Archinect - News

Snøhetta's Shanghai Grand Opera House project nears 2025 completion

2024-10-11T13:21:00-04:00

Construction of Snøhetta's Shanghai Grand Opera House is rapidly progressing towards a 2025 completion in the city's Pudong District. The firm, which is working with ECADI locally, won an international competition for its design in 2019. We last updated its progress in October 2023. The two firms have also collaborated on the new Beijing Library, which was named the winner of the 2024 IFLA/Baker & Taylor Public Library of the Year Award yesterday.

Neri&Hu complete new Shanghai Performing Arts Center, challenging traditional entertainment venue design

2024-09-25T18:43:00-04:00

Neri&Hu has designed a new performing arts space for Shanghai with 2,500 seats and a multipurpose space they feel will challenge ostentatious tropes latent in 21st-century iterations of the typology.

Located in Shanghai’s busy Qiantan commercial area, the New Bund 31 Performing Arts Center shines as a cultural beacon amidst a forest of tall buildings. Neri&Hu chose to conceptualize its interior as an 'arena' in the Classical sense, arranging a stacked layer of arches to frame the venue’s performance space and five-story atrium.

Photo by Pedro Pegenaute

The arches are repeated on the outside in bronze-toned cassettes lining the ground-level facade. Back inside, bronze is used again in the bathroom fixtures. Copper finishes line the elevators to floating balconied seating boxes, and the the VIP lounge made out of perforated bricks.

Photo by Pedro Pegenaute

Set against this is the design of a smaller black box exhibition space component that services the theater's MICE (meetings, incen...

PEI Architects adds a new geometric gateway to the Shanghai Free Trade Zone

2024-08-21T12:57:00-04:00

The latest addition to Shanghai’s Free Trade Zone from PEI Architects, a two-tower scheme defined by double-laminated insulated glazing units (or IGUs) facades is moving forward.

The pair of angular 40-story towers are designed to house a hotel and office component and “separated by a taut vertical void but bound by a singular point to create a unique expression of a traditional arch structure,” according to the firm's press announcement. Two offset pyramids, a "gesture of outreach and cooperation", unite atriums at the uppermost levels. The project's total square footage will come out to just under 2 million square feet once completed. A new full-scale retrospective of I.M. Pei's influence is currently on view at the M+ museum in Hong Kong.

All images courtesy PEI Architects

Safdie Architects stacks vertical gardens in new Shanghai tower complex

2024-07-22T16:07:00-04:00

Safdie Architects has shared photos of their latest contribution to Shanghai's Luwan district, the new LuOne Mixed-Use Complex, after its construction was completed in the past year.

Featuring an eight-story bronze colonnade-lined retail component and a 35-story office tower, the project “answers the pressing need for connection to nature and a place of community within Shanghai’s urban core,” in the words of Senior Partner Christopher Mulvey.

Image: Shao Feng. Courtesy of Safdie Architects.

Accordingly, the tower’s southwestern edge includes a glass-enclosed “corner garden” running vertically with a series of seven four-story garden spaces stacked to create the appearance of plant life ascending or “climbing” the length of its facade.

Image: Shao Feng. Courtesy of Safdie Architects.

The 484,000-square-foot tower was designed to complete the program, which began with the construction of the 1.5 million-square-foot retail galleria in 2018...

Neri&Hu's newest Blue Bottle Shanghai space shelters a community of coffee drinkers from the daily grind

2024-07-18T18:25:00-04:00

A thought-provoking new café design in Shanghai’s mixed-use Columbia Circle complex from Neri&Hu for the Blue Bottle Coffee chain has caught our eye after being completed earlier this year.

Executed at just 1,680 square feet within the leftover footprint evacuated by a former residential building, the new 'The Imprint' café provides customers a respite from the blistering pace of city life with a welcoming sense of 'home' in line with the client's brand identity and community values.

Photo by Zhu Runzi

“Even if the building is no longer visible in the physical world, the traces it leaves in our individual or collective memories serve as a source of nostalgia and remembering,” the firm states in their project description.

Photo by Zhu Runzi

Within its white suspended massing, the impression of a corrugated roof's mold is used to manifest a sentimental attachment to the space in dialogue with the remaining composition of recycled clay bricks and plaster.

Photo by Zhu Runzi

"Despite the...

MVRDV delivers 'diamond'-encrusted facade for Tiffany’s newest Shanghai location

2024-07-08T14:09:00-04:00

MVRDV has shared details of its latest design, the new Tiffany & Co. location in Shanghai’s Taikoo Li Qiantan retail development, featuring a glittering imitation of a diamond-encrusted facade.

Image © Wen Studio

The firm’s newest project for the jeweler follows last year's coral-inspired 3D design at the Singapore Changi Airport and utilizes a screen made from 6,988 handcrafted glass 'diamonds' to produce an effect that offers many variances depending on the time of day.

Image © Wen Studio

Behind the screen, an in-store café and accompanying balcony separate the showroom areas and private salons that are included on every floor. The 3.3-pound glass jewels are suspended from steel cables and given a mirrored steel finish to complete the effect, held together finally by specially designed steel fixtures positioned to prevent them from moving or spinning on their supports.

Image © Wen Studio

The facade component is completely dismantleable and will have its parts reused or recycled afte...

Foster + Partners debuts Changfeng mixed-use development in Shanghai

2024-04-29T14:30:00-04:00

A new mixed-use design from Foster + Partners has been revealed for Shanghai’s Science and Technology Finance hub as part of the larger Shanghai 2035 master plan. Located in the city’s Putuo District, the new Changfeng development will boast an affordable housing component, retail offerings, offices, and public facilities, all centered around a 54,000-square-foot new cultural destination called Jia Art they say is inspired by the "spring blessing" flower that's endemic to the local park.

Image: Foster + Partners

A central greenway stitches the program together from the entry points on its north-south axis. Inside the arts center, which repeats the petal-like form and surrounds a central plaza, users can enjoy public areas illuminated by a crowning glass roof.

Image: Foster + Partners

Offices are located north of the central axis and include a range of collaborative amenity spaces. Multi-level terraces, double-height sky atriums, and roo...

Foster + Partners unveils latest Apple Store concept for Shanghai

2024-04-03T13:32:00-04:00

The latest Apple Store retail concept from Foster + Partners has been completed in Shanghai. The firm’s newest design for the company is located in Jing’an Park and forms the centerpiece of an urban regeneration that creates a permeable new connection between its site and the adjacent historic Jing’an Temple.

Stefan Behling, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners, describes: “We are delighted to have been given this great responsibility to create this transformative project for Shanghai. Our design reimagines the original plaza as a vibrant new public space, which provides places to sit and relax, drawing people in and respectfully enhancing the setting for the beautiful Jing’an Temple.”

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

Terraced seating placed on top of an elevated skywalk with gallery spaces gives the public a direct view of the Three Kingdoms era temple, framed by seasonal planting and Padang Light stone finishes that are repeated in the store’s walls and flooring.

Image courtesy Foste...

Büro Ole Scheeren realizes The Axiom high-rise design in Shanghai

2024-04-02T15:37:00-04:00

Büro Ole Scheeren has announced the completion of their latest high-rise design in Shanghai, called The Axiom. The 918-foot, 49-story tower is the first of two that will eventually form the heart of a mixed-use corporate campus known as The Springs on a central site in the Yangpu district for developer Tishman Speyer.

The design is punctuated midway by a striking offset structural core, which, according to the firm, is unique to just 3% of the 500 tallest buildings in the world.

Image: © Büro Ole Scheeren

Founder Ole Scheeren describes: “The Axiom is an emblem of the innovation that is now synonymous with Shanghai and forms an elegant urban landmark as the gateway to Yangpu District. Designed as a strategic hybrid of functionalism and iconicity, the twin towers represent the fluidity and dynamism of the future-oriented businesses they will accommodate.”

Image: © Büro Ole Scheeren

Rising from a shared podium base called the Culture Gate that connects to the surrounding development’s ...

MVRDV begins construction on overhaul of old Shanghai cement factory

2024-02-12T11:16:00-05:00

A team led by MVRDV has begun construction on a leisure and cultural district in Shanghai on the site of a disused cement factory. Named Gate M West Bund Dream Center, the project will transform a collection of buildings of different styles and time periods, “adapting a former industrial zone while making use of the existing structures and thus minimizing carbon emissions,” according to the team.

Image credit: Ucharm

Under the MVRDV scheme, developed with co-architect AISA, landscape architect Field Operations, and interior architects CL3 and Xu Studio, a series of disused buildings will be linked in a “cohesive whole” by a network of bright orange paths, stairs, ramps, and bridges. The site is organized around key landscaped axes including a central spine linking both ends of the district, while a “three-dimensional promenade” is created by a series of landscaped rooftops, elevated riverbank terraces, and a network of staircases and elevators finished in a defining orange color.

Ima...

UNStudio completes Shanghai flagship store for Huawei behind ‘petal’ facade

2024-02-02T11:31:00-05:00

UNStudio has completed a flagship store for the Chinese communications giant Huawei in Shanghai.

Designed in collaboration with Huawei’s internal design team, the store seeks to create an “experience-rich concept that brings people, nature, and technology together and caters to consumer preferences.”

Image credit: Wen Studio

Image credit: Huawei

According to the architects, the design of the two-level store was inspired by biophilic forms that transition between indoor and outdoor conditions. Throughout the scheme’s interior and exterior, recycled materials are integrated to reduce the project’s environmental footprint, while detachable prefabricated systems are applied on floors and ceilings.

Image credit: Huawei

Image credit: Wen Studio

The building’s facade makes reference to the algorithm underscoring Huawei’s polar codes technology, with petal-like features appearing to be in different stages of growth, evolving in scale and rotation to form an “integrated geometric system that com...

Snøhetta's spiraling Shanghai Grand Opera House is taking form

2023-10-27T18:06:00-04:00

Snøhetta has shared photos revealing the construction status of their Shanghai Grand Opera House design ahead of its expected opening in 2025.

What’s most noticeable is the formation of the structure’s distinctive fan-shaped roof, which frames the Opera House’s spiraling form. This visual identity is evoked throughout the project, expressed through the winding staircase, the lobby, the halls, and the three auditoriums. The roof will operate as an accessible stage and meeting place, open to visitor access year-round.

Snøhetta was commissioned to design the Opera House following an international design competition.

Previously on Archinect: Snøhetta's spiraling design chosen for new Shanghai Grand Opera House

The project has set out to be an important component of a new urban master plan for Shanghai. The structure is being built in the Expo Houtan neighborhood, located at the convex bank in the riverside area near Huangpu River.

Check out more construction photos in Snøhetta's recent...

MAD to renovate Shanghai cement warehouse with floating metal ‘ark’

2023-10-27T11:33:00-04:00

MAD Architects has unveiled its design for the renovation and adaptive reuse of an old cement factory in Shanghai. The ‘Wanmicang’ warehouse sits on the south side of the Shanghai Zhangjiang Cement Factory grounds and has been reimagined by MAD as a “three-dimensional hierarchy of time and physical dimensions through the juxtaposition of old and new structures.”

Image credit: MAD Architects

Having ceased production in 2013 after decades as one of Shanghai’s largest cement factories, the site has been the subject of several commissions by architects aiming to preserve and reuse historical buildings while repositioning the site for research, cultural, commercial, and creative uses. Subsequently, MAD’s approach to the Wanmicang warehouse was to preserve the site’s industrial fabric while repurposing the site as a multifunctional public waterfront space holding culture, creativity, commercial, and office functions.

Image credit: MAD Architects

“Industrial heritage is preserved and utilize...

MAD designs culture and arts center in China inspired by mountainous tea fields

2023-09-15T11:55:00-04:00

MAD Architects has unveiled their design for the Anji Culture and Art Center near Shanghai, China. Set in a region containing a United Nations Habitat Award, the project is envisioned as a “transitional connecting space between the natural and built environments of the region,” including a city, river, and mountains.

Image credit: MAD Architects

Covering an area of 1.6 million square feet with a construction area of 1.3 million square feet, the center is composed of six venues: a Grand Theater, Conference Center, Leisure Center, Sports Center, Youth Activity Center, and Art Education Center. The venues are spread out beneath the center’s “bamboo leaves roof” and are surrounded by the region’s unique green tea fields.

Image credit: MAD Architects

MAD describes the center as a “porous meeting space that will be accessible to the public from all directions and at all times of day.” Arranged along an axis, the center’s central corrid...

Heatherwick Studio unveils Shanghai exhibition hall with facade of ‘interwoven ribbons’

2023-06-08T12:05:00-04:00

Heatherwick Studio has revealed the design of a new public exhibition hall in Shanghai. Named the ‘Orbit’ and located along the city’s West Bund waterfront, the scheme has been designed to be “seemingly accessible from 360 degrees.”

Image credit: Heatherwick Studio

Outside, the center’s facade was designed to resemble a series of interwoven ribbons forming an undulating set of publicly accessible staircases, bridges, and terraces. The circulation elements allow visitors to navigate to the building’s rooftop garden, which contains multiple viewing platforms.

Image credit: Devisual

The ‘ribbon’ staircases also seek to echo the form of traditional Chinese moon bridges, translated to a contemporary form that makes the building “appear as if it is in constant motion.” Visitors ascending the structure can peer through glazed openings in the facade to glimpse the inner exhibition hall, while on the rooftop terrace, the ribbons unravel into an open-air canopy.

Image credit: Devisual

Inside, th...

This city playground is designed in the shape of the Chinese character for horse

2023-05-31T12:10:00-04:00

Shanghai-based firm 100 Architects has designed a playground in Hangzhou driven by the shape of the Chinese character Mă (马), which means horse.

Graphic © 100architects

Called Mă Way, the park is the latest in a series of projects by the firm that revolve around the concept of the horse for regular client, Dong Yuan. It was developed at the site of a newly built residential development in the city.

Image © RexZou

The architects started by laying out the character Mă in monochromatic, aquamarine green and then constructing the playground around it. The color and shape allow it to be visible and readable from all of the surrounding residential towers.

Image © RexZou

The character’s calligraphic stroke makes it suitable for providing a path or “Way” for fun activities and social interactions. The negative space surrounding the path features pocket plazas for leisure, sports areas, and floor games for all ages.

Image © RexZou

The independent stroke in the character takes the form of a v...

Foster + Partners completes landmark 42-story office tower in Shanghai

2023-01-17T10:49:00-05:00

Foster + Partners has completed a 42-story office tower in the regenerated Suhewan area of Shanghai. Named the 'Suhe Centre for China Resources Land,' the 656-foot-tall tower is described by Foster + Partners as “a landmark building that offers truly modern workspaces which prioritize city and park views, comfort, and flexibility.”

Image credit: ZHURUNZI / Foster + Partners

The tower’s structure draws on the industrial aesthetic of the area’s historical Zhejiang Road Bridge and nearby warehouse buildings. A stainless steel structural frame has been pulled away from the tower’s corners to maximize interior views, while dark glazing on the facade reduces reflective glare.

Image credit: ZHURUNZI / Foster + Partners

Inside, the tower’s ground floor lobby contains undulating wall panels to emphasize the space’s 36-foot floor-to-ceiling height, and to “create a grand sense of arrival.” Above the entrance canopy, louvers on the facade create “dancing” shadows across the walls and floor, whil...

MIT research finds that commuting distances are standard regardless of city size

2023-01-03T11:24:00-05:00

Researchers from the MIT Senseable City Lab have produced a series of maps visualizing commuting habits across Chinese cities. Titled Potato Project, the study used mobile phone location data from 50 million individuals across 234 cities to understand commuting patterns between a person’s home and work locations.

Image credit: MIT Senseable City Lab

The research project was launched in response to the group’s observation that despite the significant increase in the size of cities over decades, commuting distances and times in larger cities have remained stable versus smaller cities. “The conserved commuting properties are quite counter-intuitive,” the team notes, “as the distance from the periphery to the urban center in larger cities is obviously greater than that in medium- or small-sized cities.”

Image credit: MIT Senseable City Lab

With little existing large-scale modeling on the subject, the researchers analyzed the mobile phone location data to better understand the similarities...

Neri&Hu designs Blue Bottle Zhang Yuan Cafe within revitalized 19th-century residence in Shanghai

2022-12-27T15:25:00-05:00

Shanghai-based firm Neri&Hu has completed a café within a historic, 19th-century public garden noted for its Shikumen typology residences. Named Zhang Yuan, the site has recently reopened after a complete rehabilitation of its historic buildings.

As part of the revamp, coffee roaster and retailer Blue Bottle Coffee Company commissioned Neri&Hu to create a retail space in one of the old residences. With this project, the firm aimed to channel the Shanghainese balance between urban activity and leisure.

Image: Zhu Runzi

In accordance with historic preservation guidelines, the existing brick walls, doors, and windows of the original architectural façades and atriums were preserved. The café rises in the midst of these elements. Along the exterior wall of the old building, an elongated, alley-like space connects the main street to the atriums. Here, benches and small tables are lined against the windows and walls.

Image: Zhu Runzi

Neri&Hu worked to make the new structure as light as pos...

A first look inside Heatherwick Studio’s new Shanghai office

2022-12-16T11:22:00-05:00

Heatherwick Studio has offered a first look inside their new Shanghai studio, the first overseas office to be opened by the London design firm. The office is located within 1000 Trees, a building designed by Heatherwick which opened in 2021.

Image credit: Qingyan Zhu for Heatherwick Studio

Located on the fourth floor of the 1000 Trees’ shopping center, among retail and hospitality units, the new studio is described as “a public space where passers-by will be able to engage with the studio’s designs.” The studio will also offer guided tours to visitors wishing to learn more about the firm’s work.

Image credit: Qingyan Zhu for Heatherwick Studio

The front of the workspace features multiple stacked cubes serving as display boxes for a collection of models from the studio’s Asian projects, including the Bund Finance Center, the Nanyang Learning Hub in Singapore, and the 1000 Trees development itself. Alongside its public function, the studio will accommodate a team of ten architects leadi...

Explore Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects' new Shanghai Library East, one of the largest libraries in the world

2022-10-04T16:50:00-04:00

A massive cultural project from Perkins&Will’s Danish affiliate Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects (SHL) has just debuted in Shanghai. The project provides the city with a "new civic landmark" in the form of what is now one of the largest contemporary libraries in the world.

The form and materiality of the new Shanghai Library East is inspired by ancient Chinese scholars’ Taihu stones and has the capacity to support 4 million visitors and more than 1,200 lectures, seminars, performances, and events annually. Its design is responsive to the changing role modern libraries have in society and boasts that a total of 80% of its space is dedicated to community-enhancing activities.

In October 2017, a year after SHL had won the international competition bid to design the Shanghai East Library, Archienct reported that the project held its official groundbreaking ceremony on September 27, 2017. Five years later, the library opened its doors to the community.

Chris Hardie, de...

SOM's latest corporate design will yield an expanded new Alibaba campus in Shanghai

2022-07-25T15:49:00-04:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has unveiled its design for Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s new 75,000-square-meter (807,209-square-foot) campus expansion in Shanghai.

The building is designed to recall a cloud in reference to the computing technology that has propelled its 23-year ascension into the upper echelon of corporate multinationals under the stewardship of founder Jack Ma.

Image © SOM

SOM will help the now $300 billion company accommodate its expanding workforce with a modular design beset by biophilic elements and a network of indoor-outdoor “collaboration bridges” designed to increase productivity and induce healthier work habits in line with Norman Foster’s gridlike headquarters building to be located next door.

“‘The only constant is change’ is one of Alibaba’s guiding principles,” SOM’s Scott Duncan said in a press statement. “We took this ethos to heart, designing a workplace capable of evolving and adapting to new needs, teams, and technologies over time. The hea...

Ennead Architects reveal their vision for a symbolic new free trade zone in Shanghai

2022-05-13T17:29:00-04:00

Today, Ennead Architects unveiled its design for a new master-planned commercial district in Shanghai called the Lingang Special Area. The plan includes four new large buildings and more than 124,500-square-meters (about 1.33 million-square-feet) of retail and public space to be realized over a multi-year project timeline.

Lingang will join Shanghai’s core business area to the adjacent Dishui Lake district and create a free trade zone that developers expect will lure a variety of international business concerns to the new venture.

Image courtesy of Ennead Architects

In a press statement, Ennead design partner Peter Schubert explained the firm’s “vision for the Lingang Special Area in Shanghai is to implement an international standard of architecture that reflects China’s role in 21st-century global commerce,” adding that “the integrated design of the mixed-use site lends itself to a variety of elevated experiences for the local community and tourist...

UNStudio completes Shanghai Jiuguang Center, one of the city's largest retail complexes

2021-12-21T19:43:00-05:00

UNStudio, in collaboration with Nihon Sekkei, has recently completed a brand new shopping center in Shanghai. Called the Shanghai Jiuguang Center, the project merges an advanced commercial ecosystem with a human-centric, customer-friendly destination.

Nihon Sekkei was tasked with developing the outer shell of the retail center, while UNStudio took on the development of the mall as a placemaking destination for customers and the larger community. This included the design of the inner courtyard and its façades, the interior of the mall, and a public rooftop terrace. User experience was the core of UNStudio’s design, informed by looking at the various ways users could engage with different spaces and by creating curated shopping experiences.

As per the architects: “This resulted in creating a synergy between the architectural and interior design, the building scale and the human scale, the geometry and materials and the inside-outside relationship.”

The courtyard and landscape area sit...

MVRDV uses recycled champagne bottles to help Bulgari put sustainability on display in Shanghai

2021-12-10T13:03:00-05:00

Bulgari is getting a timely makeover this holiday thanks to a green facelift from MVRDV.

Using recycled champagne bottles, the Dutch firm was able to produce a dazzling new jade-like facade for the luxury retailer’s new Shanghai flagship.

A nod to the Art Deco style that has characterized both the city and brand, MVRDV’s installation continues its use of the cornice motif used for Bulgari formed by layered panels of brass and the recycled bottles. The panels are backlit at night to create an enticing glow for shoppers at the city’s Shanghai Plaza 66 shopping mall.

Per the architects: “The glass is completely recycled, produced at the Magna factory in Teutschenthal, Germany, which specializes in glass treatment. The project demonstrates the potential of sustainable recycled materials, even in luxury contexts, and takes one step towards MVRDV and Bulgari’s goal of store designs that are built using 100% circular economy materials.”

Image...

Construction Update: AIM has completed its transformation of Shanghai's Kailong Jiajie Plaza

2021-08-30T14:41:00-04:00

A startling transformation of a former Shanghai shopping mall expected to pump new life into a centuries-old district that has played a seminal role in the history and development of the city is ready to be unveiled thanks to the work of one local firm.

AIM Architecture has completed work on its transformed Kailong Jiajie Plaza in Shanghai’s storied Hongkou district into a sustainable vision of vertical public space, partly inspired by the terraced mountain landscapes of rural China. The revamp will activate the disused structure as it refreshes the area with greenery and brightness benefitting both city and community as the building itself transitions into the 21st century.

Image courtesy Dirk Weiblen/AIM Architecture

Per the architect: “With this project, we look at regeneration with fresh eyes. We open up the building, not only on the façade but also at its heart, the interior courtyard. We enhance the district’s vibrancy, create a stronger connection to the community, and discov...

World's largest astronomy museum opens in Shanghai with an interstellar design from Ennead

2021-07-12T19:42:00-04:00

A cosmic new museum is bringing out the stars in Shanghai thanks to a celestial design from Ennead.

The Shanghai Astronomy Museum opens this weekend following a five-year construction process that left client Shanghai Science and Technology Museum with a new outpost in the heart of the city’s burgeoning Lingang district.

Photo: ArchExists.

The New York-based firm’s plans for the 420,000-square-foot museum won an international competition in 2014 for its tripartite scheme comprised of a planetarium, IMAX theater, exhibitions spaces, and a new 78-foot-tall solar telescope that will make the research center the largest of its kind anywhere in the world.

Photo: ArchExists.

Sun, moon, and stars come together to make a smart reference to the three-body problem of mathematics. The curvilinear structure of the museum is meant as a reflection of the orbit of the planets themselves. The planetarium’s profile is choreographed to look like a moonrise. Heaven an...

'Future Proof': MVRDV's design for a new R&D headquarters in Shanghai

2021-07-02T18:35:00-04:00

Plans for Shanghai’s latest corporate project have been unveiled this week, adding a giant allusion to food production in the form of a swirling tree-covered building that will add a rural feel to the city’s rapidly growing Lingang section.

MVDRV’s design for Lankuaikei Agricultural Development’s headquarters took its influence from the wave-like terraced rice fields that dot the Chinese countryside. Its stepped facade terrace is covered by a permeable solar panel roof that provides shading and ventilation for the 11-story “sustainability machine.”

Image: © MVRDV

The terrace spaces form a walkable park-like route to the building’s top reminiscent of Bjarke Ingels’s design for the 8 House in Copenhagen. The wood-clad walkways will have ample shaded areas and are covered in trees and exhibition spaces for the company’s research and development wing headquartered within the nearly 19.000 square meter structure. The roof’s design allows for it to capture rainwater, adding to sunlight-...

OPEN completes new library/theater hybrid building for an international school in Shanghai

2021-01-21T13:02:00-05:00

As part of its work on the Shanhai Qinpu Pinghe International School, OPEN Architecture has completed the Pinghe Bibliotheater, a library/theater hybrid building that invites students into a free-flowing space of both learning and performance.

Photos by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

"When we were given the extensive and jumbled-together program of a new school for 2000 students aged from 3 to 18 years, the immediate reaction was how dreadful it would be for a kid spending these many years fixed in one building," said the architects in a statement. "We decided to break away from the current trend of school-as-megastructure. Instead, the original program was deconstructed and grouped into many smaller and distinctive buildings, forming a village-like campus."

Photo by Jonathan Leijonhufvud.

Photo by WU Qingshan.

The Bibliotheater is just one of the many structures that will make up the new school. The different programs interlock like a "Chinese puzzle," creating a singular massing that is con...

Giant building gets moved by army of robots in Shanghai

2020-10-28T12:25:00-04:00

On October 15, 2020 Chinese workers relocated an old building in Shanghai using an innovative "walking" method. The Lagena Primary School which was built in 1935 needed to move to a new location. The team in Shanghai lifted the entire structure atop an army of robots and moved it "step by step" to its new home. See the video below: