Winner 2025

Award for
imaginative structural intervention combining new and old to dramatic effect.

Project description

Set in the Shanghai Expo Culture Park, this project reimagines existing industrial steel trusses as the frame for an elegant new aluminium structure. Combining a cable-net and polygonal grid system, the design achieves transparency and structural lightness on an ambitious scale. The result is a striking fusion of old and new.

Judge’s comments

An imaginative and technically intricate reuse project that brings new life to an old industrial steel frame. By inserting a lightweight cable-net greenhouse within the existing structure, the team created a bold juxtaposition of old and new. The result is both visually striking and structurally inventive, a confident blend of adaptive reuse, expressive engineering, and thoughtful design.

Project overview

Structural Designer

  • Arcplus Institute of Shanghai Architectural Design & Research Co., Ltd

Client Name

  • Shanghai Expo Culture Park Construction Management Co., Ltd

Location

  • Shanghai, China

Architect

  • Delugan Meissl Associated Architects, Yiju Ding Landscape Architects

Principal Contractor

  • China Construction Eighth Engineering Division Corp., Ltd, Shanghai Tongzheng Aluminum Structure Construction Technology Co., Ltd

Key Contractors

  • Aluminium alloy structure and curtain wall contractor: Shanghai Tongzheng Aluminum Structure Construction Technology Co., Ltd

    Structure concept design consultant: Bollinger+Grohmann

    Aluminium alloy joint experiment: Tongji University

    Energy design consultant: Transsolar Energietechnik 

Year Submitted

  • 2025

Key attributes

  • Process