From Factory to Framework in shanghai’s west bund
MVRDV completes the GATE M West Bund Dream Center in Shanghai, transforming a former cement factory site along the Huangpu River into a dense cultural destination. Located within the city’s evolving West Bund district, the project reimagines a fragmented industrial landscape as a unified, layered environment for public life.
The 80,000-square-meter site previously housed the Shanghai Cement Factory, once the largest of its kind in Asia. In the wake of the 2010 Shanghai Expo and the broader reorganization of the city’s industrial belt, the factory operations were relocated, leaving behind a mix of massive silos, heavy-frame buildings, and a handful of unfinished commercial structures from a stalled development. MVRDV approached the project with a strategy of adaptive reuse and spatial continuity, introducing new connections while preserving the area’s industrial memory.
Bright orange staircases and elevator shafts act as circulation markers and visual anchors, contrasting with the exposed concrete textures of the original structures. These new elements lend identity and coherence to the collection of repurposed forms, while clearly signaling access points across the complex.
Shanghai’s GATE M Dream Center occupies a former cement factory | image © Sanqian Visual Image Art
Adaptive Reuse by MVRDV
The centerpiece of MVRDV’s intervention is the M Factory, a vast shed structure repurposed to host a hybrid food market and fine dining space on the ground floor, and a multi-purpose cultural hall above. The upper level is accessed via a vivid orange stairway fashioned from a former conveyor system, retaining the spatial drama of the factory’s original volume while offering a flexible venue for exhibitions, performances, and public events.
Alongside the M Factory, a towering silo is transformed by the architects into a vertical climbing center. A sequence of stairs and climbing routes, painted in the same orange hue, lead to rooftop and mid-level platforms which bring elevated views of the waterfront and surrounding city.
‘It was clear from the start that there was a lot of value leftover in the buildings that were already there — we didn’t want to demolish things just because it might be simpler, because that means more carbon, more waste,’ says MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs.
‘Our challenge was to bring these pieces together and make them work as a single area, because they were an awkward pairing. We turned the newer buildings into the backdrop, so that the industrial behemoths could be the exclamation points, with exciting functions that capitalize on their special structural features.’
MVRDV preserves industrial structures and unifies them with orange elements | image © Sanqian Visual Image Art
industrial space infused with greenery
Rather than removing or hiding the newer unfinished buildings scattered between the older industrial forms, MVRDV incorporated them into the scheme with neutral facades, planted rooftops, and generous terraces. Their quiet presence serves as a backdrop to the more expressive remnants of the cement factory, while completing the spatial edges of public plazas and passageways.
Landscape design by Field Operations enhances the riverside setting, extending the urban promenade and introducing shaded seating, vegetation, and play areas. Together with retail spaces, restaurants, and performance zones, the ensemble establishes a complex rhythm of enclosed and open experiences.
The GATE M West Bund Dream Center demonstrates how existing structures, regardless of their stylistic or chronological differences, can be re-contextualized to serve contemporary civic functions. The project aligns with a growing international interest in post-industrial reuse, and continues MVRDV’s broader portfolio of cultural and urban regeneration work.
an industrial silo is adapted into a rock-climbing gym with rooftop views | image © Xia Zhi
the masterplan balances enclosed volumes with outdoor plazas | image © Xia Zhi
the central M Factory houses a market below and flexible cultural space above | image © Liu Guowei
Field Operations leads the riverside landscape design | image © Xia Zhi
unfinished newer buildings are integrated with neutral facades and planted terraces | image © Xia Zhi
GATE M contributes to Shanghai’s broader waterfront transformation | image © Sanqian Visual Image Art
project info:
project title: Shanghai Gate M West Bund Dream Center
location: Shanghai, China
area: 45,000 square meters
client: Hua Zhi Men Capital
founding partner in charge: Jacob van Rijs
partner: Wenchian Shi
director MVRDV Shanghai: Peter Chang
previous coverage: February 2024
completion: 2025
photography: © Xia Zhi, Liu Guowei, Tian Fangfang, Sanqian Visual Image Art
design team: Kyo Suk Lee, Peter Chang, Sredej Bunnag, Luca Xu, Shanshan Wu, Yunxi
Guo, Albert Parfonov, Amanda Galiana Ortega, Americo Iannazzone, Dorota Kaczmarek,
Echo Zhai, Edvan Ardianto, Haocheng Yang, Jiameng Li, Jiani You, Kevin Zhao, Kristina
Knauf, Meng Yang, Ming Kong, Martin Chen, Sen Yang, Shushen Zhang, Siyi Pan, Steven
Smit, Tanja Dubbelaar, Xiaoliang Yu, Yayun Liu, Yihong Chen, Evan O’Sullivan, Peilu Chen
director MVRDV Shanghai: Peter Chang
copyright: MVRDV Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries
partners:
co-architect: AISA
landscape architect: Field Operations
structural: engineer: ARUP, AISA
facade: consultant: RFR
interior architect: CL3, Xu Studio
lighting design: RDI
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