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城市更新10年：上海城市空间艺术季引领城市更新 - 2025年10月08日
10 years on: Shanghai's urban space art season leads the way in city renewal
A giant cat balloon uses a remote control to operate cranes, turning industrial relics into an interactive installation.
On Fuxing Island, Yangpu District, a giant cat balloon holds a remote control aimed at the well-preserved cranes of the old Hudong China Shipyard.
The installation turns the heavy machines of Shanghai's industrial past into stage props for public imagination.
In Baoshan's Nanda Smart City, robot dogs patrol the streets, responding to sensors and gestures. Families wave hands to make the machines start, stop, or follow them.
The scenes opened the 2025 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, a biennial program that combines art, planning and public space.
Since 2015, the art season has been staged in different parts of the city, highlighting urban renewal while inviting residents to take part.
"From renewal along the Huangpu River to improving the 15-minute life circles, the art season has played an important role," Shanghai Vice Mayor Zhang Xiaohong said.
"It has shown how public space can be shared and how harmony between people and nature can be achieved."
The Baoshan section of the 2025 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season opens at the newly unveiled Nanda Smart City Central Park.
The first edition in 2015, themed "Urban Renewal," was held at the West Bund Art Center in Xuhui District. The riverside was then being redeveloped from industrial land into a cultural zone.
Two years later, the 2017 event moved to Minsheng Wharf in Pudong, where 80,000-ton grain silos became galleries under the theme "Connection."
That year, Shanghai was developing a network of public waterfront walkways along the Huangpu River, weaving together fragmented former industrial sites into an expansive, connected riverside area.
In 2019, the third edition was staged on Yangpu's 5.5-kilometer waterfront under the theme "Encounter." It highlighted factories, warehouses and docks as they were being converted into public amenities.
During the same year, President Xi Jinping visited the Yangpu waterfront and emphasized the people-oriented approach to urban renewal.
Robot dogs dressed as lions beat drums at Nanda Smart City, opening the Baoshan section of the 2025 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season.
By 2021, the art season turned to neighborhood. Exhibitions in the Caoyang and Xinhua communities, as well as at Columbia Circle, explored the concept of the "15-minute life circle" – the idea that essential services, such as shops, clinics and schools, should be accessible within a short walking distance.
Two years later, the 2023 edition adopted the theme "Co-existence," stressing the balance between people and nature. Installations across more than 20 sites linked ecology, technology and daily life.
"They are not only exhibitions, but an experimental forum where the public can take part in urban development," said Zhang Yuxin, director of the Shanghai Planning and Natural Resources Bureau.
Li Xiangning, vice president of Tongji University and the chief curator of this year's event, compared Shanghai's initiative with international examples.
The 1927 Weissenhof Exhibition in Stuttgart, for instance, presented prototypes of modern housing. The 1932 "International Style" exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art helped define the movement known as American modernism.
"Each of these shows marked a turning point in urban and architectural thinking. The Urban Space Art Season is also about using exhibitions to explore how a city may develop," Li said.
Residents joined robots for a jogging activity at Nanda Smart City, part of the Baoshan exhibitions of the Urban Space Art Season.
This year's edition centers on two key venues, with Fuxing Island being one of them. As Shanghai's only inland island on the Huangpu River, Fuxing Island is currently undergoing redevelopment to become a digital design hub.
Yangpu District Director Zhou Haiying said more than 50,000 square meters of industrial plants, roughly equal to seven standard football pitches, will be converted into cultural and entrepreneurial spaces.
"We want to create a global hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, where new ideas can take root quickly," Zhou said.
During the National Day holiday, Fuxing Island has attracted residents from across Shanghai, with parents snapping photos in front of the installations and cranes.
In Baoshan, Nanda Smart City stands as yet another striking transformation. For decades prior, this area was defined by a landscape of chemical plants and heavy industry.
Today it spans 6 square kilometers, with plans dedicated to robotics, new energy and synthetic biology. Major projects include a flagship shopping complex set to open in 2027, a 200,000-square-meter central park, and new riverside parks. Top-tier schools and hospitals are also being built to serve the growing community.
Chuantai Park's 3,000-square-meter shipbuilding hall has been converted into the Fuxing Cloud Hall for the "Quantum Revive" exhibition.
Baoshan Party Secretary Li Chenhao said that the art season provides "an opportunity to connect technology, ecology and public life."
Nanda Smart City's redevelopment mirrors projects like Songdo in the Republic of Korea and Singapore's one-north district, where industrial or reclaimed lands have been transformed into vibrant technology parks and mixed-use communities.
The key difference, local officials said, is that the art season engages residents early in the process, allowing them to explore the installations, try out digital tools, and share ideas at public forums.
"Culture shapes cities and art builds communities," Vice Mayor Zhang said. "The Urban Space Art Season is where technology and art meet, and where ecology and function can coexist."
The 2025 Urban Space Art Season will run through December at venues across Yangpu, Baoshan and other districts, combining installations, community workshops and public forums.
The 2025 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season opens at Chuantai Park on Fuxing Island.
Fuxing Island Chuantai Park
Visitors play table tennis with robots at the Nanda Smart City Urban Space Art Season exhibition on Wednesday.
Source: Shanghai Daily
