In Parts 1 and 2, architect Ben Wood traced his path to Shanghai and the decisions that shaped Xintiandi, from preserving historic shikumen to challenging conventional development assumptions around public space and return on investment. In Part 3, Wood steps back to reflect on the principles that run through his work across China through his practice at Studio Shanghai: human scale, nature and water, craft, and the spaces between buildings. For Wood, architecture is not about icons or style, but about creating places people experience, remember, and return to.
Ken Rhee: Inspired by Roswell, Georgia’s historic district and by the Chattahoochee River, I’m thinking of elements there that are found in common in the Xintiandi projects in China. I think a lot of trees, I think of water features, even where there is no body of water. I remember seeing a lot of fountains, and water seems to be an important part of the overall Xintiandi projects. I know you value nature greatly in your projects. How do you try to bring nature into a project?
Ben Wood: Well, let’s take the most recent example, Panlong Tiandi, which opened two years ago. In the first four days, it attracted 300,000 people, and they came there because it felt like it brought them back in touch with what built Shanghai in the first place. And that is the network of canals that connected the farmland to the Yangtze, and then to the world. When I don’t have a river or a canal to work with, [we create water features by collecting and recycling rain water]. As long as we are not using tap water, I fully support many water features that are interactive—in other words, ones that kids can play in. And we also try to hire local artists.
Give you an example. The big fountain, the famous fountain in Xintiandi, was designed by [Wu Jing Ru], who moved to Paris. We brought her back, and she, and I, and Vincent Lo [founder and chairman of Shui On Land], we built a full-scale mock-up. We photographed it. We tried different sizes for the statues.
Vincent wanted them, like, three times the size of a person. I said, “No, those people have to be exactly the size of a human.” I won the battle when I made these big paper cutouts, and then we would look at them. And Vincent said, “I understand, Wood. It should be.” You should meet those three figures eye to eye. Then you feel the humanity that they’re trying to express. If they’re tall statues, it’s like they’re looking down on you, like you’re just an ordinary old tourist. So, you have to bring things to scale.
Rhee: Your Xintiandi model, to preserve historical buildings and provide entertainment, food and beverage.
Wood: Or create new buildings, as well. It’s not dependent on historic architecture. It’s dependent on humane architecture. So, it doesn’t have to be historic. The one out by the airport, Hongqiao Tiandi, has got trees planted two levels below ground. Think how much trouble that took. There’s not a single historic building out there, and there are decks that overlook water features. It’s not architecture. It’s not the style of architecture. It’s the scale. What I call the humanity of architecture.
You can either do iconography, or you can do humanity. Portman was famous for iconography. And he was the best at it, but he wasn’t famous for creating places for people.
Rhee: A lot of people copied the Xintiandi model; in fact, in China, there are a lot of buildings that even share the same name.
Wood: A lot of them copied the damn buildings. Not only that, they took pictures of the buildings and built them exactly the same, and then they wonder why they didn’t make any money.
Rhee: Obviously, a lot of those copycats haven’t done well. What would you say are the key reasons for the failure of those projects? What did they get wrong?
Wood: They thought it was the historic look of the building that brought people. If you go to the city of Rome, you walk all day. The old city of Rome is completely pedestrianized now. The only cars that are allowed for delivery are early in the morning. You can walk the entire city of Rome.
Most of the buildings that you spend your time in, you can’t remember what they looked like. You can remember the famous fountains, but you don’t remember those little narrow streets and those little cafes. You don’t remember the architecture. You remember the experience. So, the copycats think that copying the building is the important thing. It’s not the building; it’s the space between the buildings.
Rhee: My last question. You did a lot of construction work before starting your architectural training at MIT. How did those experiences help you as an architect or planner?
Wood: Well, I don’t know. When I was a kid, I used to go watch people lay bricks. I was just amazed at the skill of a bricklayer. I can’t repeat it, but it was, like, hold the brick, spread the mortar, and then flip it. And you had to flip it just right to put it in place. Then you tap it a little bit, and you have a string line. What I learned was that, if you can’t pick up something with both hands, it’s probably too big to put in a building of human scale. I later changed that philosophy slightly. I said, if two people can’t pick it up. If we quit building all-glass buildings and instead put in windows that worked, two people could pick one up and put it in place, and one person could open it.
So, what I learned about being a builder is, if you can’t hold it, and if you can’t pick it up, it’s probably too big. And so, one or two people. And that’s why I still build with brick. My office still designs with brick. We buy used bricks, we recycle wood, we buy old wood, have it rebuilt.
Rhee: It also sounds like, when you are designing, you also think about the construction, as well.
Wood: You think about where you’re going to put the dirt? If you have to dig a big hole in a city, in the middle of a city, the normal procedure is, hire a bunch of trucks to haul it away. Why not use the same dirt to build a small hill and then put changes in elevation? You turn a flat side into a slightly rolling landscape. You think about where you’re gonna put the dirt? I’m not gonna ship the dirt off to sell it to somebody else. It’s like when we were building the stadium; we had to dispose of all the dirt. We had to dig through the rubble of the Chicago fire, which was toxic. What were we going to do with it? We finally built a sledding hill out of it. We covered it with a protective covering, so the water wouldn’t leak into the Chicago fire debris, and then we put four feet of topsoil on it. Now, it’s a sledding hill. So, we didn’t have to haul. There weren’t two hundred trucks leaving every day to take the dirt to somewhere else. So, you try to use what you’ve got and keep what you’ve gotten.
Rhee: Obviously, architects in China are negatively impacted by the slowdown in the real estate market. The architecture profession is also being impacted by a lot of new technological innovations. So, what advice would you give to young architects—or architects, young and old?
Wood: That’s another tough question. The other day I had an office meeting. I asked them, “Who designed the Sydney Opera House? Have you ever been to Sydney to see the Opera House?” I said I consider it one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, and it was all drawn by hand, by Jørn Utzon, who designed it. Every drawing. And it’s still a remarkable piece of architecture. And AI can’t even come close to that sort of original thinking.
And so, I would encourage young architects to nurture their creativity, and don’t depend on AI. If an architect hasn’t seen the Sydney Opera House, or hadn’t seen the Museum of Modern Art or Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim, get on the next plane and go see them. Those are masterpieces from long before they had AI. So, your mind should be an image library. You, typing in what makes the world a better place in DeepSeek ain’t gonna help. You have to have been there. You have to have seen it. You have to have experienced it. So, my advice is experience. Get out and experience more of the world.
Part I: How Architect Ben Wood Reimagined Shanghai’s Xintiandi—and Changed Urban Preservation in China
Part II: Betting on the Street: How Ben Wood Took the Risks That Made Shanghai’s Xintiandi Work
ULI tour and case studies:
