Rethinking the Split House by Neri&Hu: Three Homes Inside a Shanghai Lane
The fragile heritage of Shanghai's lanes
Rethinking the Split House is a residential renovation within Tianzifang, one of Shanghai's historic neighbourhoods of narrow lanes and compact homes. Neri&Hu was commissioned to reconstruct a badly deteriorated lane house, preserving the surviving shell while reorganising the interior as three separate apartments. The project addresses a question central to the future of the city's older districts: how can a traditional building type survive when contemporary domestic life requires safety, privacy and comfort?
The original house belongs to the typology of the Shanghai lane dwelling, where split-level rooms are connected through a narrow shared stair. Such houses were historically occupied by single families, but many became homes to several households over the course of the city's changing economy. The passage between rooms and levels was therefore a place of everyday social contact as well as a practical route.
Three apartments within a single shell
Neri&Hu retained this sectional character rather than converting the building into one uniform stack of floors. The characteristic relationship between a longer principal room and a smaller room a half level above remains central to the architecture. This allows the original building type to be understood through movement and spatial experience, not simply through the preservation of the exterior wall.
The renovation creates three distinct domestic units within a very constrained structure. Shared circulation remains important because the households approach their rooms through the same compact vertical space. The interior has to make each apartment more usable without destroying the relationships that historically made lane-house living distinctive.
A new metal stair as shared architecture
A new continuous metal staircase replaces the original decayed timber stairs, which no longer met contemporary safety needs. It becomes the clear organising device of the renovation, moving through the building and locking together the different half levels. Its contemporary material distinguishes it from the retained shell rather than imitating an older construction method.
The bathrooms are inserted beside the shared stair, using its otherwise constrained dimensions to accommodate essential new services. Sandblasted glazing creates a filter between private functions and communal circulation. The choice makes the relationship between privacy and proximity part of the interior experience, rather than hiding it behind a sequence of opaque secondary rooms.
Bringing daylight to the darkest centre
A new skylight is positioned above the staircase, drawing natural light into the darkest centre of the house. It also illuminates adjacent rooms and the different floor levels, transforming what was once a narrow and dim circulation space into an architectural focus. The project uses this new source of daylight to strengthen the continuity of the historic split section.
Other openings were enlarged and later decorative additions removed, allowing the original structure to be experienced with greater clarity. The renovation preserves evidence of earlier construction while introducing precisely designed contemporary surfaces and enclosures. Rather than stage a nostalgic reconstruction, the architects create a layered interior where different periods can be read together.
The tension between privacy and collective life
The exterior is treated in black so that the building recedes visually within the already complex Tianzifang streetscape. The design directs attention towards the spatial type itself: the relationship between the public lane, shared stair and individual rooms. Inside, shifting views recall the intimate proximity of historic Shanghai housing, where the lives of neighbours were visible across small distances.
The renovated house demonstrates how a fragile urban typology can support contemporary occupation without losing the ideas embedded in its original section. By keeping the split levels, inserting a new steel stair and bringing daylight deep into the building, Neri&Hu produces an architecture that respects history through continued use rather than through complete visual preservation.
Project information and photo credits
Project: Rethinking the Split House | Private Residence in Tianzifang. Address: No. 27, Lane 255, Ruijin No. 2 Road, Shanghai, China. Architecture and interiors: Neri&Hu Design and Research Office. Three apartments, total area 193 m². Completed July 2012. Awarded at the World Architecture Festival 2014 (New and Old, Completed Building). Photography: Pedro Pegenaute. Each photograph is credited in its caption.
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