World Congress on Art Deco... in Shanghai!

We went to Patrick Cranley's fascinating talk at the newly refurbished Glamour Bar yesterday – he was there to discuss Art Deco in Shanghai, as well as an exciting event recently confirmed for the city in 2015.

Cranley arrived in the city back in 1997 and, when he's not scouting around for Art Deco gems, is the Managing Director of Asia Media. He started the Historic Shanghai group in 1998 and leads regular tours of the city, revealing its architectural legacies of days gone by.

Judging by Sunday's sizable audience, Art Deco is a pretty popular topic, and one that we're only going to hear more about in the run up to the 2015 World Congress on Art Deco, organized by the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies and due to be hosted by none other than Shanghai.

Shanghai is apparently an important city for Art Deco worldwide, and during the course of the three-week long Congress some 200 leaders in the field will visit some of the city's best-kept examples of the early 20th century movement: the Paramount in Jing'an, the recently reopened Peace Hotel, the Bank of China building on the Bund and numerous lane house communities.

It's still early days but Cranley is already starting to think about the logistics of the biannual event, and the legions of volunteers who'll make it happen. Interested in getting involved? Then drop him a line here.