Shanghai has long been romanticized by authors and artists, who immortalize in literature, verse, photography and film the city's glamorous "golden age" when women wore silk qipao, Zhou Xuan sang from valve radios and the cityscape was dominated by traditional red-tiled roofs.

For every bittersweet lament for its much-mythologized past, however, Shanghai has just as often been praised as a "city of tomorrow" for its globalism, gentrification and growth. Development and urbanization, say those heralding Shanghai's hyper futurism, have always been an inherent part of the city's progressive personality.

But somewhere in between Shanghai's sepia-toned past and its trajectory toward a neon-saturated sci-fi future, there remains the oft-overlooked present. Amid the din of development and a perennial gale of construction that seems to never cease, the true nature of Shanghai is an ever-evolving megalopolis - a city caught in perpetual transition, where change is the only constant.

Deconstruction in Zhabei district - the art of taking something carefully apart to its most basic pieces so that it may be built up again. Shanghai's deconstructed old homes may appear unsightly, but each brick and every beam found within their piles of gray rubble, timber and discarded personal effects embodies the city's linear progression through the present. Photo: Tom Carter/GT

Deconstruction in Zhabei district - the art of taking something carefully apart to its most basic pieces so that it may be built up again. Photo: Tom Carter/GT

Deconstruction in Zhabei district - the art of taking something carefully apart to its most basic pieces so that it may be built up again. Photo: Tom Carter/GT

Deconstruction in Zhabei district - the art of taking something carefully apart to its most basic pieces so that it may be built up again. Photo: Tom Carter/GT

Deconstruction in Zhabei district - the art of taking something carefully apart to its most basic pieces so that it may be built up again. Photo: Tom Carter/GT

Deconstruction in Zhabei district - the art of taking something carefully apart to its most basic pieces so that it may be built up again. Photo: Tom Carter/GT

Deconstruction in Zhabei district - the art of taking something carefully apart to its most basic pieces so that it may be built up again. Photo: Tom Carter/GT