Shanghai: The Latest Architecture and News

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After last week’s check in on Heatherwick Studio’s 1000 Trees project in Shanghai by #donotsettle, the firm itself has released additional images and a video of its construction progress.

The 300,000-square-meter development is located 20 minutes from downtown Shanghai next to the M50 arts district, taking the form of two “tree-covered mountains.” As the name suggests, the design will feature concrete structural columns that widen at the top to create large planters for 1000 trees. The video captures the building in its half-completed status, showing how it will interacts with its surroundings and the adjacent Wusong (Suzhou) River.

gmp Architeckten (von Gerkan, Marg and Partners) has revealed their competition-winning design for a 150 meter-tall glass tower at the new global headquarters . Located across from the former Expo site on the banks of the Huangpu River, the tower features a vertically structured glass facade offering expansive views and reflecting its impressive surroundings back towards visitors to the site.

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In #donotsettle’s latest video, architects and vlogging provocateurs Wahyu Pratomo and Kris Provoost provide breathtaking footage of one of Shanghai’s most curious projects, M50. The 300,000-square-meter Heatherwick Studio building is an undulating mass of mixed use urban topography.

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David Chipperfield Architects has revealed the design of the newest home of the Centre Pompidou, the West Bund Art Museum in Shanghai. The Parisian institution revealed the details with the announcement of a 5-year deal with the West Bund Group to stage exhibitions in the museum beginning in 2019. Approximately 20 exhibitions – including a focus on contemporary Chinese art – will be included in the deal, described by the Centre Pompidou as "the most important long-term cultural exchange project” between France and China.

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#donotsettle is an online video project created by Wahyu Pratomo and Kris Provoost about architecture and the way it is perceived by its users. Having published a number of videos on ArchDaily over the past two years, Pratomo and Provoost are now launching an exclusive column, “#donotsettle extra,” which will accompany some of their #donotsettle videos with in-depth textual analysis of the buildings they visit.

After a stop in Doha to visit IM Pei’s Museum of Islamic Art, and a peek inside MVRDV’s house office in Rotterdam, we are bringing you to Shanghai for our 3rd #donotsettle Extra column. Last week we visited OMA’s first project in Shanghai, the Lujiazui Exhibition Centre, and had the privilege to get a sneak preview before it opens to the public in the next months. Please tag along!

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Located in central Shanghai, this multifunctional arts and culture complex is part of the Bund Finance Centre – a joint project between London-based practices Heatherwick Studio and Foster+Partners. Sitting between the old town and the new financial district, this new space combines exhibition and events spaces with a performance venue inspired, according to the architects, "by the open stages of traditional Chinese theatres." Of most visual interest is the building's mechanical "moving veil," captured here by photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu.

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In #donotsettle’s latest escapade, architect Kris Provoost scrutinizes Perkins+Will’s Shanghai Natural History Museum. The boyishly charming and ever-inquisitive vlogger presents a unique POV tour of the unusual building situated in the middle of the Jing'an Sculpture Park.

Over a soundtrack of slick house music, Provoost offers up tidbits that cannot be gleaned from a photo. As he approaches the structure, he points out topographical aspects, the relationship of the structure to its context, and various construction details. The rapid-fire architectural observations are often punctuated by brief cross-sectional sketches that augment the experiential commentary.