Ben van Berkel / UNStudio, Netherlands

Design incorporates elements of ‘old Shanghai’ through geometry.. - Vol.36(8), August - New Delhi Burda Media India Private Limited 2019 - 74-84p.

The project, located in the Putuo district in central Shanghai—opposite Chang Shou Park and close to the Jade Buddha Temple—is designed to provide a lifestyle destination for Shanghai’s young professionals. It combines retail, restaurant and office spaces in an organisation that rearranges the typical mall into a vertical city centre that provides opportunities for shopping, strolling, eating, gathering and resting. The design incorporates elements of ‘old Shanghai’ through geometry, pattern and materialisation and combines these with a contemporary urban experience, thereby creating a destination with a distinctly Shanghai feel.

The existing qualities of the immediate urban surroundings, which include small-scale restaurants and boutique stores are reflected in the building where they are stacked vertically to populate the envelope with programmatic destinations that can be seen from street level. Inside, street life qualities are mixed with lifestyle retail features distributed throughout the building to enable the facade to show the inside qualities of the mall. The organisation of the building encourages the visitor to stroll through and explore the different levels of the complex.


URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN (AR-UPD)