A dozen Soviet-style houses built in the early 1950s in Shanghai's Yangpu District will be preserved and turned into innovative stores, offices and exhibition halls, the city's top planning body said yesterday.
The buildings in the Changbai Sub-district on Yanji Road E. were built as homes for model workers. Today these last remaining Soviet-style houses are in a state of disrepair.
They will be renovated without changing their original appearance, the Shanghai Planning, Land and Resources Administration said.
The two-story buildings are known as the "20 thousand households," because the city government built a total of 2,000 such buildings in downtown Putuo, Yangpu, Xuhui and Changning districts to be home to 20,000 households in 1952 and 1953.
The dozen buildings to be preserved are the last remaining of the Soviet-style houses.
The former Soviet Union developed these types of two-story houses for farm workers. The ground floor was used to accommodate horses and bulls, while farmers and workers lived on the upper level. The buildings were introduced to Shanghai to house the city's large number of workers.
People were proud to live in such communities because only model workers could get an apartment in the buildings at that time, said Xue Liyong, a senior local historian.
However, living conditions in the buildings have worsened over the decades as the wooden and brick structures deteriorated. Roofs leaked and mice and termites moved in, said Ju Chunying, a former resident.
Ju and others living in the community buildings have been relocated to modern residential communities. "We still hope the buildings can be kept as a memory," she said.
Han Yongwei, who was born in one of the buildings in 1960, said the buildings symbolized the friendship among neighbors. His parents had planted a tree in front of their house when he was born, which had since grown as tall as the building.
Han said neighbors cooked in a shared kitchen and often invited each other to dine together. They always chatted and visited each others' homes. They did not need to lock their doors as neighbors kept an eye on each others' houses.
According to the plan, parking lots, children's playgrounds, a wet market and public toilets will also be built in the community to replace residential buildings that have been demolished.
