‘I didn’t feel like I was supporting a regime’: architect David Chipperfield on working for China

His stunning $1bn restoration project in Shanghai is a hit with the city’s influencers. But not everyone is impressed. The revered architect talks about the highs, lows and many risks of building for China

A young woman wearing a short pleated skirt and a white bobble hat is posing for photos on a street corner in Shanghai, telling her friend to ensure that a red brick, colonial-era building features in the background. Nearby, a woman in stilettos and fur coat is being photographed in an arched doorway framed by classical mouldings, while another perches on a windowsill, coffee in hand next to a carved column. The alleyways behind are filled with similar scenes: people posing on steps, next to lampposts or in front of plain brick walls.

This surreal swarm of influencers is now a daily sight at Rockbund, a $1bn mixed-use development that includes the restoration of a dozen 1930s buildings, led by the British architect David Chipperfield. It seems an unlikely place to have become a social media sensation: a row of vaguely classical brick frontages now occupied by restaurants, boutiques and coffee shops, with office and apartment blocks rising behind. But a quick look on social media – Douyin (TikTok) and Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book, an Instagram equivalent) – explains the allure of this place for Shanghai’s gen Z.

“This is not New York,” says one woman’s post, showing her in one of the alleyways in head-to-toe Chanel, framed by red brick walls. “This is Shanghai! Come here to appreciate the respect for history shown in the protection of buildings #WhereToGoOnTheWeekend.” “A space that blends old and new,” coos another. “Like a back alley, a silent museum. With rich historic heritage and cultural charm, it’s hard not to love it.” Another declares it to be “a holy place for taking photos” with “a luxurious and elegant atmosphere”.

Many posts are hashtagged gaojigan, which means “high-class feeling”, an aspirational trait for China’s young. Here, this feeling is provided by a rare phenomenon in Shanghai: architectural heritage that has been neither demolished nor rebuilt in a Disneyfied style, but instead carefully restored, retaining the patina of age. Unlike most Communist party apparatchiks, who for years have been intent on bulldozing the city’s historic fabric, twentysomethings in China seem to appreciate the difference.