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Trio of Bloom
Trio of Bloom
Shanghai, China
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Other Projects by ATAH
Trio of Bloom
Shanghai, China
Firm
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2025
SIZE
5000 sqft - 10,000 sqft
BUDGET
$100K - 500K
Stretching 11.4 kilometers along the Huangpu River, Shanghai's West Bund stands as one of the city's most representative post-industrial transformation zones. Since its revitalization began in 2003, the area has developed nearly 20 cultural institutions by 2020, forming the West Bund Cultural Corridor—now one of Asia's most concentrated clusters of public art facilities. This adaptive-reuse project is situated at the confluence of the Zhangjiatang Channel and Huangpu River, east of Longteng Avenue, within a pair of restrained, cast-in-place concrete structures. Defined by their minimalist silhouettes and undulating roofs, the buildings frame an elegant courtyard amidst riverside greenery. Originally designed as single-story, column-free volumes, their thick concrete walls are punctuated by strategically placed glazed openings that quietly mediate views of the waterfront, passing ships, and dappled foliage.
The existing architecture's remarkable purity inspired our central design question: How might new spatial relationships emerge organically within these preserved shells? Conceived as "vessels for flora," the project's development mirrored horticultural cultivation—through close collaboration with the client, we sought to let interventions grow like vines along the structural "roots" of the original buildings. The existing fenestration pattern, with windows deeply recessed in concrete masses, subtly guided our spatial extensions.
In the northwest volume, the triangular greenhouse intervention establishes not confrontation but poetic dialogue with the existing order. While the concrete's austerity and geometric rigor set the spatial tone, the pyramidal form offers an innovative response to site conditions—simultaneously addressing light penetration, visual axes, and kinetic circulation. Three glass planes delineate a weightless volume that floats within the heavy masonry, their transparency dissolving boundaries: interior greenery spills outward while seasonal changes permeate inward, creating a symbiotic play of observation and reflection.
Materiality maintains disciplined restraint. Contrasts between lightweight additions and solid concrete, between glass transparency and wall opacity, reveal an underlying natural harmony. Rotating botanical displays within the greenhouse soften geometric rigor with organic vitality, lending this "sky garden" tactile warmth that evolves through time. The triangulated structure achieves both stability and dynamism—its planar configuration forms a rigid system, while elevationally, roof, floor, and diagonal bracing create a spatial truss supported by just three steel columns, resulting in a column-free interior.
The southeast volume develops this triangular lexicon through variation. Within its more expansive gathering space, two leaf-like mezzanines bridge interior and exterior landscapes with alternating solidity and porosity. A sculptural butterfly staircase continues the geometric theme, transforming vertical circulation into a ceremonial procession. Cleverly utilizing existing shear walls for support, the mezzanine achieves structural minimalism while accommodating a dramatic folded stair.
Light completes this spatial composition as an active design element. Daylight filters through original apertures to cast shifting arboreal patterns; at dusk, the architecture becomes a luminous vessel where greenhouse and mezzanines stage theatrical interplay. These luminous effects aren't afterthoughts but intentional outcomes of embedded design opportunities that mature over time.
Through these interventions, we aspire to articulate architecture's latent possibilities. As Álvaro Siza observed, "Architecture exists before it is built." Much like the buildings' inherent duality, we've sought to reveal deeper dialogues—between lightness and mass, old and new, precision and spontaneity, ultimately composing an "Ode to Triangular Geometry" along Shanghai's storied waterfront.
The existing architecture's remarkable purity inspired our central design question: How might new spatial relationships emerge organically within these preserved shells? Conceived as "vessels for flora," the project's development mirrored horticultural cultivation—through close collaboration with the client, we sought to let interventions grow like vines along the structural "roots" of the original buildings. The existing fenestration pattern, with windows deeply recessed in concrete masses, subtly guided our spatial extensions.
In the northwest volume, the triangular greenhouse intervention establishes not confrontation but poetic dialogue with the existing order. While the concrete's austerity and geometric rigor set the spatial tone, the pyramidal form offers an innovative response to site conditions—simultaneously addressing light penetration, visual axes, and kinetic circulation. Three glass planes delineate a weightless volume that floats within the heavy masonry, their transparency dissolving boundaries: interior greenery spills outward while seasonal changes permeate inward, creating a symbiotic play of observation and reflection.
Materiality maintains disciplined restraint. Contrasts between lightweight additions and solid concrete, between glass transparency and wall opacity, reveal an underlying natural harmony. Rotating botanical displays within the greenhouse soften geometric rigor with organic vitality, lending this "sky garden" tactile warmth that evolves through time. The triangulated structure achieves both stability and dynamism—its planar configuration forms a rigid system, while elevationally, roof, floor, and diagonal bracing create a spatial truss supported by just three steel columns, resulting in a column-free interior.
The southeast volume develops this triangular lexicon through variation. Within its more expansive gathering space, two leaf-like mezzanines bridge interior and exterior landscapes with alternating solidity and porosity. A sculptural butterfly staircase continues the geometric theme, transforming vertical circulation into a ceremonial procession. Cleverly utilizing existing shear walls for support, the mezzanine achieves structural minimalism while accommodating a dramatic folded stair.
Light completes this spatial composition as an active design element. Daylight filters through original apertures to cast shifting arboreal patterns; at dusk, the architecture becomes a luminous vessel where greenhouse and mezzanines stage theatrical interplay. These luminous effects aren't afterthoughts but intentional outcomes of embedded design opportunities that mature over time.
Through these interventions, we aspire to articulate architecture's latent possibilities. As Álvaro Siza observed, "Architecture exists before it is built." Much like the buildings' inherent duality, we've sought to reveal deeper dialogues—between lightness and mass, old and new, precision and spontaneity, ultimately composing an "Ode to Triangular Geometry" along Shanghai's storied waterfront.
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