Architecture Archives - Shanghailander

More Dijon Art Deco

The summer of 2025 was an opportunity to spend more time in my home city, Dijon, and to revisit its art deco heritage. With more time at hand, I could explore more areas, expanding from my original post from 2013 (see post “Dijon Art Deco” for more details). This is a side post from the main topic of the blog, Old Shanghai.

Although its traces go back to the Roman Empire, the city is mostly known for its medieval architecture, built during the Duke of Burgundy time in the 14th and 15th century. 16th and 17th Century renaissance architecture saw the rise “hôtels particuliers” or private mansions closely inspired by Paris ones like Hotel Sully. The city was called “small Paris” for a while. Dijon population grew rapidly in the 1920s, creating opportunities for construction. The style in vogue was modernistic, part of it is now called Art Deco.

Modernist building on 9 Rue Dr Chaussier

One of the most noticed Art / Deco modernist building is on 9 Rue Dr Chaussier, from 1938. The U shaped design with double exposure creates a lot of light in the apartments. The inside staircase is clearly streamline design and architect P. Leroy used floor patterns similar to the one used on the MS Normandy, as well as some LVK buildings in Shanghai (see post “Deja vu from Paris to Shanghai” for more information).

Unfortunately, the building was taken over by the Gestapo after June 1940 and used as its headquarter for the city. Brand new and located close to the German authorities headquarters in the city, it was an easy prey for the invaders. This story is quiet similar to the one of “Bridge House” in Shanghai, a great Art Deco building that became the headquarter of the Japanese Kempeitai.

Another great art deco building in the city center is the newly renovated Hotel Central by Dijon Architect Gaston Paris.

The city historical architecture was mostly protected, so Art Deco building in Dijon are mostly found in the suburbs of the time. Besides the Montchapet district seen in post “Dijon Art Deco“, the area of rue de la Maladière was also built during the 1920s and 1930s. In this area, the “Eglise du Sacré Coeur” is an art deco festival.

Started in 1933 and finished in 1938, the church combines some regional features (mostly the Burgundy style rood), with modernism of the time. Apart from the 50 meters clock tower, the main point is the giant fresco of Jesus over the heart of the Church.

The design of the side chapels and the stain glasses also has a strong Art Deco feeling.

The Sacre Coeur church of Dijon is on the great Art Deco churchs, built around the same time than Vichy’s Notre-Dame des malades (1925-1931), Paris Saint-Jean Bosco church in Paris (1933-1937). It is also a similar time line to Hudec Moore Church in Shanghai.

There are many more Art Deco apartments building in Dijon, including the massive Art Deco apartment building on 33 Rue Sambin, by Dijon Architects Joseph and André Favre.

For information on Dijon Art Deco, please go to post “Dijon Art Deco“. Although Shanghai Art Deco is not the same a Dijon’s, they have a lot in common in terms of time period and style. Looking for Dijon Art Deco is like keeping the link with old Shanghai when I am away.

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The wild side of GuLangYu

For this 9th trip to the beautiful island of Kulangsu (today GuLangYu), we chose to use the ferry to the west side of the island. The Gulangyu Neicuo’ao Wharf (鼓浪屿内厝澳码头) is located where the Foo kien Tanning Co factory used to be. This side of the Island is away from the port of Xiamen and could only accessed on land via the long costal road in the 1930s. As a consequence, it was more secluded and old villas are rarer that on the other side. This whole area is now covered with parks and modern hotels. This makes it a nice place to disembark, but lacks the real Gulangyu feeling. However, one does not have to look too far to find nice surprises.

Behind some more modern constructions, stands one of the rare neo-Confucian style building on Gulangyu. The style is a combination of modernity and traditions. Bottom floors are modern but the top floors and roof look like traditional Chinese buildings. This style was popular in Xiamen in the 1920s and 30s coming with the influence and money from South East Asia. One classical example is the famous Xiamen University, along with the Xiamen Overseas Chinese Museum.

This villa was clearly the private estate of a wealthy South East Asian family. At the time of construction, it was probably far away from other houses. From the style I guess it’s from the early 1930s. The top floor is of traditional Fujian style, while the bottom is much more modern. On Gulangyu, the only other one I know is 海天堂, Hi heaven, the largest old villa complex on the island.

The Sino-American School of Gulangyu was located a little further on the same beach road. It was run by missionaries and associated with the Seventh-days Adventists. From the map, I believe the school building is still there (see below), although it has long stopped been a school. It’s mix of modern and classic western is totally different from the house above.

Former Gulangyu Sino-American School building

Our hotel was once again located in a renovated old villa. Overlooking both the West and East side, it was a large park on the top of hill. The main building is mentioned as being from the 1920s, but the style is more like late30s. The entrance on the small street under the tree shade is really enjoyable.

View from the top of the main building clearly shows this must have been a really secluded place in the past, all buildings looking down are modern. In the old time, this could have been forest or even agricultural fields. The location is clearly on a high point of the island as the view goes all over to Xiamen port far away. There is only one house upper in the street.

As the East side is much steeper, no modern building seem to have been added. This side seems abandoned, giving a good feeling of how it used to be when only few old houses stood here. A mysterious old and uninhabited villa stand among the lush trees. This side really feels like far away from the World, a great place to relax and imagine how quite and secluded this side of GuLangYu was before tourists came over.

Although the island has now become a main tourist attraction, there are still spots away from the crowd on this wild side of Gulangyu, while being only a few steps away from the more famous spots.

For more posts about Gulangyu Island, please click here.

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Horose presentation in Shanghai

On the Monday 7th April, I was invited to make a presentation for the “Société d’histoire des Français de Chine” (French in China historical society). The presentation was the closing event for the annual French language month, or “Mois de la francophonie”. It took place in the presence of the Consul General of France in Shanghai, Joan Valadou.

Stain glass in the former College municipal Français

This beautiful building was originally the French Club in Shanghai. From 1924, the French Club moved to the new location Route P`ere Robert and the building became the “Coll“ege Municipal Français”, the main French school in Old Shanghai. Children of the French community studied in there, among them Rena Kraszno and Liliane Willens. Before the presentation, we took a tour of this beautiful building.

The presentation focused on the life and work of Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa. I have written a number of articles on the topic as well as the Shanghai movie “Love and duty” that was made after one of her novel. The presentation was in French. The video recording will be available in a few months on the website of the Société d’Histoire des Français de Chine. I will share the link here when available.

Goodbye to Lafayette Cinema

Rue Lafayette (today Fuxing lu, 复兴路）was going through most of the French Concession. The Western part was a high class neighborhood dotted with upscale residences, as seen in movie “Love and duty“. The middle part was more urban and popular. This is where Lafayette Cinema was located.

Built in 1933 following a design from Laszlo Hudec, the Lafayette Cinema is a classic streamline design. It was build of steel and concrete, with a long horizontal front, contrasting with a vertical line that was also used as a beacon for the location. The style is very similar to Laszlo Hudec other streamline design cinema, the Grand Theater on people square, that also opened in 1933. The beacon was visible from far, attracting the attention of passer-bys.

Located on 323 Route Lafayette, the Lafayette Cinema was single screen, with 850 seats. As opposed to the Grand Theater which was one of the top movie houses in Shanghai, the Lafayette Cinema was catering for a more popular audience. It was a second-class theater that was showing movies a few weeks after premiering, for a cheaper price. It was very popular with a Chinese audience. The owner was Mateo Beharas, a French Jewish businessman from Marseille who was mostly known for importing Tissot watches in China. The family also owned the Zekiang Cinema (today Zhejiang Cinema), on 123 Zhejiang lu, that was also designed by Laszlo Hudec and built in 1930.

Having survived all those years, the Lafayette cinema saw a nice restauration of its façade in the 2000s. It even survived an exit of metro line 10 being built within the building. The building was then turned into a cultural center and the façade was quite similar to the original one.

Unfortunately, it has been renovated again recently and heritage protection was surely not on the scope of the new owner as shown on picture above. Hopefully not too much damage was done on the façade and the overlay can be removed later on.

It seems that historic official plaques are no protection against bad taste. This reminded me of another ruinovation a few months ago (See post Crime scene on Rue Henry).

Paris streamline building

The 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs is seen as the spring box of the Art Deco style, from which it spread all over the World. At that time, it was mostly called modern style and evolved in various sub-branch. One of the later one is called “streamline design” in English, or “Style paquebot” (i.e. sealiner style) in French. I recently got an opportunity to visit a very specific paquebot style building in Paris, thanks to Paris Art Deco Society.

Located at 1 Rue Jacques-Callot, in Saint-Germain des Prés, the Callot building was designed by Roger-Henry Expert and completed in 1933. In the same year, Roger-Henry Expert also designed the passenger deck of the SS Normandie steamship, an Art Deco showcase. The Callot building was originally housing the architecture department of the nearby “Ecole des beaux-arts”. It is now one of the campuses of the architecture school ENSA-Paris Malaquais, thus it was an architecture school since conception until today.

It was extremely avant-garde at the time, and probably influenced many of the architecture students who then helped spreading the style all over the World. The ground floor space is an exhibition hall. The best spot of the building is probably the 5th floor offers a fantastic view over many Paris historical buildings.

The metal structure supporting the glass roof looks quite similar to the structure of the Normandy building over the 1st class deck. Both were designed by the same architect. Tiling similar to the SS Normandie tiling style can also be found in Shanghai, see post “Déjà vu from Paris to Shanghai“.

Streamline design buildings were also built in Shanghai, the most visible being the former empire Mansion at the corner of Huai Hai lu / 淮海路 (the former Avenue Joffre) and Changshu Lu / 常熟路 (the former Route de Say-Zoong). Up the same street stands another steamship style building, not far from the former location of the “Jardin Français“. Another example was the Lafayette cinema that has recently disappeared (See post “Goodbye to Lafayette Cinema“).

Long after the end of streamline design in the late 1940s, the style was still popular in Shanghai. Many buildings form 1990s Shanghai still show remains of streamline design, as shown in post “Frankenstein Art Deco“, where the link with the original Callot building is still clearly visible.

The ground floor of the Callot building has an newly refurbished exhibition space that would be just right for a Art Deco exhibition. Hopefully such exhibition will happen soon.

French companies in 1920s and 30s in Shanghai

In the 1920s and 30s, the French economic presence in Shanghai was marked by a small group of large, influential companies. They made a major contribution to the development of the French Concession and supported France’s influence in China.

Messageries Maritimes: a vital link with France
Founded in 1862, Messageries Maritimes played a key role in transporting goods and passengers between France, Indochina and China. Based on the Bund, it enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the transport of tea and silk to Europe. Great figures such as Étienne Sigaut and Jean Cochet have marked the history of this company, which has also experienced tragedies, such as the sinking of the Georges Philippar in 1932, in which the famous reporter Albert Londres perished. Messageries maritimes helped form the CMA-CGM group, France’s leading shipping company. (For more information on the MM, see post : “2 months in rationnaire”).

Compagnie Française de Tramways et d’Éclairage Électrique: Essential Infrastructure
Created in 1906 with the support of the Banque de l’Indochine, this company managed the tramway network and electricity supply for the French Concession. It experienced tensions with local authorities, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, and had to deal with several strikes. Despite these challenges, it became one of the largest French industrial companies in the Far East. Listed on the Paris stock exchange and regarded as a “Père de famille” stock, it had to cease trading abruptly in the 1950s.

Banque de l’Indochine: a financial pillar in Shanghai
Founded in 1875, Banque de l’Indochine quickly established itself as a major player in Shanghai’s commerce and finance. In 1898, it opened a branch in the Jardine Matheson building, offering financial services crucial to the opium, cotton and silk trades. In the 1930s, 93.5% of its profits in Shanghai came from foreign exchange and trading operations. Banque de l’Indochine merged with Banque de Suez to create Banque Indosuez.

The International Savings Society: A French success story in Shanghai
Founded in 1912 by René Fano and Jean Beudin, this savings and lottery society expanded rapidly. By 1930, it had 130,000 subscribers and diversified into insurance through Assurance Franco-Asiatique. Personalities such as Étienne Sigaut and Michel Speelman were instrumental in the company’s growth. Faced with major difficulties, ISS disappeared in the 1950s.

FONCIM: Shanghai’s architectural heritage
A subsidiary of ISS, FONCIM left an indelible architectural mark on Shanghai. Drawing on the talents of renowned architects such as Léonard, Vesseyre and Laszlo Hudec, it contributed to the rapid urbanization of the French Concession, particularly after the 1917 expansion. Financed by ISS profits, FONCIM was one of the main landowners. FONCIM houses and apartments were often leased to other French companies to house their staff. O ne example is the CFTEE leasing houses from FONCIM.

The Bouvier Empire: a dominant figure in Shanghai
Félix Bouvier, an accountant turned influential entrepreneur, left his mark on Shanghai with his investments in Grand Garage Français and Union Mobilière. He was most famous for creating the Champs de Course Français (also called “Le Canidrome”), a betting center for greyhound racing. Nicknamed “the uncrowned king of the French of Shanghai”, he had close ties with Du Yue Cheng, an influential and sulphureous figure in the Chinese business world.

Import-export companies: a flourishing trade
Several French companies played a central role in the import-export of a variety of products: Olivier Chine was a major exporter of tea and silk. Racine & Cie, and Egal & Cie dominated the wine and food trade. In 1934, France exported 31,000 liters of champagne, 25,000 liters of bottled wine and 762,000 liters of bulk wine to Shanghai, illustrating the importance of this trade. For more information this topic, see article “French wines in Old Shanghai”.

The former Normandy building, now Wukang da lou / 武康大楼

What remains today?
The Messageries Maritimes building still stands on the Bund. Streetcars disappeared from Shanghai in the 70s, but some trolley-bus lines still follow the same route. French companies, especially FONCIM, left their mark on Shanghai’s architecture. Most of the Art Deco buildings in the former French Concession are attributed to them, including Le Gascogne, the Normandie (now called WuKang Da Lou / 武康大楼) and the Cité Bourgogne.

Xiaotaoyuan Mosque

Located in the heart of the Old city, walking distance from Yuyuan Garden and the City God temple, Xiaotaoyuan mosque / 小桃园清真寺 is the largest mosque in Shanghai.

Although a first building was erected in 1917, the current building dates from 1925. The date of 1343 is actually written over one of the entrances, equivalent islamic equivalent to year 1925 in christian calendar. The name of the mosque is written in both Chinese and Arabic at the front of the main building.

The building on the street is hidden by the trees of a park.

The main building actually reflects its time of construction. The façade shows similarities with the one of the Shanghai Club on the Bund that dates from 1911. This is particularly true for the columns at the entrance and the windows of the windows on the top of each side wings.

Floors of the buildings are nicely decorated in a way that is very similar to other Old Shanghai buildings from the same period. The prayer hall is very spacious, but does not offer much details in terms of decor.

The mosque has 4 towers and one minaret. They are only really visible from the neighboring foot bridge over the main roads. The women mosque is located a few meters away, a smaller pink building that was built in 1920.

Xiaotaoyuan mosque is located on 52 Xiaotiaoyuan lu, 52 小桃园路。It’s easy to access by subway, from Laoximen station.

Route Kaufmann, Frenchtown

In more than 20 years in Shanghai (and counting), I spent many years in the former French concession but one location in particular remains a clear favorite. This was on Route Kaufmann (today Anting lu / 安亭路), where I spent 10 years. Living at the back a small lane really felt like living in Old Shanghai, and many post of this blog were inspired by the area.

Named after a former Yunnan Postal Service officer who was killed during WW1, Route Kaufmann was a wealthy and eclectic area. It was also very international as confirmed by a friend whose Chinese professor in the US once lived on Route Kaufman before 1949. This was still a fantastic place to live around 2010, and it took a real effort to move out as explained in post “Leaving Route Kaufmann“.

Location of Route Kaufmann 1913 (red dot)

As shown as above map from 1913, this area was the countryside when the French Concession was officially extended in 1914. As Route Kaufmann is on the western side of the French Concession, it was probably divided in plots and occupied from the mid 1920s. This area of the French Concession was divided in blocks that were sold to developers.

A large part of the West side of the road was sold to FONCIM that ordered design from Léonard & Veysseyre. Some of these houses where already described in a series of posts (see posts “Portrait of an old neighbour” and “Meet the twin sister” for more details).

French style house on 130 Route Kaufmann, designed by LVK

The FONCIM plot probably also included Route Cohen (Gao An Lu / 高安路), that runs parallel to Route Kaufmann on the Western side. The West side of Route Cohen also counts many buildings developed by FONCIM with design from LVK, mostly apartment buildings.

FONCIM buildings on Route Cohen, designed by LVK

On the East side of route Kaufmann, a large share was sold to Asia Realty Company (ARCO), an American real estate company that flourished in Shanghai at that time. The East side is also the location of the King’s Lynn Apartments where Chester Fritz and Bernardine Szold Fritz, lived for a while. The cadastre shows this plot as property of ARCO, although I have not seen ARCO sign like on Brooklyn Court, another ARCO property.

On the East side, ARCO commissioned Hungarian architect Laszlo Hudec to create houses on the plot between Route Kaufmann and Route Dufour (today Wulumuqi Lu /乌鲁木齐南路）, with some on the Eastern side of Route Dufour.

The list of inhabitants of rue Kaufmann in 1933 shows that many people lived on 9 Rue Kaufmann, which is the above mentioned King’s Lynn apartment. Chester Fritz had already left the building on that year. The Lubeck family, of one of the director of the CFTEE, Carlos Lubeck is also mentioned at number 132. I was also told that Ma Ying-chi / 马英驰, the minister of Justice of Republican China lived in 130 at some point, but in 1933 this was the home of the reverend F. Rawlison.

There is a large gap between #4 and #126. Although the cadastre shows that the land between these number was already divided, many of the buildings on the streets were not built yet. For example, the large Art Deco House located on 46 Anting lu now part of the Anting Villa Hotel, was not built yet. Similarly, on the odd side, nothing much seem to exist besides #9.

Another missing part then was today’s Anting Lu 81, the lane were I used to live in. While living there, I realized that our small lane had its own name on French Concession maps. It was called Rue d’Adina, Route d’Adina, or sometimes “Route privée d’Adina”, Chinese name was 安地那路. This was very unusual for Shanghai street name, so I started to research it. This will be the topic of further posts.

20 years of Gulangyu

During our latest trip to the beautiful island of Gulangyu / 鼓浪屿 also called Kulangsu, in Xiamen / 厦门, I realized that my first trip there was exactly 20 years before. Things have changed on the island, but I still love going there.

My first ever trip to Gulangyu was in the first days of January 2005. It was part of group tour to Fujian, mostly focused on the World famous Tulou, aka Hakka buildings. Xiamen and Gulangyu were a side trip before taking the plane. I only spent a few hours there but got under the charm of the island and its old villas.

The beautiful house hosting Night Lilly B&B in 2007

The next trip took place in February 2007, way before mobile internet and AirBnb. I heard from friends of this charming place in the heights of Gulangyu. The Night Lily guest house is long gone, but it was really charming. There was no other hotels on the island, apart from the horrible state owned one. The house was really remote and difficult to find. GPS and mapping were not available yet so we navigated the small streets of Gulangyu with a paper map… and got lost many times. Shanghai was cold and grey, Gulangyu was sunny with 20 degrees… a real paradise of silence as we barely met any tourists on the island.

Unrenovated beautiful villa on Gulangyu in 2007

We went again to the island in February 2008. Night Lilly was closed, but some new home stay and guest house had opened. We stayed at the Art Deco Boat house. The weather was really cold and we spent a lot of time in a new cafe in the former German consulate. We also climbed the Sunlight Rock and took the (now gone) Gulangyu cable car.

Gulangyu cable car and Sunlight rock (2008)

2009 trip brought some news, a real modern hotel in an old Gulangyu villa. This trip was also the first post about Gulangyu on this blog, “The revival of Gulangyu“. Old houses started renovation, but many remained in their original state like the beautiful Huangjia garden, before becoming a luxury hotel.

Huangjia Garden before renovation (2009)

Following trip in 2012 was to attend Gulangyu International Piano festival. By this time, the island had already turned into a tourist attraction, but it still had its charm at night as described in post “Night on Gulangyu“.

It took us ten years to go back to Gulangyu. One of the first trip in early January 2023, we went right after the CoVid pandemic when travel became possible again. In the meantime, Gulangyu had become a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017 followed by a massive increase in tourism. Luckily, right after CoVid visitors were few. This time we stayed in a different part of the of the island, on the West side that was more local and industrial. It was also the first opportunity to view the inside of beautiful Huang Zhongxun estate, part of the Hui-Bon-Hua family in Saigon, that I came to see every year, now the National Record Museum as mentioned in post “Rain on Gulangyu“.

The Huang Zhongcun house on Gulangyu (2005)

The next trip in January 2024 was also the opportunity to find the former French Consulate in Amoy, that was located on Gulangyu. The history of the Consulate is described in details in post “French Consulate of Amoy“.

Former Amoy French Consulate on Gulangyu (2024)

In the most recent trip, in late December 2024, we stayed in a place overlooking the main beach, just below the Sunlight Rock. The mansion was built famous overseas Chinese merchant of Indonesia Guo Chuyang in the 1920s. Xiamen had a lot of connection with South-East Asia, as explained in post “Xiamen, the South-East Asia Connection”. Guo Chuyang was one of them.

This trip was an opportunity to visit all the places that I love on Gulangyu. I also had the chance to visit the reopened Ba Guan Lou / 八卦楼, the largest mansion on the island that is also the organ museum.

There were a lot of visitors on Gulangyu as we landed on a Sunday, which was not so pleasant. Fortunately, by Monday most people were gone and the island was more tranquil. In 20 years of Gulangyu, the island has changed and has transformed into a tourist top spot. Best to visit it in the winter during a week day to get away from the crowd and enjoy its charm. And most importantly, stay overnight on the island.

Xiamen, the South East Asia connection

Xiamen heritage is often linked to the island of Gulangyu about which I have written several posts. There is much more to it as Xiamen had 2 concessions. The original concession was the port of Amoy (English transcription close to the local dialect) / 厦门. It became part of the 5 first treaty port from the 1842 Nanjing treaty. It has to be noted that the prior battle of Amoy on 26th Aug 1841 was pivotal for the city and the whole of China.

As Amoy had long been a center for export of tea and silk, foreign trading companies found a natural home for their business. However, foreigners soon moved to Gulangyu to establish there base. The island became an international settlement in 1903, similar to the Shanghai international settlement. Modern urban development including paved road and electrification took place on the island, leaving the city behind for many years.

Fujian has a long been closely connected to South East Asia. Many Chinese traders moved to Melaka and Penang in the 18th and 19th Century. The main Chinese dialect in South East Asia is Hokkien, called MinNan Hua / 闽南话 in China, the language from South Fujian. The connection is also reflected in the food with Xiamen Sha Cha Mian being very close to Malaysian Laksa, and stir fried rice noodle being very similar in both places.

The return of Fujian immigrants from South East Asia in late 1920s sparkled the development of the city. With the 1929 crises taking on the World, China was still a good place to invest so people of South East Asian heritage cake back to Fujian. This fueled a construction boom in Amoy that transformed the city. Although technically a British Concession, Amoy was modernized by ethnic Chinese, not Westerners.

ZhongShan road / 中山路 feels very much like Shanghai Nanking Road (Today Nanjing Xi Lu / 南京西路). It was the high street were shoppers would flock, with a tramway line going up to the river. All buildings along this road date from 1929 or around that period, the time of the real-estate boom.

Although from the late 1920s, most of those buildings are of a style that was not modern of the time. With many glass color windows, they reflect more the style of colonial South East Asia than modernity. “Chinese from South East Asia were very conservative for architecture. They built in the style they knew, that was popular in South East Asia where they came from”, explained Aaron from Discover Amoy, a local friend who studied the history of his own city.

A few buildings in the area are of modernist style or Art Deco, including the ones above. Buildings on Zhong Shan lu have been restored, but it’s not the case of the side streets. A few steps away, nice buildings from the same time are still waiting for renovation. One of my favorite is Art Deco Orion novie theater.

Orion theater, a great art deco building

The main department store was run by French people, with “Epicerie” written on the store front (see below picture) of then and now.

Although Zongshan lu has received a lot of attention, the rest of the area is not so well preserved. It worth strolling around the whole area and enjoy the view. Hopefully, the preservation effort will be extended further.

For more info about other old foreign influenced city in China, go to post “Up River, Hankou’s foreign concessions” for Hankou (today Wuhan). For Tianjin, go to post “Piazza Regina Elena, Tientsin”. For posts about the island of Gulangyu follow this link.