Another tiandi to 'get it right,' says architect

LIFESTYLE architect Ben Wood created Xintiandi and three other tiandis in China. He tells Nancy Zhang that his fifth, biggest and most challenging "romantic interlude" is underway in the Pearl River Delta.

Shanghai's Xintiandi set the bar (how high is disputed) for renovations of old areas for commercial use and a new audience. Now the architects behind it are working on their most ambitious project to date: Lingnan Tiandi in Foshan, central Guangdong Province.

With areas of pure preservation and more attention paid to integrating local customs, the project is partly a response to criticism of the Shanghai Xintiandi model, namely, "that it doesn't preserve enough, that it's too commercial, that it doesn't retain enough of the local culture."

At around 517,500 square meters, it's five times the size of Shanghai Xintiandi, the first of its breed of commercial preservations in China.

Its creator, American lifestyle architect Ben Wood, calls himself "a man on a mission." He is the chief architect behind Shanghai Xintiandi and founder of Ben Wood Studios.

Wood has created four other tiandis (literally "heaven and earth") in China, and Foshan in the steamy Pearl River Delta is the fifth.

Despite Shanghai Xintiandi's commercially lucrative nature, Wood sees his mission as recreating a more humane, outdoor lifestyle that is being eroded by modern high-rise, air-conditioned living.

In his Foshan Lingnan Tiandi, he is renovating an area of Lingnan architecture typical of southern China. Foshan, a city of 3.1 million, is the hometown of many overseas Chinese and is one of the country's four famous ancient towns.

Foshan is the biggest China attempt at the model, which refits historic architecture with modern interiors and turns them into entertainment, nightlife and shopping hubs. Shanghai Xintiandi proved its commercial viability.

Wood has worked with the same investor, Shui On Land, to develop the tiandi projects across China in Hangzhou (capital of Zhejiang Province), Wuhan (capital of Hubei Province), and Chongqing Municipality.

The latest venture, however, presents special challenges. In the old heart of Foshan City, Lingnan Tiandi covers 517,500 square meters.

There's more variety of buildings, including a temple, theater, pawn shop and buildings housing medicine and wine guilds. There are even ancient, underground pottery kilns. The ancient city was known for gauze fabric, ceramics and traditional medicine.

For Wood, the tiandi projects represent neither the old nor current modern culture - it is about "creative renovation" in which design opens possibilities for an entirely new lifestyle.

"I call these developments 'romantic interludes'," says Wood. "We create places out of the ordinary where popular culture can be tried out."

The scale and variety of the project has allowed Wood to include new features, notably 10,000 square meters of pure preservation. The area is known as Donghuali and includes 60 courtyard houses more than 100 years old. It lies to the east of the new Lingnan Tiandi development, which connects this area to the ancient Zhumiao Temple in Foshan's old city center.

Compared with Shanghai's lane houses, traditional Lingnan houses are better preserved. Constructed of thicker, higher-quality bricks, they feature a high, curved and ornate roof while the rest of the house is of a simple, even austere design.

Unlike the rest of the development, which will refit historic architecture with mod cons for occupancy by restaurants, bars and shops, the courtyard houses will have full period details restored, and all modern changes removed.

Later they will be put to "passive" uses, such as art galleries that do not require intrusive facilities.

Wood's team plans to apply for a UNESCO world heritage listing for the area.