△ Scenery Villa Realistic Scene © Zhonghai Real Estate
“Our design maximizes the presentation of the city’s historic landscape and textures, fully leveraging the visual advantages of super high-rise buildings to create a successful urban renewal project.” – Yuan Yuangoa, Chief Architect at Elephant Design
Shunchang Road, located in Shanghai’s Huangpu District, was first established in 1901. Historically, private capital drove the development of Shikumen residential buildings alongside small-scale industrial and commercial activities, forming a vibrant “factory-house integration” pattern. However, after more than 120 years, this area has gradually become outdated.
Historical map of Shunchang Road area © Goa Elephant Design
Since 2016, as Shanghai’s urban development shifted focus towards stock renovation, the extensive Shikumen lanes around Shunchang Road have been designated as style-protected neighborhoods, placing them at the center of urban renewal efforts.
The site’s central urban location offers excellent geographical advantages © Goa Elephant Design
Coordinated Urban Interface
The renewal design begins with comprehensive planning of five plots lining both sides of Shunchang Road. This area boasts significant historic architecture, including cultural landmarks like the former Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts and numerous alleys rich with community memories. The plan prioritizes the public nature of these historic buildings, transforming structures along the cross-shaped axis of Jianguo East Road and Shunchang Road into accessible public spaces.
Five core visions guiding the planning and design © Goa Elephant Design
On plot #70, where Shunchang Jiuli is situated, cultural heritage buildings are dispersed throughout the site, limiting accessibility and public engagement. To address this, the plan relocates three heritage buildings—Hongning Village, Heming Village, and Shunxin Village—to prominent street corners. These buildings are then enclosed by newly constructed structures to create a commercial district. The resulting community square, blending old and new, serves as a vibrant public space fostering a strong sense of neighborhood identity.
Residence 148, Hemingli © Goa Elephant Design
△ Relocated historic buildings create a new public square © Goa Elephant Design
Preserving the Texture of Inner Alleys
The five plots in the Shunchang Road project contain approximately 150,900 square meters of historic buildings that require comprehensive renovation and modernization. Balancing the scale of new high-rises with the low-rise alleyway character presents a key design challenge.
For instance, on plot #70, the plan optimizes building heights and widths by reducing the original six planned high-rises to three super high-rise residential towers. This adjustment creates more space for low-rise alleyways, increasing the preserved texture area from 45% to 70%. Meanwhile, the super high-rise buildings benefit from exceptional views over the historic district, achieving a harmonious balance between heritage conservation and development value.
Comparison of plot #70 before and after optimization © Goa Elephant Design
The New Life of Shikumen
The small-scale private capital developments created the uneven textures of plot #70 and established the classic “outer city square” alley structure. However, traditional alleyway buildings are characterized by high density, narrow spacing, poor lighting, and a lack of communal public spaces. This limits their ability to meet contemporary residents’ expectations for quality living environments.
△ Texture analysis © Goa Elephant Design
The design fundamentally reconstructs the linear neighborhood pattern and enhances the spatial quality of the low-rise residential buildings by optimizing the alleys’ height and width.
The optimized alley scale is tailored to modern living needs © Goa Elephant Design
The three-bay-wide courtyard design draws inspiration from historic alleyway mansions, reproducing a classic layout that ensures ample natural light and comfort, expanding the vision for high-quality living.
△ High-quality living space © Zhonghai Real Estate
To preserve architectural diversity, the architects extensively studied local building characteristics and designed varied spatial layouts.
Diverse low-rise residential buildings © Goa Elephant Design
The use of alternating materials such as red and gray tiles, red and green tiles, along with various stone colors and textures, creates dynamic variations in rooflines and facades across the community.
The pre-built model area showcases a rich variety of materials © Chen Xi Studio
The variety of storefront styles, mountain flower motifs, and textual details enrich spatial experience. The design also introduces subtle diversity through careful mosaic work, bricklaying rhythms, and changes in brick joints, preserving the natural and vibrant character of the alleyway environment.
The pre-built model area showcases a rich variety of materials © Chen Xi Studio
Recreating the Vibrancy of Urban Life
The design team drew on historical materials and typologies to reinterpret traditional alleyway residence and street shop facades using contemporary materials and craftsmanship. This approach creates a mixed-use community blending Shikumen residences, high-rise apartments, commercial spaces, and public facilities, fulfilling the vision of “continuing the urban fireworks atmosphere.”
△ A vibrant corner commercial area full of life © Goa Elephant Design
During design and construction, Zhonghai Real Estate hosted two urban renewal-themed exhibitions in 2021 and 2023. These exhibitions showcased the historical and cultural heritage of Shunchang Road as a representative Shanghai neighborhood and promoted public awareness of the importance of urban renewal.
The exhibition displayed materials and techniques used in the renovation © Zhonghai Real Estate
Project Drawings
△ General plan of neighborhood #70 © Goa Elephant Design
Project Information
Project Name: Zhonghai Shunchang Jiuli
Location: Huangpu District, Shanghai
Owner: Zhonghai Real Estate
Architectural Design: Goa Elephant Design
Landscape Design: Taipu Architectural Environment Design Consulting (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Roland Design
Interior Design: Close in Production, HWCD, CCD Hong Kong Zhengzhong Design Firm, Du Kangsheng AUDI Interior Design Team
Construction Drawing Design: Shanghai Zhongfang Architectural Design Co., Ltd
Historical Building Protection Consultant: East China Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd. Historical Building Protection Design Institute, Shanghai Zhangming Architectural Design Firm
Design/Completion: 2020/-
Building Area: 280,000 square meters
Photography Copyright: Zhonghai Real Estate, Chen Xi Studio
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