My aim of this project is to bring back the Shikumen into people’s lives through its renovation. A heterogeneous design strategy is used to develop Shikumen for modern inhabitants, based on the analysis of contemporary user needs and the post-evaluation of multiple options, thus providing multiple approaches to the renewal of Shikumen. Shikumen, as a representative of Shanghai’s history and culture, was originally residential, but most of the surviving Shikumen have been converted into commercial spaces. Through a new understanding of Shikumen, the new Shikumen will return to its essence of residential function.

The original design of the Shikumen was a combination of both Chinese and Western cultures, and I want to awake the Shikumen by combining Glasgow’s culture with Chinese culture. I hope that the future Shikumen will be a multi-cultural living space, where people can feel that the interior is telling them a story about the fusion of Shanghai and Glasgow’s cultures meeting together in Shikumen. In addition, I hope that this research can be applied to other renovations of old buildings to revive their histories just like the tenements in Glasgow.