OMA, in collaboration with local architects ECADI and landscape architects West 8, has developed a new mixed-use masterplan for Columbia Circle in the center of Shanghai. Layered with rich history, the site contains preserved colonial monuments, former industrial buildings and 1920’s country club buildings by architect Elliott Hazzard – these elements will be renewed and transformed by the master plan to return Columbia Circle into one of Shanghai’s most prominent public spaces.
Among the existing buildings on the 4.7 hectare site is the Columbia Country Club, designed by Hazzard for the prewar American elite society and including a clubhouse, gym and outdoor pool. Also on site are a villa designed by Hungarian architect László Hudec in 1930, three Spanish Colonial Revival Style monuments and nearly 40 additional structures built between 1950 and 2000, creating an eclectic mix of program and styles.
In 1952, Shanghai Institute of Biological Products took over the area, turning the square into a research campus with offices, production facilities, warehouses and laboratories. Since SIOBP ceased activities on the campus, the site has laid dormant, waiting to be rediscovered and repurposed with a project deserving of its architectural potential.
OMA’s strategy will renew the existing structures as well as introduce three new buildings into the site, extending the repertoire of spaces even further and offering new programmatic possibilities the current historical buildings are unable to offer. Creative office space, a hotel, event spaces, cultural venues, retail spaces, restaurants and outdoor spaces designed by West 8 will be distributed throughout, creating an enlivened pedestrian experience. Two new while two new access points will punch through to the main circulation arteries of the neighborhood, improving accessibility to the site.
The project represents OMA’s second effort in Shanghai, following the completion of the Shanghai Lujiazui Harbour City Exhibition Centre earlier this year. The Columbia Circle project also expands the firm’s portfolio of preservation projects, which includes the regeneration of industrial site Largo Isarco for the establishment of cultural venue Fondazione Prada (Milan, 2015); the redevelopment of a Soviet canteen in Garage Gorky Park into Garage Center of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2015); the renovation of Fondaco dei Tedeschi (Venice, 2016); and the redesign of former coal mine Zeche Zollverein (Essen, 2007) into a museum and visitor’s center.
News via OMA.
Architects
Location
Shanghai, ChinaPartner
Chris van DuijnProject Architect
Mark VeldmanCompetition Team
Mayssane El Barkani, Danna Lei, Davide Masserini, Francesco Moncada, Lukasz Skalec, Dongmei Yao, William Qian, Ronald Yeung, Yushang Zhang, Zheng Zhou, Emile EstourgieDesign Development Team
Maria Aller Rey, Macaulay Brown, Kees van Casteren, Aleksandar Joksimovic, Lei Li, Emma Lubbers, Cristina Martin de Juan, Davide Masserini, Francesco Moncada, Tjeerd van de Sandt, Shinji Takagi, Ronald Yeung, Dongmei Yao, Long Yu, Yushang ZhangInterior Design Team
MacAulay Brown, Aleksandar Joksimovic, Silvia Sandor, Jim Shi, Yushang ZhangLocal Architect
East China Architectural Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd (ECADI)Landscape
West 8Client
China Vanke Co.LtdStatus
Design DevelopmentProgram
Mixed UseArea
48000.0 m2Photographs
Frans Parthesius, Courtesy of OMAArchitects
