World renowned design firms Heatherwick Studio and Foster and Partners have teamed up to create a complex of new buildings on one of Shanghai?s most well-known streets. The Bund Financial Center is a 420,000 square meter mixed-use development located near the city’s picturesque Huangpu River waterfront. Plans for the project were unveiled back in 2013, and the Fosun Foundation Art Center ? a theater equipped with a moving facade ? is one of its first buildings to reach completion.

According to Thomas Heatherwick, one of the project’s chief designers, the Bund Center was constructed to revitalize the surrounding area. He explains: ?Sitting at the gateway to Shanghai?s old town, on the river bank where boats would arrive from the rest of the world, this is an extraordinary site which stood unoccupied for many years. In filling this last empty site on Shanghai?s famous bund, the concept is inspired by China?s ambition not to duplicate what exists in the rest of the world but to look instead for new ways to connect with China?s phenomenal architectural and landscape heritage.?
The ethos of blending modernity with Chinese heritage makes its way into all of the site’s proposed buildings. Soon enough, two 180-meter towers will stand as landmarks in the Shanghai skyline. The complex will also house commercial offices, a boutique hotel, and, of course, the art center, all of which have been organized around a landscaped, public plaza. At any given time, pedestria...