Shanghai Masterplan

No city has gone through a more extreme period of growth and change in the last two decades than Shanghai. In that time it has gone from a city of low rise buildings and densely packed housing, crowded behind the historic European classical buildings of the Bund, to the skyscraper-studded skyline of the present.

The city authorities identified the Pudong area as a new financial district. The mayor authorised the removal of the shipyards and heavy industries that once occupied the area, and created a virtual free fire zone for development. At the same time, the city invited proposals from a group of architects from around the world, including RSHP’s team to put forward ideas for a masterplan to guide the redevelopment of Pudong, The brief was to propose ideas for major development in an area supporting 800,000 people.

The practice’s response applies the principles of a sustainable compact city, to create ‘a diverse commercial and residential quarter enhanced by a network of parks and public spaces’. A park forms the core of the district, with boulevards radiating outwards from it, and public transport nodes forming a ring around it.

These light rail nodes are linked to new pedestrian and cycle routes, and are the drivers of urban form: higher density high-rise development is clustered around these nodes to form six neighbourhoods. Commercial and residential areas are located within walking distance of each other and are also close to other infrastructure.