planning strategy, we focused on seeing and documenting these historic housing districts. Many of them have been pulled down in favor for newer construction. The ones remaining though, tend to be in poorer condition but still have an intimate atmosphere. Everyone knows everyone. Think village-community relationship. I really liked that.

( Also, it was A M A Z I N G  taking pictures with my new camera in such beautiful place! )

Protects your hands from the roaring winds!

One of the first assignments for this studio was to read about Chinese culture. There was a reading that told stories of residents strolling around public streets in their pajamas. It’s a prime example of the differences between East and West cultures – the blurring of lines between what is public, and what is private “attire”. We talked about it so much that it made us giddy when we saw the pajamas in real life.

This guy too… is it me or are his gloves massive?

I really like this one…

The whole gang in the silver ball =]

Pedestrians don’t really have the right of way… this guy was standing in the middle of the street for quite some time waiting for a break in traffic.

welding!

I like his jacket. So yellow.

Calvin Tsao (of Tsao&Mckown) and our ‘guide’, Corey, in the background.

By the way, this resembles an incredible amount my project in Florence!

Some of the “modern stuff”. Check out the classic pilaster ;]

Would you have known that we were in the French quarter? Perhaps from these French inspired boulevards?

happy :]

even lemons are happy

Nice name for a store? =P

My hamster was named Chou Chou…

I was SO happy to see this bakery! I MISS Chinese bakeries like you wouldn’t believe.

I know it is just laundry, but it’s so decorative!

Shoes

We went to visit a very contemporary Japanese restaurant. The entrance is buried amongst bamboo.

The dining space is incredible but my photographs weren’t that great.

It did have a nice lamp and chair under the stair!

the ladies’ restroooom with little rock garden!

cheese shot

We look like paparazzi.

I love this cart!

Around the afternoon, we stopped by coffee to help beat the jet lag…

Our associate dean!

Calvin and our dean.

While we were waiting for coffee, we played with cameras and tried to get settings to catch this ashtray spinning without being blurry.

Got it!

Irish coffee

mio cappuccino doppio <3

the guys – very happy with their Irish coffees

Afterwards, more walking!

Also stopped by a designer shop on the ground floor of a house.

Laundry! There was an abundance of red underwear…

See?

Many of these neighborhoods are undergoing transformation into locally owned little art shops and cafes on the ground floor.

This shop owner was very enthusiastic =]

This car got blinged out.

We went to this porcelain store called Spin.

I have the one on the left =] Calvin got this set of 12 for the 12 of us and at the end, handed out each one on our final review. They’re all different!

Sleek table

We called this the Lazy Apple.

Pretty.

Then we went to 田子坊 tianzifang. It is a converted old residential district into an arts, cafe, bar, and restaurant area. It has an intricate, warm ambiance that I later attempted to incorporate into my project.

I cannot escape from Europe. As it was very cold (40s) we stopped at Ramble for some hot wine / vin chaud / gluhwein, depending on what country you are from! I miss and love my gluhwein. I loved this trip to China. I loved living in Italy. I loved traveling through Germany and France, and all their mulled wine. The only not-good thing about all this traveling is that you have to miss so much, all the time!

What a first day =]