Design references waterfront site’s maritime history

OMA has been appointed to design an exhibition centre on the waterfront in Shanghai.

The Lujiazui Exhibition Centre will be built on the ramp of a former ship cradle in the old Shanghai Shipyard.

It is located in Pudong, on the northern bank of the Huangpu River, one of the most photographed waterfronts in the world.

The site in China will provide a concentrated event space within the surrounding financial district.

OMA conceived it as a “spatial armature,” suspended above a plaza and connected to another exhibition space beneath the ramp.

The new volume transforms the existing ramp into a large-scale theatrical space for events while the covered plaza under the elevated box can be used for more intimate events.

A statement from the architect, founded by Rem Koolhaas, said: “The building’s materiality and architecture establish a dialogue with the site’s industrial past: a mysterious object wrapped in a metallic mesh exposes its steel structure, echoing the unfinished ship hulls which used to populate the site.”

The exhibition centre is expected to open at the end of 2015.

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This story first appeared on Building Design here.

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