Out in the cold: dried fish and a vagrant

Out in the near freezing cold day, this pathetic 'vagrant' couped up sleeping so soundly inside the cubby hole, apparently the framework on his left is for the opening while shoes are littered around. It cannot be deduced if he is actually a vagrant or a worker from behind the construction site stealing cat nap. While in North Bund, when walking by a street corner, there were these fish cut or whole left out in the cold for sale. Fish and a vagrant, both out in the freezing cold afternoon.

Jeremy

Shanghai upon the Sea

January 02, 2009

Sputtering cluttering

Row of bare naked trees with branches overarching for the residential block while the zigzagging residential façade is set way too close to the streets, only to intensify pedestrian level congestion. Most often, these tree branches when not pruned entangle with overhead electrical wirings. Visually, these natural and artificial clutters seem not to give way to each other but vying for attention in the sky. They all seem to distinctly jut out while the pristine sky blue serves their backdrop.

Dust free, the monochromatic hue of the blue sky cools the busy street views. Reflection stemming from across the street has the unrecognizable building images imprinted in their thoroughly disfigured fragments. It can be some bombardment of visual collage that finds its complete freedom in rhythmic gesture.

Another residential block has somewhat unconventional form of balconies. In this case, these balconies are all formal in square. While elongated form with less utilitarian use tends to be the common balcony, these squarish exceptionals appear protrusive, almost screaming for attention, for outer space beyond their wall façade. Balcony has indeed lost its meaningful functions but a dumping ground in these shown examples.

When in lush, trees or shrubs help to cover the multitude of poorly made environmental conditions. The nearly void gable wall can be an eye sore or visual menace for their monotonous rows of redundant appearance usually unappealing for street view or as street boundary. Despite their being poorly utilized to effectuate appeal with regard to street landscaping, trees serve to mitigate if not barricade street level noise propagation as well as behaving like sponges in settling if not absorbing dust particles in the air. Mutually, as such, those empty gable walls without window fenestration can be enhanced with trees or landscaping.

Another most apparent and unsightly visual pollution are those air condition condensers that found themselves improperly allocated and ultimately leading to street façade clutter besides spewing heat onto the street.

At times, sputtering cluttering can be found where an interior territory of a neighborhood undergoes renovation. Here, with diligent builders dressed in light blues and safety helmets while in their sporadic locations up and down all over the site, scaffolding rises and takes over building corners for passers-by to clear or to side track their forwarding movement.

Jeremy

Shanghai upon the Sea

January 03, 2009

Life along Taikang Road, Luwan District

Can't imagine how she would pull through the day sitting inside the cubicle all day making living by selling phone cards and numbers, farecards, accessory stickers for mobile phone or camera, etc. when the temperature recorded on the day was in low single digit but sunny out...

Filled up to its best spatial use, a scooter is still the best transportation means to meander around town to deliver small loads.

A blacony above the commercial premise below is also maximized its use of space, a ubiquitous typical urban scenery with countryside characteristics where clothes are dried outdoor. Tenements as such from older days are not furnished with modern needs in accommodating washer or dryer. At times, sewage, black or grey waters are directly disposed onto the pavement, over the curbside and into the drainage of the road. Street light posts, railings, exposed overhead electrical wiring are all made full use of, e.g. for hanging dry laundary of the day and for the mops as well. Also, the dangling condenser would find its location wherever possible that altogether generates unsightly urban landscape.

Jeremy

Shanghai upon the Sea

January 03, 2009

Ningbo Seafood Restaurant and Hotel at 68 Dapu Road

The 'baskets stacking full of granary harvest' is a classical and timeless symbol of prosperous harvest during autumn before all things take their restful moments. When in gold, an ever popular color that metaphorizes grandiose and wealth, this twin tower is but a qualifying postmodern form in their contemporary context, when taking from historical references in modern setting. The parapet and its crown seem to take an ironic twist, another tenet of post-modernism, directly borrowing from the Egyptian reeds. If taking this further in warped dimension, perhaps - some will definitely puke to hear - enlarge the twin tower into their magnificent or out of proportionate scale to rival the Pear TV Tower, another wacky and rather embarassing postmodern prick located in the Pudong Financial District.

Jeremy

Shanghai upon the Sea

January 03, 2009

Skyway Hotel at 15 Dapu Road

If having its top cropped, this would be a top crop of building design.

The tendency of the top revealed some incompetent understanding of genuine service needs for a building, for e.g., to supply water and power to enable a workable building. This is another case of belated afterthoughts while its dire needs to improve design ensuing eventually and hardly generates esthetic results.

When getting closer to this same building, its podium block is another visual disaster: colors that do not harmonize, design elements that do not relate, design scale that does not complement with its superstructure.

If having its bottom cropped, this would also be better for the building as a whole.

Jeremy
Shanghai upon the Sea
January 03, 2009

Blue Sky

It's hard to see blue sky and it's harder to see pristine blue sky here in Shanghai.

A quick scan for news recently, an online service claimed that Shanghai had more days of blue sky compared to Suzhou and Hangzhou last year. This is obviously stemming from a total lack of comprehending regional environmental factors but minding over the comparative numerical figures while overlooking one's own shortcomings. Shanghai is unquestionably considered a polluted city. Over these years living here, although the air quality has since been improving but still at an unacceptable level, likewise for anywhere else around so long as there is a day of pollution concerned.

However, aiming at the hardly found but stunningly pristine pure sky up above, the camera still was unable to do justice to capture the eye ball reality. Not a single trace of clouds and other streaks or spots found, and not any plane or bird took to the clear and beautiful sky.

On the other hand, being tossed upside down with steel bar networking idled on ground while cranes arching around competing for attention in the sky, though barricaded behind and could only peek through in between, revealed some magnificent scale re-development near Xujiahui Road and Dapu Road intersection, considering the re-development commands the entire urban block.

Jeremy
Shanghai upon the Sea
January 03, 2009

Back Breaking Labor

The row of orderly hung air-dried ducks are prepared to usher in the up and coming Chinese New Year or for everyday consumption. Also tapping full use of public infrastructure such as the street side railing, the bamboo twigs broom took its rest with the rightful owner could not be photographed.

This has got to be formerly Xiao Zhou's fruit store, now resided over by this hard working laborer in his back breaking position inside the premise.

With nearly all the possible space tapped into full use suiting his laborious operation, he is attending to pick clean on remnants on the duck skin.
Note also the small stool that he somehow did not make use of.

On the dedicated advertisement overhead is but a fruit store while gizzards hung in their neat separate bundles.
Jeremy
Shanghai upon the Sea
January 03, 2009

The Price of Planning and Decision Making

At thes intersection of Quxi Road and Luban Road, accessible by Metro Line 4 and Entrances Nos. 1 (above) and 4 (below shown the Luban Road Metro Station entrance and across the street view), wide open grievances of social discontents were amplified by means of calligraphic graffiti display on the street walls.

Where social contract is in its most critically naked exposition, "Still building commercial use tower next" door while "the ground" is experiencing "subsidence and cracks" that cause "building dispositioning," there will be "No good ending" with "crackdown on the public outcry," displayed (below) immediately right by the Entrance No. 4 of Metro Line 4. Time: 10:35 a.m. on January 03, 2008.

Below, on the other street wall flanking the same Entrance No. 4 of Metro Line 4, this display shows "Illegal building and selling of green" turf area, with "no one heeding the life and death of the general public, " and "only have to fight for life when in vain."

Connecting at right angle to the wall above, shown below, "Return my human rights, return my residential rights, return my rights to life," "Definitely victorious" when "sitting in till the end" if "united to defend for homeland."

Two columns of flying banners hung on the gable wall of a residential block as shown above with closeup below. On right, "Cronyism of public officials and businessmen" in "bullying the general public to build illegally" and "tough to be accommodated by heavenly rationale," while on left, "Strongly decrying" against "the District Government" in "generating the (numerical date unclear due to warping banner) incidents of battery and theft."

Butting the residential block mentioned, a boundary wall with graffiti of "Security and safety of Metro Line, Responsibility of all, Attention by all," and farther, "Subsidence behind" the wall.

On the other side of the boundary wall (below), "Suffering from bullying with reasoning, battering the world without reasoning, public rationale (fairness gone) without a trace." The lop sided board at the lower left is a make shift mobile advertisement of repair works, describing: repairing car, hair cutting, duplicating keys, repairing leather shoes, hole punch for belts and knife sharpening.

Wonder, if this is the price to pay for expeditiously catching up on the rest of the world and pride for built up in several decades and faster than the West in a century of modernization. If one were to own a niche of a block shown below, where southern exposure is most cherished for sun lighting and ventilating during winter, the overshadowing begins to take place at 10:41 a.m on January 03, 2009. The creeping overshadowing begins as the day begins while all day one has to live within the shadow due to some taller structure further from across the street.

Jeremy
Shanghai upon the Sea
January 03, 2009

A Hostile and Dehumanizing Environment

Can you imagine yourself the same age like the elderly man moving with a stick while his aide attend to closely behind (above) just to clear the ascending elevation, around the circular overhead pedestrian bridge (below), and crossing the wide open street above? Yes, we built this world of hurdles for ourselves to clear throughout our lives instead. This is world where the road surface or land use is largely devoted to or dominated by automobiles, and barricaded from them all, while we would have to relegate to ascend to above ground or descend to underground, walking in the air or inside the tunnel.

On the same corner around the intersection of Xujiahui Road and Ruijing Road No. 2, a very vivid moment showing the elder woman rushed for rescue when the younger one called out for help, seemingly some booty problem or twisted ankle. Or, some poorly furnished road surfacing?


Jeremy
Shanghai upon the Sea
January 03, 2009