The Design-Concept of Raffles City On the North Bund, Shanghai ‘nong-tang’

Everyone in China has an experience of writing essays back in school, and when we describe Shanghai city, we would always use the Chinese word ‘changing with each passing day,’which means things change so fast that we can tell the differences every day, every month. At that time, I would feel nothing special; I thought there are just buildings being built everywhere and the radios repeated the news of those newly built bridges and tunnels over and over, simple as that. Now, it has been 20 years since that, and my memory is fading away. Those images in my mind are getting more and more uncertain; This reminds me of a proverb ‘Time Flies.’ 

Raffles City On the North Bund, Shanghai‘nong-tang’is in B1F in Raffles City On the North Bund, Shanghai. We rebuilt the classical 90s street in Shanghai and brought back the ‘nong-tang’ culture, which is a culture of traditional Chinese neighborhood. For example, Hongkou Shenhua Team, East Asian Games in the 90s. Every material is from remade or deconstructed old houses. Here, you can definitely have a special experience, once again recollect those good memories in the city of Shanghai. 

(1) Moreover, for young visitors, it will also be a good experience of ‘exploring different culture.’ The visitors can actually walk around and feel the atmosphere, ‘exploring’ the city of the Shanghai in the 90s. 

One of the most important factors of surprising people one’s memories. When we design the street, we especially focused on the memories people have about Shanghai so that we can impress the visitors (mentally). Based on the classical view of the street, we brought back those classical Shanghai-food, which is deeply engraved on our memory. Visitors can not only enjoy the foods in the restaurants, but can also take pictures to interact with every detail. From the view, more and more people will have their old memories back, felling astonished and impressed with least time and cost. 

‘Front Street’ connects the main entrance of the shopping-mall. In the street stand the restaurants which provide snacks, such as Tilanqiao Food and Shanghai time-honored brand. Visitors can feel the atmosphere of the busy, lively street. We also brought together different types of buildings, such as Single-storey building, two-storey building with mezzanine, open stall form, enriching the visual information and creating a better view. 

In ‘Back Street,’ there are mainly restaurants which provides meals. It connects another entrance of the shopping-mall and ‘Front Street.’ Different from ‘Front Street,’ we add more details in the street, such as table-tennis table, advertisements of the Paralympics, slides in the park and old ladies who sell orchid. We wish visitors can not only enjoy shopping, but also having fun eating, walking, and playing. 

Our goal is to deal with those relationships, and design a high-quality, unique, and remindful environment, which can make the shopping mall more fascinating and attractive.