CHINA MODERNE

Free Guide: 24 Hours in Shanghai with Linehouse

Spend 24 hours exploring the old, the new, the local, and the global in one of our favorite design classrooms: Shanghai.

Who’s our guide for a discovery tour of modern Shanghai? Our inspiring friends at Linehouse, the female-founded architecture and design studio that approaches every project with curiosity, humanity, and a deep sense of materiality and craft. Allow them to show you their Shanghai.

Enter your email to download the free guide (optimized for phone viewing so you can keep it in your pocket as you explore ☺︎).

Our project to document China’s current design and architectural landscape: Follow along @chinamoderne

Built on the site of an abandoned brick kiln outside Jianshui, Yunnan, Ant Workshop is the creation of Chinese artist Luo Xu. This sprawling architectural art park is constructed entirely from locally made hollow bricks, fired from Jianshui's distinc
Jingdezhen-based artist 邵磊Shào Lěi(@shao_lei_ ) explores fragility, time, and the relationship between body, material, and environment in his sculptures. Photos by @signyandesign & @wdesignsh #chinamoderne #newchina
Blue calico 蓝印花布 (lányìn huābù) is one of China’s oldest textile traditions, rooted in the canal towns south of the Yangtze River where the climate, soil, and water support both cotton cultivation and indigo farming. The cr
Along the southeastern edge of Datong's ancient city walls, Sunyata Datong (@sunyatahotel_official) is the product of a five-year collaboration between GOA, interior designers CCD and Signyan Design. The guiding principle of the project was was to re
The art of the Chinese corridor. #chinamoderne #newchina
The Beijing Central Axis, named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, dates back 700 years to the Yuan Dynasty and stretches 7.8 kilometers through the old city center. This urban spine reflects the core principles of ancient Chinese capital planning: rig
The oil-paper umbrella 油纸伞 feels modern once again. #chinamoderne #newchina
立夏 marks the beginning of summer in the Chinese solar calendar — the season when lotus ponds begin to awaken across southern China. Long admired in Chinese culture, the lotus is more than a flower. Its roots become food, its leaves wrap rice,
Mandarin Oriental Qianmen (@mo_qianmen) opened in 2024 as the newest incarnation of a historic neighborhood. Rather than starting from scratch, Hong Kong studio Cheng Chung Design (@ccd_chengchungdesign) spent over eight years restoring 42 traditiona
A pioneering beauty & cosmetic retailer, HARMAY has also redefined the Chinese retail experience through striking spatial design. Conceptualized as immersive beauty warehouses, each of its stores represents a unique deconstruction of the classic
Made of 800,000 handcrafted bricks, Beijing's Red Brick Art Museum blends the contemporary and the classical. Peking University Dong Yugan's design allows the raw materials to define the experience, and gives traditional Chinese masonry techniques th
Spend 24 hours exploring the old, the new, the local, and the global in one of our favorite design classrooms: Shanghai. Who’s our guide for a discovery tour of modern Shanghai? Our inspiring friends at Linehouse, the female-founded architect
At Milan Design Week 2026, Chinese textile brand SAIBOSI (@saibosi_official) presented the installation Shanhai Hong Yao 山海红瑶. Its roots are in the millennium-old textile traditions of the Red Yao people of Guangxi, a craft recognized as a national i
谷雨 Gǔyǔ, or "Grain Rain," arrives as the last solar term of spring. This is when mist settles into the mountains and everything begins to soften, blur, and grow. In Chinese landscape painting, clouds are never just atmosphere; they also exp
At @Amanyangyun, afternoon tea drifts across the water. Flowers, tea, and landscape all held in one frame. Spring, set in motion. #chinamoderne #newchina
Lánqì 兰契 are hand-forged tea scissors from Chinese brand Xuégǔ 学古. Designer Kǒng Hóngqiáng 孔洪强 founded the brand with a philosophy of “learning from the past, creating for the present.” These tea scissor
In the Western Hills of Beijing, Xitan Hotel sits beside the 1,700-year-old Tanzhe Temple, transforming a former mountain village into a contemporary retreat. Rather than building anew, the project restores and adapts the original settlement —
Along Suzhou Creek, Dayin Bookstore (大隐书局) takes the form of a docked ship. The building’s curved white structure and elongated profile echo the silhouette of a cruise liner, turning the bookstore itself into an architectural object on the rive
Aranya 阿那亚, on the coast near Beidaihe just a few hours from Beijing, has become one of China’s most closely watched experiments in design-led community building. What began as a standard seaside development has evolved into a place where darin
Big Friday Mood 🌀 @chen_estelle in Dreaming East for @superellechina Photographer @reihuannn Editor & Stylist @oliverhuuu Make up @beata_dx Hair @_keweitao Set Design @youngz_yz #chinamoderne #newchina