The local government of Zhoushan (an archipelago of islands in eastern China) has entrusted the architect Wang Shu with the task of rehabilitating the port and industrial area of Lujiazhi Island as a cultural and tourist area. Shu has teamed up with the Belgian office Philippe SAMYN and PARTNERS to meet this challenge, more particularly in the creation of a cultural café with a parking tower.

Rehabilitation had to take into account two important elements: protecting the wharves and preserving maritime activity as a memory of the bay's industrial past. The inspiration comes from the genius loci, the path of the sun and the climate.

A stack of large terraces

Among the other characteristics of the site, the activity of the port has led to the development of a wide range of skills in steel craftsmanship. Therefore, the main construction elements proposed for this project are steel plates welded using traditional shipbuilding technology.

A narrow 6.75 m wide parallelepiped building stretches along the quayside. Its height of 9.45 m includes three floors for the café and covers the driveway to the car park. Continuous balconies run along each of the main facades, allowing them to be fully open in summer and making the building