Wu Tongwen Residence

　　At the intersection of Tongren Road and Beijing West Road today, specifically at No. 333 Tongren Road, stands a garden villa with a modern architectural style. Its owner was named Wu Tongwen, hence it is commonly referred to as the Wu Residence. This four-story reinforced concrete building, with its green-tiled exterior walls, was constructed in 1937, covering a construction area of 1,732 square meters. It is also popularly known among old Shanghai residents as the “Green House.”

　　The building’s exterior resembles a large ocean liner docked in a harbor. Its graceful “ship hull” arc lines and the straight-lined “hull” facade are simple yet dynamic. It was the final work designed by the renowned Hungarian architect László Hudec during his 20 years of life in Shanghai. In the design of the Wu Residence, he executed streamlined forms with remarkable fluidity, exuding a strong sense of modernity—this can be considered one of the crowning achievements of Hudec’s design career.

　　The building is richly appointed, exquisitely decorated, and equipped with advanced facilities, making it one of the most luxurious residences in Shanghai at the time of its completion. The residence is enclosed by walls and features a relatively spacious garden where cars could drive through, with access through two gates and a large garage. Inside, besides various living and dining rooms, a sunroom, master and children’s bedrooms, dressing rooms, bathrooms, storage rooms, Chinese and Western kitchens, pantry, accountant’s office, vault, servant quarters, laundry room, gatehouse, garage, and more, the ground floor also includes a dedicated banquet hall, ballroom, billiard room, and bar. The top floor adds a chess room, bird-and-flower room, and more. The interior is lavishly appointed: the ground floor lobby features a dance floor with a spring-loaded wooden floor, a glass ceiling, and a sunroom, complete with full heating, cooling, and plumbing systems. The spiral staircase, made of imported Italian marble with streamlined design, bronze handrails, and glass-panel railings, along with copper radiators embedded in the interior walls, still feels novel and distinctive even by today’s architectural decoration standards. This modern-style mansion was also the first private residence in Shanghai to install a small elevator. The lady of the house was a devout Buddhist, and within this entirely Western-modernist structure, there was an authentic traditional Chinese Buddhist shrine, complete with an altar, deity platform, and painted caisson ceiling.

　　The building is situated on the northern part of the property, right next to Beijing West Road, thus leaving a large garden area to the south. The second-floor living room, dining room, and other spaces are set back inward, with a spacious south-facing living terrace of over 70 square meters in front. A row of floor-to-ceiling windows connects the indoor space with the outdoor terrace and garden, offering sweeping views of the scenery. On the western side of the terrace, there is a grand and imposing outdoor spiral staircase, allowing direct access from the second floor to the garden. Indoor and outdoor spaces, upstairs and downstairs, are all seamlessly integrated. The third floor houses the master bedroom, with the building setting back again to create another terrace of about 40 square meters. Above it lies the top floor, covered by the terrace in front of the children’s bedrooms. Part of the top-floor terrace is fitted with a semi-circular awning, creating a semi-indoor, semi-outdoor space. All the living terraces on each level face the garden—a spatial concept in architectural art known as “gray space,” which adds a delightful touch. The terraced layers enhance the organic integration with the garden’s natural space, unifying indoor and outdoor areas. In front of the main building lies a large lawn of 1,367 square meters, surrounded by trees such as holly. With minimal landscaping, the expansive lawn conveys a sense of openness and grandeur while highlighting the main building.

　　The building’s exterior is entirely Western modernist in style, featuring smooth walls and large glass windows, with a simple form, fluid lines, and a strong contrast between solid and void. At the same time, the designer intended the gradually upward-tapering terrace forms to resemble a ship’s structure—the terraces as the ship’s deck, yet also as architecture, or rather using metaphorical techniques to emphasize the building’s individuality, making it a pioneer among Shanghai’s modern-style garden villas.

　　On the completion day of the “Green House,” Hudec assured Wu Tongwen: “I can guarantee you that even 50 years from now, the modern feel of this house will still be ahead of its time. Even 100 years later, I believe it will not be outdated. It should be considered a classic.” To ensure its uniqueness as a classic, Wu Tongwen even bought the design blueprints and locked them in a safe. To see this ultra-modern, then Far East’s foremost luxury residence, John Leighton Stuart, then president of Yenching University, paid a special visit and, at Wu Tongwen’s invitation, dined with him at the oval marble dining table on the second floor, taking commemorative photos. The construction cost of the “Green House” was quite high. On the eve of Christmas 1948, a foreign diplomat once offered to buy the Green House as a consulate with a 10,000-ton cruise ship plus 500,000 US dollars, but Wu Tongwen refused to sell. For him, the Green House was not just his residence, but also his “spiritual home.”

　　After the Cultural Revolution, the residence was used by the Shanghai Urban Planning and Design Research Institute, and the building underwent several renovations, making its former glory hard to trace. In 2001, Gu Chuanhui, a well-known Taiwanese architect, rented the “Green House” and invested 8 million yuan in its renovation. The once Far East’s foremost luxury residence emerged like a newly awakened princess, radiant once again. Today, the Wu Residence serves as the office building for Hengyue Group’s Zhonghenghao International Trade (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. The entire building was listed as a Shanghai Municipal Protected Historic Building in 1994.

　　

　　Wu Tongwen (1908~1966)　　Wu Tongwen, born in 1908 (the 34th year of the Guangxu reign in the Qing Dynasty), was the son-in-law of Suzhou’s dye magnate Bei Runsheng and the ninth uncle-in-law of the world-renowned architect I.M. Pei. The Bei family was a wealthy clan in Suzhou, once owning the famous Lion Grove Garden. The land for the Wu Residence belonged to the Bei family. Wu Tongwen, a “fortunate son-in-law,” was also a descendant of the prestigious Wu family of Shanghai. After inheriting the family business, in the mid-1930s, as the flames of the Anti-Japanese War approached and the Kuomintang urgently needed “military green” dye for massive military expansion, this born-lucky young master seized the opportunity, launched military green dye, and quickly rose to the top of the dye market, becoming enormously wealthy... Details+