Throughout China, upscale residential communities mimick the style of their Western suburban counterparts, with all the baggage that comes with them.

Neri and Hu renovated and reskinned a five-story office building on a tree-lined street in the French Concession of Shanghai to create a new headquarters for their architecture firm and their retail furnishings company, Design Republic.

While many fast-growing districts in China’s big cities are content to erect buildings quickly and cheaply to meet immediate needs, Qingpu has long recognized the importance of design in shaping development.