SHANGHAI'S top planning body is inviting designers from around the world to help turn an old grain silo on the Pudong side of the Huangpu River into a major exhibition space.

The 50-meter-tall silo, built by a British shipping company in the early part of the last century, was once the largest in Asia and stored most of the city's grain in its heyday.

The 80,000-ton silo will be part of a complex serving as the venue for Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, which will open in late September or early October in 2017, the city's planning, land and resources administration said.