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Art Deco surprises in Mogador

Hotel Beau Rivage in Essaouira — Hotel Beau Rivage

Our short Morocco trip took us to Essaouira, a sea side resort that is famous for its constant climate all around the year. Before air travel, it was the cooling station for Marrakesh and Casablanca, just like Qingdao or Yantai were for Shanghai. Essaouira has a small and pretty Medina with narrow streets to protect from the wind (now protected as UNESCO heritage) and a few Art Deco buildings. The medina is surrounded by a city wall, originally designed by a disciple of 18th century French architect Vauban.

The current main square overlooking the sea was clearly made by taking down parts of the Medina wall to clear space in the early 1920s, when the city was called Mogador. Near the square stands Beau Rivage hotel, with is modernist style and its ground floor Café de France that has kept is Moorish Art Deco interior.

Art Deco villa on the Essaouira beach front

The other spot of Art Deco buildings are villas along the beach, South from the old town. This area feels quite similar to places Miami Beach, Long Beach California or Bondi Beach in Sydney. The beach side is now a mix of modern hotels and apartment blocks with a few Art Deco beach villas remaining.

Art Deco beach house — The veterinarian’s house

I managed to talk with an old man enjoying the sunset on the balcony of one of the them. “This house was built for the director of the regional veterinary administration, in 1948, under the French protectorate” he said. For the French civil servants, posting in Mogador must have been quite a remote location, but having a nice villa on the beach to watch the sunset was a pretty nice compensation.

The really interesting part is that I had always thought that French Art Deco stopped with WW2. It seems that in Morocco, Art Deco continued well in the late 1940’s and maybe further, just like it continued in Asia (See post Frankenstein Art Deco). Casablanca architecture was also influenced by California in the 1940s, so the trend of Art Deco beach villas came all the way to Mogador, just like it came all the way to Qingdao, Yantai and other sea side resorts in China.

Marrakesh Art Deco #2

This post is the sequel of post Marrakesh Art Deco #1, continuing the series of chance encounters around Art Deco in Marrakesh. Post #1 was about our first day on a sidecar visiting the Gueliz district of Marrakesh as well as discovering the palace hotel and Marrakesh icon, La Mamounia. The second day started with a visit to one of the gem of Marrakesh, the famous garden jardin Majorelle.

Jacques Majorelle was born in Nancy in 1886 and was the son of Nancy furniture designer Louis Majorelle, one of the leader of the major Art Nouveau current, l’école de Nancy. Having grown surrounded by art, Jacques Majorelle naturally turned to painting, studying art first in Nancy, then in Paris. He moved to Morocco in 1919, a few years after the country became a French protectorate. There he developed his career, including a massive ceiling painting for the grand hotel La Mamounia (See post Marrakesh Art Deco #1). His most known work is the Majorelle garden, were he collected plants from all over the world.

Although the garden itself has seen renovation and transformation, elements of it are clearly Art Deco, most importantly the villa Majorelle used as a workshop. Like in some Shanghai Art Deco pieces, and in many other places, Art Deco global influence is blended with locally inspired motives. This is particularly true for the Moorish archways of the main house (somewhat similar to the house on Duo Lun lu in Shanghai) and motives on the green pavilion. The calm and tranquility of the place is perfectly completed by the beauty of the garden and it dominant Majorelle blue.

Our discovery of Art Deco continued with the visit to an antique dealer. Although all his collection is not Art Deco, there was a number of interesting pieces and he liked Art Deco himself. “You have come too late for Art Deco, we have some sold so many pieces. Weatlhy people came to Marrakesh in the 1930s, they would bring pieces from Paris like this one”, he said while pointing at a really nice cabinet. “Some houses had not been opened since the 1950s, then they were sold by the owner’s heirs and the content is dispersed”. I could not stop thinking about a similarity with Shanghai, when old Shanghai house are destroyed or ruinovated and antique art deco pieces are found on the market. One real surprise was a set of stained glass doors. “They were made by a local glass maker who worked with Majorelle”. I wish I could buy it all.

A true Art Deco spot was Villa Makassar, the Art Deco riad. Although it is recently built, the owner has spent a lot of effort to design it in Art Deco style and furnish it with antique furniture. Every room has a theme associated to the style, and coming from Shanghai we were offered the Sassoon room. Being greeted by Old Shanghai posters and a picture of actress Hu Die was quite a surprise, and a strong link of our trip with Shanghai homeland.

The hotel is located in La Casba, a recent part of the Medina that has clearly been built (or re-built) in the 1920s or 30s, with a few Art Deco buidlings. After these 2 days of being unexpectedly surrounded with Art Deco in Marrakesh, a few more surprises were waiting for us at the seaside town Essaouira.

Marrakesh Art Deco #1

View from Marrakesh from Mount Gueliz — View from Mount Gueliz

Going to Morocco during winter was a great deviation from a long trip in Europe. While preparing for Art Deco beauties of Casablanca, Marrakesh was a real surprise. Beyond the World-famous Medina, getting lost in the souks and admiring the beautiful Atlas Mountains, a series of chance encounters allowed a unique view of the unknown Art Deco side of the city.

Most tourists come to Marrakesh to spend time in the old part of the city, the Medina while they spend little time in Gueliz, the former French district which is mostly residential. After the 1912 protectorate of Morroco, French troups built a fortress on Mount Gueliz and the area was chosen for the French army soldiers to settle. Most of the original architecture on the main road has been replaced by newer buildings during the 1990s, but our guide knew where to look. Rachel Thomann has lived in Marrakesh for years and became the specialist of the Gueliz district while writing her thesis about the area, that is soon to be published as a book. She took us on the sidecar tour with Insiders (a company started in Shanghai), searching for lost Art Deco in Gueliz, starting with an overview of the city by climbing on Mount Gueliz.

French officers based in Marrakesh built their villas in the 1920s and 30s, in Art Deco style that was popular at the time. Traveling through the small streets lined with orange trees looking at Art Deco / Modernist villas was a great discovery off the usual tourist track. in the 1920s and 1930s,

Gueliz was a modern city, next to century old Marrakesh. Rachel has deeply studied the history of the area. “ Local people living the old City were rarely allowed in the French district. The ones who had this privilege had the feeling they had traveled to France.”

One of her most beloved place is former Cine-Palace that she managed to save from destruction. 1920s Cine-Palace is to early to be truly Art Deco style, but later additions are spot on. The tour ended with a drink at Café de la Poste, a restored bar and restaurant that is perfect keeping the 1930s feeling.

This time travel day ended up with a visit night cap at 1923’s grand hotel and Marrakesh icon, La Mamounia. Although the building is from the 1920s but not really Art Deco, but current renovation and lighting really gives the feeling of a trip back to the 1930’s. A grand style ending for a day trip in Marrakesh Art Deco.

Frankenstein Art Deco

Although Art Deco stopped being popular in the 1940s in Europe and America, the style remained in vogue much later in Asia. Examples of Art Deco architecture from the 1950s abound in Singapore, India, Indonesia and Burma among others. In Shanghai, it definitely stopped in the mid 40’s. The Chinese Liberation brought a change of style and Soviet-inspired Socialist-Realism became the norm, with rows of small four-to-six-storey concrete building designed to house families. As discussed in a previous post (See post “The Rise of Fako“, there has been recently a trend toward remodeling or new construction with the addition of Art Deco artifacts, mostly affecting the outside appearance. Art Deco buildings also had a strong influence on 1980s and 1990s buildings in Shanghai, the ones I call Frankenstein Art Deco.

Art Deco influence in Shanghai 90s buildings

The 1990s was the beginning of the new building boom in Shanghai that persists today. In those early days, the mood was not in massive destruction of the old buildings, as large chunks of the city center were not available to developers. Those new buildings were more often built on the remaining free spaces, mostly the gardens of grand villas in the old part of Shanghai. I imagine these space was already being used, but surely more in an unofficial way, so it was easier for developers to re-appropriate them. In these large spaces, local architects could build new towers using concrete building technologies not so far from the ones used in the 1930s. Buildings from the 1990s were often 20-30 storeys (that is, about the height of Park Hotel on people square), designed by local architects, before foreign architect firms arrived for Shanghai’s recent building boom.

These local architects must have been trained by masters that learned their craft before the 1949 revolution, and it shows in the building designs. As opposed to later apartment blocks, these buildings include light wells, just like 1930s buildings in Shanghai (See post “Brooklyn Court, Route des Soeurs“). Unlike today’s buildings, they were designed before the age of mass air conditioning, so they stuck to natural airflow just as Europeans had designed them in the 20s and the 30s. Another Art Deco element is the recurrent use of porthole round window (oeil de boeuf, or “bull’s eye”, as they are called in French), and rounded corners. One can also find integrated balconies (that have mostly now been turned into expanded rooms), as opposed to the protruding balconies that are today’s norm (which are also often closed off to supply extra space). Another interesting point is the use of old 1930s style iron-framed windows in many 1990s building. Shanghai continued to produce building materials and equipments that were practically unchanged from the 40s, including roof tile and electrical switches, well into the 1990s.

In many of these buildings, the link with Art Deco is as much in the outside shape, as with the inside decoration. Old Shanghai Art Deco designers often used terazzo and mosaics in their interiors; 1990s architects often used marble tiles that look quite similar, though much less imaginative.

In any case, Art Deco influences were evident in the 1990s, as architects employed consciously or unconsciously, the designs and techniques of their forefathers. Like many things in Shanghai (including cuisine, see post “Tasting of Old Shanghai”), Art Deco and other 1930s design elements survived through the 1950s and until the 1980s emerging in attenuated and distorted form in the 1990s in the “Frankenstein” version of Shanghai Art Deco.

Ordinary Metropolis – Shanghai: a Model of Urbanism

Books published by scholars both in China and abroad have long shown that China’s modernity was created first in Shanghai, in the 1920’s ans 1930’s. The city rapidly caught on with the rest of the World after World War 1, thanks to numerous exchanges and people travelling between Shanghai, and Europe and the USA. Visible intake were the Art Deco building still visible in the city, dance halls, cars, advertising, department stores and all the other elements that are still found while researching today. They also brought fresh ideas, including in town planning for Shanghai, which is the center of a current exhibition at Shanghai Power Station of Art. It has 2 main parts, one about new Shanghai planning from the 1930’s and the other about 1930’s architecture and design, in particular Dayu Doon’s art deco house built in that area.

The first part of the exhibition is focused on town planning for the new Jiang Wan area: After taking back control of a large part of China, Chiang Kai Shek quickly unified the parts of Shanghai that were around the International Settlement and the French Concession. Creating the Shanghai municipality also made clear that the center of Shanghai was the concessions, so the republican government went on creating a new city center for Shanghai, in what is now Jiangwan area, in today’s Yangpu district. Inspired by Washington DC, the new Civic Center included the new town hall of Shanghai, a museum, a national library and a major hospital. The exhibition shows rarely seen maps and efforts of planning this new district that was only partly built from 1927 until the Japanese invasion in 1937. It also details how land was supposed to be allocated to various functions, the very concept of zoning that is still applied in Shanghai today.

Art deco house — Dayu Doon art deco model house

The second part is focused on the art of architect Chinese modernism, in particular Dong Dayou / 董大酉 (Dayu Doon in English) who was one of the main promoter of Chinese modernism. He designed a model house for the area around the Civic Center, that can be compared with international modern style of the time, as well as foreign modernist architects of the time in Shanghai Laszlo Hudec (orginally from Hungary) and Leonard & Vesseyre (from France). Another art deco house on display by architect Poy Gum Lee looked really familiar to me, until I realised it is located opposite from my office (See post Poy Gum Lee’s lost building for more about it).

Magazines from the 1930's — Magazines from the 1930’s

Beyond the architect work, the exhibition also includes many examples of graphic art and magazines displaying modern style of the time, showing that Shanghai was the door through which modernity came to China in the 1930’s. This modern movement was not only brought by foreigners, but really embraced by Chinese artists and everywhere in Shanghai. After reading many books on the topic, this is the first time I see such an exhibition in China.

California Dreaming

Having met several delegates from California during the last Shanghai Art Deco Congress was surely part of the decision for a trip to the sunshine state over the latest Chinese New Year. We were really lucky with the weather as the weekend of President Day was the one of blue sky and nicer than normal temperatures in February, best after exceptional good weather in Shanghai in the previous days (see pictures from those days). We had not even reached our destination that Shanghai had already caught with us, with a conference in Standford University by old Shanghai original re-discoverer, Tess Johnston attended by a friend we later visited.

california 002 — Alcatraz light tower and prison

Expectations about Art Deco were definitely met from day 1 in San Francisco. The city is mostly famous for its rows of victorian style wooden houses bordering streets going up and down, but Art Deco is very well represented. Art Deco buildings can be found towering the hills of the city and in the Mission district and SOMA area, like the enclosed picture of the office of San Francisco Chronicle. The other major Art Deco sight is on the bay, with some of the piers and docks, Alcatraz prison… and the Golden Gate Bridge.

As expected, California has lot’s of Art Deco just like Shanghai, but another style very common in Shanghai can also be found in California, where it originated. Spanish Colonial Revival style was not so visible in San Francisco, but it only took a short trip South to see much more of it.

California was first scouted by Christian missionaries, who created a line of missions all the way up to San Francisco. The Spanish Colonial style of the 16th century missions, inspired a revival in the 19th and 20th Century. This style was used to make many villas and houses in California, creating a mix of Art Deco and Spanish Colonial Revival style that makes Shanghailanders feel just at home. The same mix can be found in many smaller cities in California like San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara. Having been built in the same time, 20’s – 30’s Shanghai and California, it should not be surprising that both had the same building styles then.

The best example of Spanish Colonial Revival style architecture is the main building of Stanford University, which main building from late 19th century is really inspired from Spanish architecture, overlooked by a very nice Art Deco tower.

One of the many example of great Californian Art Deco, is the San Luis Obispo Court House. It is located very closed to the original Spanish mission and Victorian style wood houses. Another great example of the California mix of architecture, that feels really familiar when coming from Shanghai.

mystery house on ChangLe lu

Historic buildings in Shanghai have been badly maintained for many years and have sustained the lack of care fairly well. Many have been renovated in the last year, either with love and attention like Bund 18 or Kee Club. Many more have seen a ruinovation keeping only the external façades and totally destroying the interior with no respect for the original. As a history enthusiast, I rarely agree with the transformations that often take place along with the renovations. It was then really interesting to find out about an unfinished art deco villa, in a location where I have been many times, but never noticed it.

The original building was an enormous house, on three floors with about 1200 sqm of surface. The facade was facing South, like most houses in Shanghai with a large garden on the south side, ending on today’s ChangLe lu. As the house was used by the army for many years, some buildings used as army barracks and offices have been built in what was the garden. A small park was also added on the ChangLe Lu side, closing the view and covering it up from the general public view. Without knowing, it was impossible to see the original modernist / Art Deco villa in the middle.

What makes it really special, is that this house was clearly never finished by the original team. From the style and the construction details, it was probably started between 1945 and the late 1940’s, but was not completed as planned. The staircase (first picture) and the second floor and balcony was completed, but the ground floor remained unfinished. It is clear that half of the ground floor terrazzos were high quality, but the rest was finished in a hurry using lower quality materials. Both the ground and first floors have a very large room in the middle, surrounded by small rooms. Only 2 of the small rooms, seem to have had the original Versailles parquet installed. The rest of the parquet is of much less quality, although age has colored it nicely.

Another nice touch is the Art Deco fire place on the second floor. Like most original fireplaces in Shanghai, it has been filled up with concrete (see post freezing Shanghai for more details). Renovation has turned it back into a nice, though useless, piece.

The general structure of the house is really interesting, as the central second floor is made of concrete (covered with a woodfloor), but the small surrounding rooms are parquet only. The original ground floor decoration was never made, altough the house was eventually finished-up at some stage and used as offices. Two more buildings were added in what was originally the garden. Since the house was never finished in its original style, the developers have spent a lot of effort restoring original details, while adding a very modern touch to it.The building is about to open again as center for design and fashion firms with the now usual addition of fashionable shops, bars and restaurant. The place will be called Mixpace and located on Changde Lu, close to the corner of Shaanxi Lu.

Closing the Shanghai World Congress on Art Deco

The World Congress on Art Deco in Shanghai had been years in the making (see post Shanghai World Congress on Art Deco from 2012) and turned out to be a great event. Most of the organisation and preparation was done by Patrick Cranley (See article from New York Times about him) and his wife Tina, who are also running the Historic Shanghai association. The organisation was supported by an army of volunteers, including myself.

The World Congress on Art Deco is promoted by the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies. Started in Miami in 1991, it has grown into a worldwide organisation promoting awarness and preservation of Art Deco architecture and history. The Shanghai Congress brought together people from several cities in the USA and Australia, as well as France, Hungary, and South America. After two congresses in South America (Rio in 2011 and Havanna in 2013), the first congress in Asia really makes the organisation global. For a week, Shanghai was the center of attention for Art Deco lovers and the best place to exchange ideas about it. Although originated from France with the Exposition des Art Decoratifs of 1925, it was so far mostly celebrated in the US as well as Australia / New Zealand. After South America picking up, it is now the time of Europe as Art Deco societies are emerging in European cities, with Paris, Perpignan and Budapest being represented at the congress.
Besides the social aspect, the congress was really a place for discussion on Art Deco from various places. Conferences took place every morning with tours every afternoon, so workload was pretty tough for the ones attending every bit of it.

Being in charge of taking care of the French speaking delegates, we managed to make a small gathering of the French speaking Art Deco delegates. This unplanned event happened at the Cercle Sportif Français (today’s Okura hotel) after the presentation and dinner in the Art Deco ballroom. We took a detour on the old terrace that used to be an open air dance hall and went for a drink. As it should be with French events, it was full of discussion, drinks and Joie de vivre. Art Deco started in 1925 in Paris, so we all dream of making a 2025 Art Deco Congress in Paris to celebrate the 100 years of the exhibition, and maybe one more in another French Art Deco city before that. Lot’s of work in the planning.

From a Shanghai perspective, the real success of the congress was to bring together the largest panel of people interested in Old Shanghai ever. Old Shanghai fanatics all know about each other more or less, but this was a unique opportunity to have most of us together in one place and exchange about our favorite topic. The list was really impressive, including “Old Shanghai rediscoverer” Tess Johnston, Bund and Cathay hotel specialist Peter Hibbard, Shanghai Art Deco architect Spencer Doddington, French Concession specialist Charles Lagrange, Haipai researcher and author of “Shanghai Style” Lynn Pann as well as Shanghai White Russian specialists Katya Knyazeva were among the speakers, and I am surely forgetting some of them. Art Deco Shanghai furniture (and some previously unseen Art Deco Shanghai carpets) where on display, helping to look at Art Deco on various crafts.

The really surprising and maybe most interesting part was to see conferences on topics related to Shanghai, but about which little is known here. They included research about Old Shanghai Department stores on Nanking Road (including Wing On), tracking and giving great details about their roots back to Australia’s department stores. Another great surprise was research about Old Shanghai Chinese architect, including Liu Jipiao, who designed the China pavillon at the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs of 1925 and organised the 1st West Lake exhibition in Hangzhou in 1929, modeled after the Paris one. It also included a presentation of Old Shanghai architect Poy Gum Lee, who was part of the team who designed the Chinese YMCA building (today Metropolo hotel on people square) and later continued his career in New York’s China town.

The World Congress on Art Deco could not be over without an Art Deco closing party, that took place at the Art Deco masterpiece, the Sassoon House, host of the Cathay Hotel (today Peace Hotel). This was the opportunity to celebrate in style and to say goodbye to the Art Deco community. See you in Cleveland in 2017 for the next World Congress on Art Deco!

Citron, Art Deco Café

Art Deco and life in Shanghai being two of my favorite topics, I could not miss the Art Deco design of new CITRON Café on Fumin Lu. I had noticed it while it was still under construction, so I could not stop visiting as soon as I could. The façade of CITRON is very much inspired from Art Deco theaters in the USA, this was a real teaser for me.

Designers have played with the Art Deco codes, giving the place a special feeling. They have added many details, including a large mirror with wrought iron decor (see picture), brick wall (surely not the real wall but still nice) and a large wall painting that is very much 1920’s inspired. They even use Art Deco inspired cutlery, so there was some serious attention to details. The whole inside is themed after the 1930’s Orient Express train, so I am not exactly sure why the place is called Citron… but in Shanghai not everything can always be explained.

This is a nice design effort, though a little bit of a patchwork. Being in an Art Deco city, I was also expecting some reference to Shanghai own Art Deco, particularly in a location in the former French Concession… but there is not such thing in Citron.

Although still in soft opening, the food was simple but very well done. Particular note for the coffee that was really good. With a great central location, next to other famous establishments, I am sure they will attract many people. Add it a nice Art Deco theme and you can expect to find me there on a regular basis. This is the perfect place to prepare for the World Art Deco Congress in Shanghai in November.

Citron can be found at 291 Fumin Lu, at the cross with Changle Lu

Saved from the junk

Having spent many weekends in the old markets a few years ago, I often looked at pieces that most people thought should go straight for the junkyard. Many of these objects are worn out and have not been cared much for, so people where often amazed of what I would actually buy. I had bought think in a derelict state sometime but I have never actually collected anything from the junk.

This changed last week to the total surprise of the old ladies living in my lane. Our old neighbour decided to clean her home and pilled a number of items that were surely directed to rubbish bin. I noticed a particular piece and got it as a gift after some discussion. What actually attracted my attention was the front carving shown in the picture left. This piece of wood is actually the door of a small shelve, that used to sit on the top of a bigger piece of furniture. The style of the carving is clearly art deco, typical 1930’s Shanghai. Since the area I live in was a wealthy place at that time, it probably comes from the neighbourhood, maybe even the original furniture of the house. What is sure is that it was stored outside for a long time, and that our neighbour had had it since she lived here, meaning for decades. She was really surprised when I collected it, I probably thought I wanted to burn it or something like that.

After a deep cleaning, some sanding and work on the wood, the original style appeared clearly again. Having barely recovered from the surprise of seeing me collecting this piece from the junk, my neighbour are now seeing a laowai doing some handy work, as I decided to do the job myself. I am sure I have become the topic of conversation for a full week. It took me a while to find the various tools and products needed and it’s still a work in progress. At the end, it should make a nice little Art Deco shelve to store CD and other small items. The kind of things that will fetch a high price in the fancy antique stores of the city.