Ricerc@Sapienza

Exploring Shanghai's industrial heritage constitution means embarking on a journey through the history of one of the most exceptional cosmopolitan cities ever established. The urban system, architecture, technology reflect the meeting of many cultures and enterprising people. Some decade after the location of the foreign settlements, in the middle of 19th, the city added to the commercial vocation an important manufacturing activity. The rapid industrial rise of the late 19th laid the foundation for the golden age of Shanghai. During the twenties and thirties, despite the crisis in all of China, the city accelerates its economic and urban growth. It assumes its face and its definitive character and an important part of the current architectural and industrial heritage is due to this period. The Shanghai administration has for some time been activating a cultural policy that places industrial sites at the center of the vision of collective heritage. On this vision it is important and necessary to build the tools to allow new uses that take advantage of the value of narration and memory, with an informed and widespread design.