大世界 小房子 、 BIG WORLD SMALL HOUSE
A proposal for a hotel + performance center in Shikumen Village, Shanghai
Big World Small House
Location: Shanghai, China
Date: 2020
Type: Old + New
Big World Small House proposes hotel and performance theatrical programs in the historic Shikumen-type (石库门) housing community, Zhang Yuan(张园).
Historically, there is a pre-existing Shanghainese theater called Da Shijie (The Big World), an amusement arcade, theaters and entertainment complex. It was home to variety of local performing arts, operas, circuses, and arcade. Each program staged within a room surrounding the main theater. Differing from the western form of theater where the audience is silenced, the seating is fixed, and the lighting is directed toward the performer, early Chinese theater, including Dashijie, celebrates the social interaction between audience and performer alike to create a total act of spectacle under one roof.
Big World Small House applies this attitude of staging, coupled with the voyeuristic nature of lilong house model to propose a Hotel + Performance Theater, consisting of restaurant, bar, cafe, rehearsal space, hotel rooms, etc., staging each program and its distinct performance. Although the theater is staged in the central atrium, the new intervention prompts each program to be placed on display, reappropriating the past culture of voyeuristic spectacle in the contemporary context.
Location: Shanghai, China
Date: 2020
Type: Old + New
Big World Small House proposes hotel and performance theatrical programs in the historic Shikumen-type (石库门) housing community, Zhang Yuan(张园).
Historically, there is a pre-existing Shanghainese theater called Da Shijie (The Big World), an amusement arcade, theaters and entertainment complex. It was home to variety of local performing arts, operas, circuses, and arcade. Each program staged within a room surrounding the main theater. Differing from the western form of theater where the audience is silenced, the seating is fixed, and the lighting is directed toward the performer, early Chinese theater, including Dashijie, celebrates the social interaction between audience and performer alike to create a total act of spectacle under one roof.
Big World Small House applies this attitude of staging, coupled with the voyeuristic nature of lilong house model to propose a Hotel + Performance Theater, consisting of restaurant, bar, cafe, rehearsal space, hotel rooms, etc., staging each program and its distinct performance. Although the theater is staged in the central atrium, the new intervention prompts each program to be placed on display, reappropriating the past culture of voyeuristic spectacle in the contemporary context.
