Jinshan is one of the 17 districts of the Shanghai Municipality, and is located about 60 km south of the center on the shores of Hangzou Bay, where important petrochemical industries are located. In recent years it has experienced a strong urban development that makes it an important point of reference in the geography of the Shanghai of the future. The redevelopment area of ​​the competition is part of the Jinshan New Town and extends along a coastline of 5.8 km in length; the project area indicated in the Call has an extension of about 580 hectares.

The project developed considers a field of study of 720 hectares. In the area there are currently some important functions: a bathing area with a 2 km long beach that overlooks an inner basin protected by artificial barriers, a railway station from which it is possible to reach the center of Shanghai in half an hour. some residential and tertiary lots, the oldest fishing village still existing in the Shanghai region. To the east and west of the project area there are vast industrial areas for which further expansions are expected in the future. These pre-existing features configure one of the main themes considered in the project: the creation of a new urban identity while respecting the original features of the site. The competition notice asked to imagine for the area new uses capable of fully exploiting its potential and at the same time creating a new icon for Shanghai and the vast area of ​​the Yangtze delta. From the initial list of 200 participants, 5 groups were asked to present a detailed project: through the union of work and the experience of different studies, a complex and varied idea of ​​city was proposed.

The Barreca & La Varra studio designed the Business Center and the Aviation Park, as well as accessing the area from the east, a real gap that marks the beginning of this new landscape. The new coastline is designed through a meeting-clash between nature and urbanity that creates a new microcosm in which all the elements, primarily water, combine to create an environment rich in urban occasions inspired by the Bel Paese. The landscape around the train station, curated by ARW, has a different character from the “Riviera” designed by Beretta Associati together with Mab. In the same way the areas of the Marina conceived by Maurizio Gnudi are strongly distinguished by the criteria with which Scacchetti Associati characterized the “Lido” and the recovery of the existing fishermen’s village. The general design of the open spaces curated by Pan, the viability followed by Systematica and the ecological aspects imagined by Habitech have “tied” everything.