Airport fuel storage tanks turned into "containers of culture"

OPEN Architecture has been on fine form lately, unveiling excellent projects like the UCCA Dune Art Museum and the under-construction Chapel of Sound. The Beijing-based firm's most recently-completed work is also very well done and involves the repurposing of a former airport into an arts center.

Tank Shanghai takes up an area of 10,845 sq m (roughly 116,700 sq ft) and is situated on the decommissioned Longhua Airport on the banks of Shanghai's Huangpu River.

The project is defined by five large aviation fuel storage tanks, which OPEN Architecture says have been turned into "containers of culture." The tanks were cleaned and painted inside, and also have glazing installed. One tank is now used as a space for live music performances, another is a restaurant, and the remaining three serve as artist's exhibition spaces.

Other parts of the former airport, including some firefighting facilities and a former pump house have also been renovated, and these now serve as event spaces.

Elsewhere lies a water feature, a couple of public plazas, and an "Urban Forest" that includes works of art and the old industrial tools and machinery from the site.

"Central to the project's design is a Z-shaped 'Super-Surface' – a new 'ground' above which are undulating parklands in between the tanks, and below which are flexible indoor exhibition and service spaces that connect the tanks to one another," says OPEN Architecture. "Alongside and topographically merged with the Super-Surface, two open plazas and an Urban Forest (partially finished) weave greenery, water features, smaller galleries and public artworks together across the site. In this rich natural and cultural landscape, people can move freely between Nature and Art."

Tank Shanghai took a total of six years to construct and officially opened last week.

Source: OPEN Architecture