The inau­gu­ra­tion cer­e­mony of the water­front on the Huangpu River could hardly have been more spec­tac­u­lar. To coin­cide with its open­ing on 31st Decem­ber 2018, there was snow­fall in Shang­hai, the rare white blan­ket pro­vid­ing an extra touch of gloss to this freshly land­scaped park – much to the delight of the res­i­dents in the Chi­nese metrop­o­lis. Using Olivio system lumi­naires, the reserved light­ing sets visual accents, while at the same time turn­ing the water­front into an entic­ing space for adven­ture and relax­ation, both by day and night.

The goal was to find the best way to revi­talise the east­ern water­front along the Huangpu River. The vision for the water­front between the Yangpu Bridge in the North of Shang­hai and the Xupu Bridge in the south, 45 km long in total, was to create a ver­sa­tile, sus­tain­able public green­space that remains attrac­tive what­ever the season. Impor­tant objec­tives of its usage con­cept were to fur­ther the health and well-being of cit­i­zens and enrich their lives by offer­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for sport, games and simply sojourn­ing in the fresh air.

client: City Council Shanghai

architect: Arcplus Group PLC, Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co., Ltd.

landscape architect: Shanghai Urban Planning and Design Research Insititute

design: WEST 8 urban design & landscape architecture

photographer: Zilu Wang