Art Crossing

Today, the Chinese government aims to transform Shanghai into a global city. To do so, the Shanghai municipality has established urban cultural policies. The M50 creative cluster is one of the symbols of this urban policy in the city. Located in the old Zhabei district, this creative cluster is by its geographical position and its particularities marks the beginning of my project reflection.
Indeed, located in an arm of the Suzhou River, this artistic space is difficult to access because it is cut off from the rest of the district by major urban infrastructures.  Thus, the car has become the main element of the global city landscape. The challenge of the project is to link the two facets of the city: the global metropolis which is programmed by a political will and the city lived and practiced by the population of the district. Indeed, the Shanghai people have a very particular relationship with the street and the public space.
The project is designed as a horizontal infrastructure that develops on several layers allowing to link the three main poles of the district: Shanghai Railway Station, Suzhou River and the M50. This new urban link will create new physical and social links in the district. It will be installed and connected to the existing infrastructures and will offer new activities and functions to the district. Generating new urbanities, it induces the transformation of the district and participates in the regeneration of the river banks. As a carrier of new mobility in a city full of infrastructure, it places the pedestrian at the center of the district and the urban space. It then becomes the support of the propagation of art in the city, or of the city itself as a work of art.