dongqi Design connected three existing buildings on Haifang Road in downtown Shanghai into a 600 m² complex for retail, exhibitions, food and drink, offices, and leisure. Completed in 2025, the renovation pairs retained building fabric with new metal display structures, a suspended steel overpass, and openings that connect interior spaces to the street.
What is the Shanghai renovation project?
ArchDaily classifies the project as a renovation and retail project and lists an area of 600 m². gooood identifies the site as Haifang Road and records a 2024 design year and 2025 completion year. ArchDaily lists the project year as 2025. The title refers to Shanghai’s historic area, but the published project descriptions do not establish that the buildings have protected status or that the site is subject to a specific preservation designation.
The architects describe a three-story brick-concrete building, an 8-meter-high factory building, and a single-story brick-concrete building. These buildings now operate as a connected mixed-use complex rather than as a single new structure. The project descriptions differ on which side of the site contains the three-story and single-story buildings, so their positions are best understood without assigning cardinal directions. ArchDaily’s project record and gooood’s project description document the layout and program.
How are the three buildings used?
| Building | Described form | Uses in the project |
|---|---|---|
| Three-story building | Brick-concrete | Leisure space on the ground floor; offices on the second and third floors |
| Factory building | 8 meters high | Retail, display, and a separate VIP room |
| Single-story building | Brick-concrete | Food-and-beverage area |
The sources do not identify the client, tenant, or operating business. The program is described by use, not by a named retailer or restaurant.
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How does the design connect the interiors to the street?
A façade that can change with the display
A dark-gray exterior sunshade system covers the three-story building’s façade. Horizontal stainless-steel tubes wrap its tracks and mechanical equipment. On the interior side, openable steel plates and fixed exterior glass create window openings that can be illuminated for display. As the shades move and the display lighting changes, the façade’s appearance changes too.
A ground floor designed for movement
The leisure area uses tall elm tables without chairs, encouraging people to stand, move, and talk rather than settle into conventional seated dining. Mottled existing wall surfaces remain visible alongside a hot-rolled steel counter serving guests inside and outside. Oversized hopper windows lift upward toward the ceiling, allowing the room to open toward the street.
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What makes the factory hall distinctive?
The factory hall’s retail arrangement is built around 11 cross-shaped display racks and a suspended overpass. The project description says the overpass is made from a single 12 mm-thick stainless-steel plate and hung from the display-rack columns by stay cables. The bridge, cables, and racks form a coordinated system: shelves are integrated into the metal frames, and the structure also guides movement through the display space.
Rather than treating circulation as a separate corridor, the design makes the route across the hall part of the retail environment. The ordered racks create repeated frames through which visitors can see and move. This is an architectural arrangement, not evidence of a particular structural performance or visitor-flow outcome.
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The palette includes stainless-steel plate and round bars, hot-rolled steel, hot-dip galvanized finishes, and metal mesh. The project description emphasizes keeping the different metal textures legible instead of disguising them beneath a uniform finish. Retained wall texture provides a contrasting surface in the leisure area, while bright orange upholstered booths bring color into the food-and-beverage interior.
A dark, double-layer metal mesh separates the display and bar areas without fully blocking views. The description notes a moiré effect as people move past it. In an accessible area, mesh also serves as a backboard to help keep objects from falling; T-shaped stainless-steel strips protect visitors from exposed mesh edges. Flat-head screws are used to fix metal plates and at the front of the overpass steps for anti-slip purposes.
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In the food-and-beverage area, metal sliding doors conceal auxiliary spaces. Their patterns are described as forming through the oxidation of different metal powders. A hot-rolled steel plate counter continues the material palette, while orange booth upholstery provides a warmer visual contrast.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the project demonstrates about adaptive reuse
The project’s central move is to give different existing building types distinct roles while linking them through a shared material language and a new retail circulation system. The factory’s height accommodates a walk-through display structure; the street-facing leisure space uses large operable openings; and the other buildings take office and food-and-beverage functions. The published descriptions document this particular arrangement, but do not provide comparative evidence about cost, energy use, or performance against other renovation approaches.
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ArchDaily credits dongqi Design as architect and JIANG Nan as lead architect. Its project record also names XinY Structural Consultants for structural consulting, Beijing Dragon Decoration as general contractor, and Yasu Kojima for photographs.
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