Flow Bund
- Client
- CITIC Pacific
- Services
- Architecture, Masterplanning
- Sector
- Mixed Use, Masterplanning, Retail, Office
- Location
- Yangpu Waterfront, Shanghai, China
Industrial heritage, reimagined for a new waterfront
Flow Bund occupies a significant position within Shanghai’s Badaitou area, the gateway site at the core of the Bund–Lujiazui–North Bund triangle, on a waterfront long established as the birthplace of China’s modern industry. On a site of approximately 86,500m² with a total building area of around 181,000m², the mixed-use programme brings together Grade-A office, retail and residential within a scheme that places the adaptive reuse of four historic buildings at its centre.
181,000m²
86,500m² GFA
Coexistence and continuity
Four historic buildings are woven into the new development through a lightweight structural system finished in traditional industrial steel beam tones, a framework that connects old and new without erasing the distinction between them. Commercial spaces take their character from the site’s industrial heritage and Shanghai’s lilong culture, the city’s distinctive lane-house neighbourhoods shaped by narrow alleys and close-knit community life. The result is a contemporary, three-dimensional reinterpretation of that urban fabric.
Familiar motifs, contemporary materials
The new office and retail buildings draw on the district’s Art Deco heritage, translating familiar motifs through modern materials and clean detailing. The approach, described by Director and Head of Shanghai Studio, Qin Pang as ‘unity with diversity’, treats historic texture and contemporary design as complementary rather than competing, allowing the development to read as a coherent whole while preserving the layered character that makes the Yangpu waterfront distinctive.
