Huangpu River stretches 113 kilometres across the urban realm of Shanghai and separates the city into two parts. Urban life is and has always been connected with the river and its banks. However, the riverfront has been generally used for trade, commerce and industry, and was thus inaccessible to many. So, what happened to the banks after the redevelopment of the historical promenade The Bund, and after the World Expo 2010 – two correlated projects that aimed at opening up Shanghai’s waterfront to the public? In one of the fastest-growing cities in the world the only answer is: a great deal.
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The Huangpu River has always been the lifeline of the Chinese metropolis Shanghai, with its almost 30 million inhabitants. The river is 113 kilometres long and grows to a width of almost 800 metres before it flows into the Yangtze. In the city, the river’s large loops separate the seven western inner-city districts (Puxi) from the Pudong District, which occupies the entire eastern bank of the river. The high bridges of the various motorway rings dominate the city and various road and metro tunnels connect both banks, while those on foot can use the more leisurely ferries. Since the foundation of the city, the banks of the river, as is often the case elsewhere, have been generally used for trade, commerce and industry, and were thus inaccessible to those who did not work there. The legendary Bund, i.e. the riverside promenade in front of the British colonial quarter’s representative buildings, was the only exception to this. After the establishment of the Pudong Special Economic Zone in 1990, the Central Business District (CBD) was created in the Lujiazui District on the opposite bank, with its illuminated night-time skyscrapers that characterise the iconic image of today’s Shanghai.
The river is 113 kilometres long and grows to a width of almost 800 metres before it flows into the Yangtze
The opening of China to the West was also associated with a radical change in the country’s own economy. China experienced a tertiarisation of its industry, and previous production plants quickly became wastelands. This post-industrial structural change has been particularly visible on the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. Expo 2000, which took place across extensive areas on both sides of the river south of the city centre, was the clearest expression of the fact that redesigning the banks of the Huangpu was a new challenge. The question became all the more pressing as the World Expo closed its doors. What to do with the former Expo areas? And what to do with the areas along the riverbanks throughout the city that were previously used for industry? Thus, improved flood protection and the management of brownfield sites became current issues, and the objective was to ultimately redesign and reprogramme the zones adjacent to the river. An important figure in this context was Sun Jiwei, a politician who was trained as an architect at Tongji University, and who had previously promoted contemporary architecture in the satellite cities of Qingpu and Jiading. He promoted the idea of transforming the unused area around the first commercial airport south of the city centre (Longhua Airport, which opened in 1917) into an art district. This resulted in the West Bund Cultural Corridor, which consists of museums, galleries and exhibition halls. One of Sun’s coups was to persuade collectors from the Long Museum in Pudong to build a branch at the West Bund and to then put them in contact with Atelier Deshaus, which was founded in 2001 as one of the first private architectural firms in China. The architects used an existing underground car park that belonged to a failed construction project as a foundation, and built the museum building on top of it, integrating a number of historic coal bunkers in the process. In 2015, one year after the opening of the Long Museum, the Shanghai Urban Space Art Season (SUSAS) took place for the first time, and is now held every two years. This biennial for art and public space wanders through the city and consists of a main exhibition site, a reference area and various satellite exhibitions. The theme for 2015 was the management of old industrial sites, which is evidence of the interest in industrial heritage that is gradually emerging after an era of tabula rasa. Atelier Deshaus’ biggest contribution was a conversion of the threatened Laobaidu coal bunker on the eastern bank of the Huangpu into an exhibition space that has since been used by the newly founded Modern Art Museum Shanghai, and which was integrated into the new design of the river bank by YiYu Design in 2017. This was the same year Atelier Deshaus also devoted itself to the granaries of Minsheng Wharf a few kilometres downstream in Pudong, which had long dominated the riverbank. Through the use of a cascading glass staircase, the architects made the top floor accessible as an exhibition space for the SUSAS 2017 – although after the end of the event it was (and still is) unclear what will happen to the location. In the meanwhile, the Pudong District took the initiative of launching a competition for the redevelopment of the eastern banks of the Huangpu River – 22 kilometres, stretching from the inner ring’s Yang Pu Bridge in the north to the outer ring’s Xu Pu Bridge in the south. In 2016, Agence Ter won the master plan, which was based on binding basic principles to ensure the riverbank parks were designed in a uniform manner, yet allowed for each section to have its own character. A common element, not only on the so-called East Bund but also on the western side of the river, (a total of 45 kilometres of riverbank) is formed by a trio of footpaths, bicycle paths and jogging tracks. These sometimes run together, but split up when necessary according to the different speeds of movement – and have to cross the channels and tributaries flowing into the Huangpu again and again by means of bridges. Further aspects of Agence Ter’s master plan included the covering of the flood protection wall by a designed, partially terraced landscape, distinct vegetation zones – low towards the river to keep the view clear, higher towards the land on the other side – and finally the accentuation of the route by towers every kilometre that are illuminated at night. After winning the competition in 2016, the 22 kilometres were split up between a number of teams. Agence Ter’s projects included the Park of the Cement Factory in the far south, the waterfront in front of the former Expo site and the waterfront at the Lujiazui CBD. Further downstream, West 8 took over – with ornamental paving and large amoeba-like planting troughs lined with benches. At Minsheng Yard, in front of the silos converted by Atelier Deshaus, the baton was passed to Atelier Liu Yuyang Architects (ALYA). The paths here thread their way through the substructure of the loading bridges, and continue their way in the form of a circular crossing over a small side harbour. The redesign of the eastern riverbanks ends just beyond the bright red Yang Pu Bridge in a park created by the Design Land Cooperative (DLC). Walking along the riverside parks, pavilion-like buildings that have not yet found a use are a common sight. According to local regulations, five per cent of the riverbank may be built on, while another regulation prevents their being used commercially. So here, as elsewhere in Shanghai, you search in vain for riverside cafés; the only things available are from vending machines at the entrances of the parks or in some small buildings.
The Huangpu River has always been the lifeline of the Chinese metropolis Shanghai, with its almost 30 million inhabitants
Kuo Yi-Fong, a partner at ALYA, is waiting for us at Minsheng Wharf. She talks about the difficulties in planning, i.e. parts of the land belong to the city, others to the district, and the area directly along the river is also under the jurisdiction of the state. And time pressure was enormous: A mere two years passed between the start of planning in 2016 and the completion of the East Bund’s 22-kilometre-long riverbank zone. But in China, says Kuo laconically, you always have just one opportunity. All in all, the situation for independent architecture firms in China is much more difficult at present than it was a few years ago, according to Atelier Deshaus, and they have therefore joined forces in a collaborative called AnAlliance with ALYA, Atelier Z+ and other planners in order to increase their clout. AnAlliance was then involved in the redevelopment of the opposing riverbank to the west in Yangpu County, the reference area for SUSAS 2019, where the industrialisation of the city began in the colonial era: Shipyards, factories and power plants once lined the riverbank. The main exhibition site in 2019 was an old warehouse in the middle of the area where Shanghai’s industrial development began. On the way downriver from the historic Bund via the Hongkou district, one passes the former dry docks of the Shanghai Shipyards and the Yangshupu Waterworks, a picturesque ensemble of buildings with towers, battlements and orientalised lancet windows built in 1883 by the British architect J. W. Hart. An additional 2.7 kilometres of riverfront east of the Yang Pu Bridge was opened together with SUSAS at the end of September 2019. New parks have been created here, and historic port facilities and factories embellished, sometimes with an excess of creative ambition. A certain degree of “over-design” is typical of Chinese landscape architecture, and while investing in landscape architecture here is certainly a good thing, as is concern for human and financial resources – this concern has a completely different status in Asia, and design sometimes appears to be overly orchestrated. Kuo Yi-Fong points to a park with simple grasses designed by ALYA – it took an enormous effort to implement this simple planting, because it is not generally perceived as being beautiful here. Under the leadership of Zhang Ming, the deputy head of the Department of Architecture at Tongji University, a number of landscape architects and architects were involved in the latest SUSAS projects. Although the hinterland remains tabula rasa, Shanghai is still reflecting on its industrial heritage. The Green Building, a stepped concrete structure that was part of a former tobacco warehouse, has been planted and was one of the attractions of SUSAS 2019, and port cranes, industrial halls, and the pipelines of a former soap factory now converted into a café are also passed on the way downstream. Not too far from here is the Riverside Passage, the ninth project of Atelier Deshaus on the banks of the Huangpu River. It is based on a long concrete wall, the relic of a former coal storage facility. The newly installed viewing gallery is covered by a steel mono-pitch roof that rests on the top of the wall by means of filigree supports, sloping down towards the back to provide protection for a second passage located directly on the platform at the rear. Two different spaces with two different views – one of the spontaneous vegetation in back of the wall and one of the river in front of it – have been created. The local authorities actually wanted to tear down this relic, but on the initiative of Atelier Deshaus it was preserved, and in the end it was unofficially included in SUSA’s programme. It is probably the most poetic, subtle and least intrusive project along this section of the riverbank.
When we think of a metropolis, we think of bustling streets. By the time I write this article, however, the coronavirus is emptying these streets in Shanghai and Milan. This is creating the ultimate cultural shock.
Some time ago I wrote a column for topos called “From the Edges”. I was living in Mexico back then, and the idea was to comment on urban phenomena created not in the classic urban centres of global commerce and culture, but in the new metropolises growing rapidly in Latin America and East Asia. Now, as my colleague Anja asked me to come up with a new column, I decided to develop a new, edge-seeking perspective. I want to search for “edgy” phenomena taking place either in all our cities or in any one of them. Phenomena that take the urban sphere to its extreme, that challenge what it “means” to be a city.
The term “Edge City” is, of course, borrowed from Joel Garreau. Back in the early 1990s he found what was then a new urban reality – city-like structures that were not a part of traditional city centres, i.e. a concentration of entertainment and commerce without residential areas. Suburbia 2.0! Garreau’s “edge cities” were a phenomenon of the 20th century. It was entirely suitable then that one of those strange places was called “Century City”. Now, in the 21st century, urban reality has evolved. The city of today is less static, but permanently in danger of losing its own identity – for better or worse. For instance, the 20th century metropolis (or our idea of it) was one that always bustled with activity. But look at the reports from Shanghai or Milan these days: Shanghai has been a wasteland for weeks, and now Milan, this European vision of an urban realm defined by fashion and beauty, is following suit. The coronavirus is dancing on the catwalk of fear. Emptiness and the urban sphere – this is a relationship that brings up the question of what cities essentially are. Of course, Shanghai and Milan are not empty. The streets are empty, but the buildings are not. The outside is seen as a danger, however. The people next to me are a threat. Not because they might be criminals, but because they might be carrying a virus that some see as the beginning of the end of the sustainability of our globalised metropolitan lifestyles, at least for now.
The empty Shanghai streets are the flipside of another Chinese emptiness phenomenon that has recently been written about by the China experts Christian Sorace and William Hurst: “phantom urbanization”. With this term they are referring to urban structures China is currently building from scratch – without anybody actually (yet) living in them. City facades without people, without urban life, sometimes empty for years. Will the people eventually come? This is speculation. “China’s urbanization of land and creation of
infrastructure often far outpace the urbanization of its people,” write Sorace and Hurst (2016: 305). And, “Without the myth of future waves of rural migrants who will some day by some unspecified means be able to afford new urban housing, what remains is the proliferation of urban forms divorced from urban practice and uses. Ghost cities are the extreme pathological expression of this syndrome of phantom urbanization.” For the authors, the emptiness of these urban shells is not just a case of bad planning. Rather, they identify urbanisation as a metaphor for social and economic pro-gress. This progress needs strong symbols to be maintained, and building new cities is this symbol, even if the shell cities are not actually in use. There is, China seems to think, an aesthetic value in the framework of urban economic activity that has the capacity to produce this activity in the first place.
But then, there are writers – academics like Sorace and Hurst, as well as reporters who are as equally fascinated and appalled by the empty houses. They tell a story very different from the one envisioned by the Chinese decision-makers. And they tell a different story now, in corona-hit Shanghai, too. It is still an urban story, the story of the dangers of the urban sphere, and of the vulnerability of urbanisation as we understand it. This story has, in a way, always existed. It has always fascinated creatives, particularly film makers. Think of the TV show “The Walking Dead”. Think of the empty London Danny Boyle presented in 2002 in “28 Days later”. Or think of George Romero’s zombies taking over downtown Pittsburgh in “Land of the Dead” (2005). For Romero, the city is a place for zombies, and these are not mere “monsters”, but a representation of the excluded, the poor, the migrants. The rich (the living) have fled to the countryside. This reminds us of the drug-deserted Manhattan of the 1980s, from which suburbia – and the edge city – promised safe havens. We have overcome this, however. For us, good cities are now those that allow for encounters of all kinds. And good city management in the face of disasters like the coronavirus means finding new ways of maintaining urban life. From this perspective, the empty streets of Shanghai are the ultimate failure of catastrophe management, the definite corona-induced culture shock, and thereby the creators of a new, temporary “pathology of ghost cities”, in the sense of Sorace and Hurst. Let us hope that we find ways to refill the streets soon, and that corona in general creates learning processes to better prepare us for such counter-urban epidemics in the future.
This article can be found in topos 110.
The Shanghai Tower is an impressive icon of China’s booming economy. Standing 632 metres tall, the futuristic building claims the record for the second highest skyscraper in the world. But not only the dimensions are notable, the building also sets new standards in terms of sustainability for such tall structures. Especially the Shanghai Tower Park, designed by the SWA Group, provides a lot of green features. It recently was awarded the LEED-Gold label for its layout.
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Tower with Environmental Awareness
The Shanghai Tower has many characteristics that are beneficial to the environment. Through its curved design, the structure reduces the area which is exposed to wind, reducing the need of building materials. The roof and façade are collecting rainwater which can be used for air conditioning and heating. On the top of the tower, wind turbines are installed, providing energy for the building. The highlight of the Shanghai Tower is its double-walled glass-façade which works like a thermos flask and saves energy. The shell also got certified with the LEED-Platinum label.
Similarly Ambitious Tower Park
The Shanghai Tower Park does not need to hide behind its eponym. Despite the huge footstep of the building and a big amount of hardscape involved, the architects of the SWA Group managed to create a space with 33 per cent green cover which is required for a LEED-Gold certification. The park is designed to provide a variety of settings for public gatherings and connects the mixed-use project with its urban neighbourhood. Features include an event-centre roof garden and a sunken garden with a bamboo island within a water pool. Little siblings of the Shanghai Tower park can also be found in the tower itself: dramatic sky gardens, implemented into the double-walled glass-façade, repeat plantings in a vertical pattern.
Click here for more SWA projects.
China’s agricultural sector is suffering from its vast growing cities. In the last 20 years, around 123,000 square kilometres of farmland were lost to urbanization. In addition to the sealing, soil pollution is a major problem in the surrounding countryside of metropolises. In Shanghai, China’s biggest city, the administration encourages the production of food within the city borders to deal with the problem. One of the future places for producing agricultural goods is the Sunquiao Urban Agricultural District, which was designed by the renown architects of Sasaki Associates.
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Vertical Farming System
The Idea behind the innovative approach is quite simple: Why not go vertical to encounter high land prices – even with the agricultural production? Beside greenhouses for multi-storey farming, the design also consists of a water treatment system, a centre for education and recreational facilities to improve the environmental awareness. The output of the greenhouses will mainly consist of kale, spinach and lettuce, which are the preferred local food. The plants grow along looped rails, which will rotate to provide an even distribution of sunlight from the glass roof.
Awarded Design
The American architects of Sasaki Associates recently won the top award in the urban planning category of the PLAN Awards for its innovative design. Not only could they convince the jury by their natural approach but also by the consideration of Chinese lifestyle and cuisine. With the centre of education and a museum, the concept encourages visitor participation. The construction of Sunquiao Urban Agricultural District will begin in late 2017. The site is located between Shanghai downtown and the Pudong International Airport.
