A former cement plant on Shanghai’s West Bund is being transformed into a compact cultural and leisure district. The project retains the industrial shells as primary spatial figures, threads the site with extroverted circulation in a single, legible color, and completes unfinished volumes as a subdued urban fabric. Programmatic density and a calibrated landscape engage the riverside, turning once-internal production logics into public routes, platforms, and rooms.
GATE M West Bund Dream Center Technical Information
- Architects1-12: MVRDV,
- Location: West Bund, Shanghai, China
- Gross Area: 45,000 m2 | 484,376 Sq. Ft.
- Project Years: 2021 – 2025
- Photographs: © Xia Zhi, © Liu Guowei, © Tian Fangfang, © Sanqian Visual Image Art
It was clear from the start that there was a lot of value leftover in the buildings that were already there. We didn’t want to demolish things just because it might be simpler, because that means more carbon, more waste. Our challenge was to bring these pieces together and make them work as a single area, because they were an awkward pairing. We turned the newer buildings into the backdrop, so that the industrial behemoths could be the exclamation points, with exciting functions that capitalise on their special structural features.
– Jacob van Rijs
GATE M West Bund Dream Center Photographs
Adaptive Reuse as Urban Strategy
Retaining the former factory hall and silos establishes a clear hierarchy in which robust concrete shells act as anchors for the entire precinct. Their mass, thermal inertia, and distinctive geometries are preserved rather than replaced, reducing demolition waste and embodied carbon while leveraging the spatial latitude that these oversized volumes provide. Selective incisions open the shells to light and access, yet the reading of the original industrial figures remains legible from multiple approaches.
Surrounding structures, including incomplete frames from a stalled development phase, are treated as a composite urban fabric. Rather than competing formally with the industrial artifacts, these volumes are regularized and quieted, their elevations simplified to a restrained palette and planar rhythm. Green roofs and improved envelopes enhance environmental performance, moderating heat gain and contributing to stormwater management, while positioning the historic structures as the primary points of orientation within a cohesive plan.
Circulation as Identity and Urban Legibility
External stairs and lift towers, articulated in a single saturated hue, stitch the disparate buildings into one navigable ensemble. Circulation is not concealed but projected outward, moving the principal wayfinding device and a public invitation. The color strategy compresses signage, orientation, and program cues into a clear system that can be read at the scale of the waterfront and at the scale of a balcony threshold.
Former conveyor routes are reinterpreted as primary stairways, converting industrial logistics into public promenades that reveal the site’s layers. These routes choreograph a sequence from ground to roof, tightening and releasing views as they pass between shells and across voids. Vertical segments culminate in balconies and roof platforms that extend the public realm upward, linking events within the halls to long views across the Huangpu and reciprocal vistas back into the site.
Typological Transformations and Programmatic Mix
The large factory hall is reconfigured around two complementary strata. A porous lower level features an open market and dining area, with multiple entry points and cross-passages that maintain permeability between the streets and the river edge. Above, a column-free upper level accommodates exhibitions, conferences, and performances, exploiting the span and height inherited from industrial production. Services and technical grids are organized in accordance with the structural rhythm, enabling rapid reprogramming without compromising the clarity of the volume.
Silo interiors are adapted as recreational chambers for climbing, with the cylindrical geometry offering varied wall profiles and heights. Externally, paths trace the shells, registering interior activity and lending the silos a civic presence without disrupting their sculptural mass. Completed infill blocks provide retail, hospitality, and terraces that activate edges throughout the day, allowing the industrial cores to function as shared infrastructure for a broader neighborhood program.
Riverfront Interface and Public Realm Strategy
A landscape framework aligns plazas, terraces, and planted roofs to mediate between the monumental structures and the riverbank. Hard and soft surfaces are tuned to program intensity, with shaded courts and tree canopies shaping microclimates suitable for long dwell times in Shanghai’s summers. Drainage and planting systems are integrated into the topography, using subtle level changes to guide flows, define thresholds, and support maintenance of high-use areas.
The master plan secures pedestrian continuity along the West Bund by pairing active uses, such as skating and climbing, with quieter seating at the water’s edge. Building orientations and setbacks frame oblique river views, while forming sheltered courtyards that are protected from prevailing winds. In this arrangement, the industrial frames operate as civic landmarks rather than isolated relics, their gaps and spans now calibrated to hold public life at multiple scales, from intimate recesses to event-sized forecourts.
GATE M West Bund Dream Center Plans
GATE M West Bund Dream Center Image Gallery
About MVRDV
Founded in 1993 and based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, MVRDV is an internationally renowned architecture and urban design studio known for its innovative and sustainable approach. The firm embraces a data-driven and collaborative design process, integrating social and environmental objectives into bold architectural statements. Their projects frequently explore adaptive reuse, urban regeneration, and public engagement, transforming existing structures and spaces into dynamic environments for contemporary urban life.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Client: Hua Zhi Men Capital
- Founding Partner in charge: Jacob van Rijs
- Partner: Wenchian Shi Design
- Team: Kyo Suk Lee, Peter Chang, Sredej Bunnag, Luca Xu, Shanshan Wu, Yunxi Guo, Albert Parfonov, Amanda Galiana Ortega, Americo Iannazzone, Dorota Kaczmarek, Echo Zhai, Edvan Ardianto, Haocheng Yang, Jiameng Li, Jiani You, Kevin Zhao, Kristina Knauf, Meng Yang, Ming Kong, Martin Chen, Sen Yang, Shushen Zhang, Siyi Pan, Steven Smit, Tanja Dubbelaar, Xiaoliang Yu, Yayun Liu, Yihong Chen, Evan O’Sullivan, Peilu Chen
- Visualisations: Antonio Luca Coco, Jaroslaw Jeda, Luca Piattelli, Marco Fabri, Stefania Trozzi
- Director MVRDV Shanghai: Peter Chang
- Co-architect: AISA
- Landscape designers: Field Operations
- Structural engineers: ARUP, AISA
- Façade consultants: RFR
- Interior architects: CL3, Xu Studio
- Lighting design: RDI
