Danish architecture studio Schmidt Hammer Lassen has adaptively reused a domed cement factory in Shanghai, China, to create a performing arts and sports venue.
Now named West Bund Art Center, the factory's central curved structure has been converted into a 300-square-metre multipurpose hall for art exhibitions, music concerts and sporting events.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen has converted a cement factory in Shanghai
The renovated building, which takes its name from its site in the West Bund cultural district, has been adapted as lightly as possible in celebration of its industrial history.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen used historic documents to restore the dome's orange-painted steel frame while adding an independent layer of steel internally to help accommodate the building's new programme. The old factory has a domed structure
"We first visited the West Bund area around 2010, when the deconstruction of the former wet cement factory had begun, and the dome structure stood at the heart of the vast industrial site," said principal design director Chris Hardie.
"Maintaining the dome structure as a historic relic that symbolised the memory of the site, sitting amongst a new part of the city, was an exciting proposition for us," he told Dezeen.
"From the very start, our focus was on restoring the dome structure and, in a way, trying to do as little to it as possible."
It has been transformed into West Bund Art Center
Originally China's first factory for wet-pro...