The Houses of Shanghai

In Shanghai, it is not a handful of famous buildings, but the countless residences scattered throughout its streets and lanes that truly shape the character of the city. The Houses of Shanghai draws on photographer Xi Wenlei’s long-term documentation of Shanghai’s historic residences, presenting shikumen houses, new-style lilong residences, garden houses, apartment buildings, and other types of housing. Architectural scholar Feng Li offers accessible insights into their façades, doors and windows, balconies, ornamentation, and materials, revealing the design intelligence, historical value, and cultural significance embedded in these homes. Through a dialogue between images and text, and between streets and houses, the book invites us to reconsider why ordinary homes are worth photographing, documenting, and preserving with care.