Panyu Road District Reconstruction | Xu und Partner

This project is located in Changning District, Shanghai. In the past, it was a factory area of Shanghai Rubber Research Institute. The site located between Panyu Road and Xingfu Road is near Fahuazhen Road and adjacent to Shanghai Film Art Center, 5 minutes walking distance to metro line 10. Along with removal of the factory, this densely populated area having convenient traffic and mature commercial environment was expected to be changed into a multifunctional space hosting commercial retail, cultural and innovative offices.

It began with removal of the factory wall. Being a part of the urban space, the site was planned to be an open district. The longish central courtyard in East-West direction was to be changed to an urban pedestrian lane, which connects Panyu Road and Xingfu Road and thus enriches the pedestrian network of this area. This pedestrian lane is 150m long and 10m wide with ca. 15m high buildings on both sides. Its rectilinear spatial image is explicitly underlined by the concept, in which this ‘negative zone’ embraced by its surrounding buildings is treated as a courtyard, forming a pedestrian area as well as an ‘urban living room’. Its character of being half public and half private enriches the conventional definition of an urban open space.