URBAN NOMADS IN SHANGHAI

In Shanghai most foreigners live in pre furnished rent apartments inside a compound. These compounds are high rise apartment blocks, consisting of 3-12 buildings, up to 45 floors high, which are grouped around a park and surrounded by a high fence. Their melodious names like Rainbow City, Windsor Club, Modern Villas, Rainbow Asia, Elegant Garden Plaza, Beverly Hills, Shanghai Celebrity World, … and an elite infrastructure promise the ultimate living.
When expats are staying longer than the average couple of months, they often prefer to live further away from the city center in their own villa with garden. Last week we visited one of the leading property developers in China – the Greentown Group – which is focusing on luxury villa projects in China’s prosperous cities, especially in Zhejiang province. At the moment they are starting to sell villas in the gated community “Magnolia Garden” – for 4,500.- to 5,000.- €/m² The project, which is located between Shanghai’s business district and the airport in Pudong, is promoted for its sustainable development concept. Somehow we are expecting more from sustainable developers than planting trees and copying antique villas.

A new landmark of Shanghai Commercial Art designed by the Japanese
Architect Arata Isozaki.
The Himalayas Center, which’s estimated completion date is around Christmas, has been described on their homepage www.zendaihimalayas.com as “a perfect embodiment of the architectural ideal of combining nature with humanism”. Humanism is what seems to be missing when walking on the construction site of this three-dimensional freeform design. Right next to the new structure a row of shabby metal containers is housing workers for the period of construction. With less than 10m² the units are reminiscent of train compartments without any insulation – each inhabited by 6 migrant workers. One water supply for all workers for washing/cooking/drinking/showering is installed outdoors between two containers.
Although we’ve been dealing especially with the living conditions of migrant workers we were not prepared to walk into such intimate scenes on this construction site.