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The shikumen house
The 石库门 (literally "stone storehouse gate") is Shanghai's own house type: terraced houses in rows along lanes, combining the courtyard plan of Jiangnan homes with the terraced streets of Western cities, behind a heavy door framed in stone. They were built in great numbers from the 1870s to the 1930s, early ones larger and later ones smaller and more crowded. Built for one family each, most came to be shared by many. Refugees during the war against Japan, and housing shortages for decades after, meant a single house could hold several households, with every room — the front hall, the back room, the kitchen — lived in. The comedy 七十二家房客 (The House of 72 Tenants), filmed in 1963 and remade since, turned that crowding into a byword. Today some lanes are protected and restored, some are rebuilt as shops and homes behind the old façades, and many have been cleared. Architects, historians and residents weigh the buildings' value and the residents' living conditions differently, and 陆琳's own mixed view is a common one.