Xinzha Road 1418
Design: JSA Architects
Location: 1418 Xinzha Road, Shanghai, China
Architecture Area: 11,853 sqm
Project Year: Ongoing
The street address 1418 Xinzha Road is actually an amalgamation of multiple buildings, incrementally built, modified and expanded over the last 90 years. Located in a downtown neighborhood that is rapidly upgrading, the building’s mix of tenant type and commercial use is rich and diverse. Our design objectives for this transformation project were to create a cohesive, modern skin to unite the fragmented building, and then to create an inner circulation network tying all the building’s public functions together.
Over its long and evolving history, a number of quirks, features, and opportunities have accumulated in different parts of the building: multiple landscaped roof terraces and a community garden, an oversized public atrium, a parking courtyard, vehicle drop-off, a lively commercial sidewalk, etc. The problem was that these features were either isolated from each other, difficult to access, or simply unexploited. The core of our planning concept was therefore to link these existing features and combine them with new ones, and to do this on a continuous looped path without dead-ends.
Multiple lobby designs were explored, but all were conceived as part of a continual landscape that would extend throughout the building – interior and exterior. Materials that work both in interiors and exteriors – terracotta paneling, stone flooring, stainless steel, glass and planting – would help tie the entire renovation together as well as improve way-finding.
Original Site Condition
The existing building is conservative, its most prominent corner in a conventional style that is lagging behind the changing neighborhood. The existing building has many interesting functions but they are either hidden, difficult to access, or don’t fit well with their surroundings. Meanwhile there is a healthy strip of commercial storefronts, despite being squeezed along a narrow sidewalk. And a large courtyard promises potential, though it is currently filled with parking.
