ADAPTIVE REUSE AS SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE IN CONTEMPORARY SHANGHAI

Abstract: This thesis attempts to explore and interpret the contradictory forces and the direction of development of contemporary China as exemplified by Shanghai by investigating the emerging phenomenon of architectural adaptive reuse. The purpose of exploring Shanghai's architecture is to determine how adaptive reuse is contributing to a more historically and culturally sustainable architecture/society. It is grounded in the questions of: what can be learned from a study of architectural adaptive reuse, and, how has adaptive reuse, as implemented in Shanghai, contributed to a more sustainable architecture? Here architecture provides a 'text' that can be analyzed and it draws on a theoretical framework of postmodern analysis and sustainable architecture. These investigations of Shanghai as a city and a text were conduced during a fieldwork research period in Shanghai where a comparative multiple case study approach was utilized. The case studies comprised three areas of adaptive reuse in Shanghai ? Xintiandi, Moganshan Rd and TianziFang. Grounded in the field research, literature, observations and interviews ? the main result of the study is that from around the turn of the 21st century, there is a small, but alternative development of adaptive reuse emerging in Shanghai that is a spatial restructuring contributing to a more cultural and historical sustainable architecture.