The West Bund Grand Theatre

Architect: Schmidt Hammer Lassen
Location: Shanghai, China
Type: Theatre, Cultural
Year: 2025
Photographs: SHL, RAWVISION studio

The West Bund Grand Theatre, along the Huang Pu River in Shanghai, is the latest addition to the city’s West Bund District, globally known for its collection of art museums and galleries.

The following description is courtesy of the architects. The Shanghai studio of Danish practice Schmidt Hammer Lassen has completed The West Bund Grand Theatre, a new building that is the first riverside facility on the West Bund designed specifically for the performing arts.

The West Bund is the most rapidly developing arts, culture, and commercial district in Shanghai. Located along the banks of the Huangpu River just south of the center city, it represents a concerted effort by the Shanghai Municipal Government to create an iconic world-class urban waterfront comparable to the Paris Rive Gauche and London South Bank. Formerly an industrial zone built out during the early 20th century, the current development is guided by a master plan that combines existing structures and new buildings with a pedestrian-oriented landscape that encourages a lively, bustling atmosphere. When completed, the 9.4-square-kilometer West Bund will be the largest cultural district in Asia. 

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The West Bund Grand Theatre is one of the district’s anchor art venues accomodating a 1,600-seat main auditorium and a 200-seat intimate black-box theatre for experimental performances. 

The new theatre is conceived as one half of a yin yang partnership with the newly opened West Bund Dome, a renovated and adaptively reused historic structure adjacent to the theatre. The dome is translucent, exuding light in the evenings, while the theatre is monolithic and abstract. The dome was once a mixing factory for China’s largest concrete production plant; the theatre celebrates this heritage as a new concrete mass. Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) were designed in a series of horizontal organic forms that are composed to mimic the constant movement of the Huang Pu River.

“The Huang Pu River is so important for Shanghai,” says SHL Design Director Chris Hardie. “So, having a location right on the riverfront is extremely privileged. From there, you become acutely aware of how busy the river is. It is never still, always moving, slowly carrying boats that are of a similar scale to the Grand Theatre building. When you walk toward the river, the image of the water is powerful. We wanted the West Bund Grand Theatre to represent this.”

While the main auditorium and black box are designed to be world-class performance venues, the West Bund Grand Theatre offers more than superb acoustics and sightlines. A large outdoor plaza emphasizes the public nature of the project, and throughout the interior public spaces, expansive windows offer views across the river and toward the rest of the West Bund district. Generous terraces—one on the roof, and another halfway up the elevation—provide perches for theatre goers to enjoy a moment outside between acts. 

Project Details

• Architecture: Schmidt Hammer Lassen (SHL)
  • Design Team: Chris Hardie (Principal in charge), Chao Chen (Project Director), Mai Zhang (Project Architect), Jing Lin, Bozhena Hoida, Xiao Sun, Tianda Ge, Yiwen He, Puze Huang, Juno Li, Yuqian Lu, Puchun Zhang, Joey Zhang, Jingjing Zhang, Fangzhou Zhu, Sebastian Correa, Jiaai He, Steven Morton, Rasmus Duong-Grunnet, Maria Vlagoidou, Tasha Ye Feng.
• Client: West Bund Group
• Project location: Shanghai, China
• Start Date: 2014
• Completion Date: April 2025 (Grand Theatre)
• Gross Built Area: 23,177m 2
• Design Scope: Architectural Design and Interior
• Programs: Theater, Rehearsal and Back of house
• Local Architect: Arcplus Institute of Shanghai Architectural Design & Research, Shanghai Xiandai Architectural Decoration & Landscape Design Research Institute Co., Ltd
• Landscape: Field Operations，Shanghai TIANHUA Architecture Planning & Engineering Ltd
• Theater Consultant: Theatre Projects
• Acoustic Consultant: ECADI
• Façade Consultant: ECO face Group
• Façade Lighting: Shanghai Funshine 632 Culture Technology Co., Ltd
• Contractor: Shanghai Construction Group (SCG), Shanghai Building Decoration Engineering Group