SHANGHAI – In China, urbanization has
long been a synonym for destroying exist-
ing architecture and replacing it with new
builds. The tendency has begun to shift over
the last ten years or so, however, with cities
such as Shanghai leading the charge. A few
hundred older buildings – factories, ware-
houses and the like – have been repurposed
as studios and workshops, sports centres,
offices and retail stores. Many conversions
carried out for the so-called creative indus-
tries are temporary in nature. Several com-
plexes have been demolished – or reused yet
again – after being in service for less than a
half-dozen years.
Unfinished Space, a project by
Shanghai-based X&Collective Design
(XCOD), is an office that occupies a former
aerospace research laboratory. Because the
client has only a five-year lease and the
building’s fate after that period is uncertain,
XCOD had to make do with a low budget
and a brief that specified a ‘temporary solu-
tion’. The design collective translated this
requirement into a scaffolding project, a
strategy used often in Shanghai for work-
places and boutiques, particularly after »WORK
X&COLLECTIVE
DESIGN scaffolds an
‘under construction’
office in Shanghai
106 SPACES