Shanghai

BE A VIEWER / CITY 02 ENTER SHANGHAI

01 / THE HUANGPU

THE RIVER
AS ADDRESS

31.2304° N / 121.4737° E

Shanghai introduces itself across water. One bank keeps the stone façades of trade; the other answers in steel, glass and light.

The Huangpu is not a dividing line. It is the city’s longest room—a place where every period turns to face the next.

The Bund on the west bank of the Huangpu River — WEST BANK / THE BUND

A monochrome view across Shanghai’s riverfront — THE HORIZON, REPEATED

At the waterline, distance becomes a form of intimacy. A skyline can feel monumental; two people beneath it return the view to human scale.

Shanghai’s skyline across the Huangpu at sunset — WATERFRONT / LAST LIGHT

Shanghai World Financial Center rising through low cloud in Pudong — GLASS / WEATHER / DISTANCE

02 / PUDONG

Weather becomes architecture.

In Pudong, a cloud line can redraw the scale of the entire street.

03 / STREET VELOCITY

CITY IN
MOTION

Movement gives the plan its meaning.

People moving through a dense Shanghai streetscape — PEOPLE / BUILDINGS / ONE FRAME

Shanghai is read at two speeds: the long view from the river and the quick cut of a crossing. Between them, the city is constantly edited by commuters, deliveries, bicycles and light.

EAST NANJING ROAD / 31.2352° N

A street does not wait to be composed. Faces, storefronts and crossings remake the view every few seconds—one dense frame, always arriving.

Pedestrians beneath signs on East Nanjing Road — EAST NANJING ROAD

FOUR CUTS / ONE MORNING

THE CITY
EDITS ITSELF.

Walk. Wait. Cross. Repeat.

A narrow Shanghai street emerging from morning shadow — 07:08 / FIRST LIGHT

An outdoor escalator crossing above a Shanghai street — 08:22 / UP AND OVER

Roads and pedestrian bridges near Shanghai’s port — 09:40 / INFRASTRUCTURE

A crowd moving along Nanjing East Road in Shanghai — 17:46 / THE CROWD ARRIVES

04 / NEW ARCHITECTURE

NEW
FORMS

Buildings shaped as public encounters.

Shanghai’s new architecture is most convincing when spectacle becomes useful: a stair becomes a theatre, a roof becomes a walk, a façade frames a gathering.

The curving exterior volumes of Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre — POLY GRAND THEATRE / VOID AS FORM

A close architectural view of Shanghai Poly Grand Theatre

A contemporary art and architecture space in Shanghai — ART SPACE / OPEN FRAME

A long silver building in Shanghai shaped like a ship above the street — A SHIP ON LAND / HONGKOU

Some buildings borrow the language of movement before anyone enters them. This one appears to have docked above the road—architecture paused between departure and arrival.

APPLE JING’AN / SHANGHAI

APPLE RETAIL / SHANGHAI

EIGHT
STORES.

Opening order across Shanghai — eight public rooms for a changing city.

01APPLE PUDONG10 JUL 2010
02APPLE HONG KONG PLAZA25 SEP 2010
03APPLE NANJING EAST23 SEP 2011
04APPLE SHANGHAI IAPM26 OCT 2013
05APPLE GLOBAL HARBOR28 MAY 2016
06APPLE WUJIAOCHANG18 JUN 2016
07APPLE QIBAO10 DEC 2016
08APPLE JING’AN21 MAR 2024

FIND A STORE

05 / JING’AN TEMPLE

31.2248° N / 121.4453° E

GOLD / AGAINST GLASS

AN OLD
CENTER.

Jing’an Temple holds a field of gold inside one of Shanghai’s busiest commercial districts.

01 / 03 CONTINUE

06 / EVERYDAY FABRIC

STREETS
REMEMBER

The old city survives through use, not silence.

History here is rarely alone.

Plane trees, campus walls, shopfronts and apartment windows keep different Shanghais in the same field of view. Memory persists because the street keeps moving through it.