Saturday, April 13, 2013

Denis Apartments, Shanghai

Denis Apartments, Shanghai

This is an apartment block with the somewhat unusual name of Denis, unusual for a block of flats anyway. They are located in West Nanjing Road in Shanghai. They were designed by Eric Cumine and built in 1928.

Denis Apartments, Shanghai

Reference:
Shanghai Art Deco, by Tess Johnson & Deke Erh.

Posted by David Thompson
Place: ,

5 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 13, 2013 at 9:31 PM

    It is a nice building, marred by the air con units but at least they are uniform in appearance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David ThompsonApril 14, 2013 at 8:11 AM

      Marred is probably a bit strong. We need to make some concessions to modern living. I've seen much worst where the air conditioners were punched through the name of the front of the building. I think that was in Buenos Aires.

      Delete
  2. HelsApril 14, 2013 at 4:18 PM

    I don't know if I expected the Chinese to take to Deco in a big way. But we have seen Deco buildings in Shanghai, Harbin etc that are as successful as in other countries.

    In which country did Eric Cumine learn and practise his architecture?

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    Replies
    1. David ThompsonApril 14, 2013 at 5:23 PM

      Shanghai will host the World Congress on Art Deco in 2015 so hopefully, if I get there, I'll learn a bit more about deco in China.

      I found this page about Eric Cumine. http://racingmemories.hk/hottopics/cumine-eric-1905-2002/

      Looks like he was born in Shanghai, studied architecture at London Architecture Academy and worked out of Hong Kong.

      Delete
    2. Mikhail MandriginOctober 5, 2017 at 8:29 PM

      As far as I can establish at present there has never been an Architectural Academy in London. Cumine might have studied architecture either at the Architectural Association School of Architecture or the Royal Academy of Arts School of Architecture.
      The original Denis House had tall Art-Deco statues at Second Floor level, which were removed during the Cultural Revolution.

      Delete

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