With China experiencing large-scale reconstruction throughout the country, a great deal of its historic architecture is being replaced by uniform rows of bland, new buildings. As a result, cities are losing their individual identities and many of their old neighborhoods, The Waterhouse at South Bund, however, offers a more promising approach to redevelopment with its avant-garde design injecting new ideas into the boutique-hotel marketplace.  By recycling an existing building and adding modern elements to it, the project creates an “old bottle with new wine” kind of experience for hotel guests.

The Waterhouse hotel fronts the Huangpu River and looks across at the gleaming Pudong skyline. Located by the new Cool Docks development on the South Bund District of Shanghai, the Waterhouse is a four-story, 19-room boutique hotel residing in an existing three-story Japanese Army headquarters building from the 1930’s.

The architectural concept behind Neri&Hu’s renovation rests on a clear contrast of what is old and what is new. Rather than working from a clean slate, partners Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu utilized the old structural elements and embraced an aesthetic of layering one era on an earlier one. They restored the original concrete building, while adding new elements made of Cor-Ten steel that reflect the industrial history of the nearby docks on the Huangpu River. They added a fourth floor with guest rooms and a roof-top bar that enjoys excellent views over the river and to Pudong,  

Neri&Hu also designed all of the hotel’s interiors, blurring and sometimes inverting inside and out, and doing the same with the public and private realms. In the process, the architects created a disorienting yet refreshing spatial experience for hotel guests looking for a unique hospitality experience. A number of public spaces such as a restaurant on the ground floor and the hotel lobby provide narrow peeks into private rooms above, though guests can always close the curtains in their rooms for privacy. Some private spaces—such as a guest room on the second floor with an interior window overlooking the reception desk one story below—invite spying on public areas.. Such unexpected visual connections not only bring an element of surprise, but also force hotel guests to confront the local Shanghai urban condition where visual corridors and adjacencies in tight nong-tangs (old alleyways) define the spatial flavor of the city.

The architects, who also run a small chain of design and furnishings stores called Design Republic, orchestrated the hotel's furniture and art program, which includes built-in pieces that they designed and pieces by other designers. It also includes witty artwork and funny but philosophic sentences on walls and floors, which arouse visitors' curiosity and desire to explore something extraordinary.

Using innovative design, the Waterhouse at South Bund has overcome its disadvantaged location in a part of the city beyond the typical tourist routes. With its hip and provocative architecture, it has become both a highly successfully business and a catalyst for development in a previously neglected neighborhood.