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Architects: Scenic Architecture Office
- Area: 87109 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Runzi Zhu, Shengliang Su
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Architectural Design: Yanwen Qiu, Bin He, Shan Wang, Yiwei Liu, Yang Yang, Yongxin Pei, Lei Chen
Text description provided by the architects. The Pudong Culture Community, planned as a culture hub in Shanghai, will become a new destination for cultural activities in Pudong New District. Located in the middle block of the Culture Community, the site of the Youth and Children’s Center and the Public Culture and Art Center is divided by a river into a larger eastern part and a smaller western part.
At the northern block of the Culture Community stands the existing Pudong Library; the Pudong Planning Museum and City Art Center (designed by David Chipperfield Architects) will be built in the southern block. These three blocks will not only be connected below ground but also be integrated into a common landscape containing other public facilities, such as metro plazas and reading gardens.
To respond to both the outer urban space and the inner functional needs of the project, we designed a multistoried space articulated through interactive platforms. “Boxes” in different scales are scattered on these platforms and host the various operations—auditoriums, galleries, activity rooms, lobbies, and café and canteen, among others.
The platforms compose the two interlocked courtyard structures. The auditorium (with a seating capacity of 1,000) and the Art Center sit on the west ring connected to the metro plaza, while the Children’s Center is located at the east ring, which is surrounded by open greenery. By overlapping and linking with each other, the platforms stimulate interactions across the different areas. The garden platform, which spans across the river links two lobbies on either side and is the spine of public flow.
With various indoor and outdoor spaces on the platforms on the second to the fourth floor, the design frees up ground space, thereby creating an open zone between the library and the Pudong Planning Museum. This forms a pedestrian hub for the entire cultural community.
The Pudong Culture Community responds to the environment and function with a two-pronged concept: the large holistic platforms reciprocate the urban scale, while the “scattered boxes” engage the more intimate scale of individual users. The Center combines these two scales to not only provide enjoyable spaces for the daily use of the building but also to convene with the environment in presenting a dynamic public stage for urban life.
