Francesco Cosentino (pictured below) said that when he first came to Shanghai in 1980 as a correspondent for a Swiss-Italian newspaper, he found the city to be a sleeping beauty.

Over the next 30-some years, he came to Shanghai many times, wearing different hats, as a student, businessman, tourist and filmmaker.



With each visit, he has witnessed the amazing change and transformation of this city over the decades.



Cosentino recently published a book, Shanghai: From Modernism to Modernity, in which he explores the relationship between Shanghai's history and its architecture, and it covers some of the big personalities behind the city's iconic buildings from the 1920s to the 1940s.



The Global Times talked with Cosentino about his book during the Mini March LitFest.

Shanghai: From Modernism to Modernity is a book that explores the relationship between Shanghai's history and its architecture. Photos: Qi Xijia/GT and courtesy of Francesco Cosentino

GT: Why do you pick this period?



FC: I chose this period because it is the beginning of modern architecture. In Shanghai you have a very special situation of an international city with many different cultures living together. Chinese culture, plus European, American, Russian and many others. All these together produce amazing and outstanding designers. It opened up new possibilities of creativity. So Shanghai in that period was the beginning of the modern side, and a place to experiment. The economic situation in the world in 1920 was the crash. The world went into recession. People were jobless. The developed world suffered from huge problems of unemployment. China was different. It was still growing. You have this special moment when China, especially Shanghai, was speeding up. It was really a place to make money for anybody, including China's bankers, financial people.



GT: What materials did you reference? More Chinese documents, or more English?



FC: It took me a long time to collect the information and the material for the book because the information was really dispersed. I reference both. The Architecture Department of Tongji University produced a lot of new studies and research on historic buildings in Shanghai. Sometimes I also refer to the memories of foreigners who lived in Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s. Their family may write about their stories online. It's coming up. I have been collecting pictures for 20 years or so. Every time I come I try to take as much as possible. It's not convenient. If I were living here, maybe I could set aside more time for this. Ninety-five percent of the pictures in the books are taken by myself.



GT: Is it challenging to take photos in Shanghai?



FC:It was very challenging. Sometimes you have trees blocking the way. Sometimes you see a historic building and a huge advertisement in the middle covering part of the building. You don't see the original structure of the building any more. You just see the air conditioners hanging around, which is ugly. But the air conditioners are also useful, so you can't complain.



GT: That's interesting. In building preservation, many new things are added to the original structure. Is it better to expand functions or keep the original designs in terms of renovation?



FC: It's a difficult issue. I think each building is different, and each building needs a different solution, because every time you have to find the balance of the use of the building, its economic viability and the budget. There is no one solution that fits all. Some time ago I went to Tianzifang. I like that place very much, with all its narrow alleys and small shops. I also like it because it looks very spontaneous, organic and unplanned. It makes me think of preservation coming from below, as opposed to preservation coming from above, as we often see in most large real estate projects.



GT: You also mention in the book that a lot of historic buildings have disappeared. What happened to them?



FC: The municipal government has been paying more attention to historic architecture, especially after 2000. Unfortunately, during the 1990s the speed of development in Shanghai was very fast. The need to create new infrastructure was huge. You need to create a new water supply and new sewage system, subway and the elevated roads. So I think in that period there was no time to look after everything. So unfortunately during that time, some beautiful architecture get demolished. But today the city is in a better position, especially after the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.



GT: You come from Rome. Is there any lesson that we can learn from there?



FC: It was a different situation. Rome is an ancient city. There is a lot of emphasis on preservation. Some problems are similar. You have the old inhabitants who want to move out because the price of the house goes up all the time. Sometimes they find it better to sell it. People who move in are very rich people because they can afford to pay the high price. In this process, you have the original population moving out and you have a new kind of people moving in. Other problems are different. There's a lot of space outside the old city to build the new things. You don't need to always use the same location. There is still much space.



The book may be bought in Shanghai at Garden Books on Changle Road or directly from amazon.com.