New architecture and design festival launches in ROCKBUND neighborhood
The ROCKBUND neighborhood is an ideal site for an architecture and design festival.
Jointly launched by the Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) and the ROCKBUND team, RAM Assembles is a new biennial festival for interdisciplinary thinking in architecture and design.
The aim of RAM Assembles is to bring together diverse perspectives on historical and new architecture, engaging a wide range of fields concerning contemporary architecture, urbanist art, and design.
The inaugural artistic director is Pritzker Prize-winning architect David Chipperfield, whose new museum entrance and Museum Plaza opened to the public on Friday.
For each edition of this biennial, the RAM team led by its artistic director X Zhu-Nowell would choose an architect as an artistic director to create a new architectural intervention in the ROCKBUND neighborhood, with a specific focus on the Museum Plaza.
A woman performs at the opening of RAM Assembles.
World-famous architect David Chipperfield attends the opening ceremony of RAM Assembles.
Located to the north of the famous Bund in central Shanghai, the ROCKBUND neighborhood is a collection of historical architecture built between 1896 and 1932. These buildings represent examples of Shanghai's Art Deco style, characteristic of the city's late 19th and early 20th century architecture, in which European building styles were combined with Asian elements.
In the early 2000s, David Chipperfield Architects was commissioned to restore, update and convert 11 historic buildings of the ROCKBUND.
Chipperfield also designed a new extension to the Art Deco building that was originally built for the Royal Asiatic Society and now houses the Rockbund Art Museum, in addition to a new RAM entrance and Museum Plaza.
His curatorial theme of "Public Space" takes art beyond the museum walls and integrates it into the daily life of the ROCKBUND.
A banner advertises events during RAM Assembles.
RAM Assembles has also created a network of collaborations with curators, institutions, universities, architecture studios, artists, and creative companies, inviting globally minded experts and professional teams to work together and co-create the distinctive public cultural event.
Varying from music flashmobs, digital markets, and sound installations to themed exhibitions and a Fools Book Market, over 100 events will be held during RAM Assembles.
Please check the RAM Wechat Account for detailed times for each event, and visitors can choose to make reservations online in advance or on-site.
RAM Assembles
Date: Through October 16, 10am-10pm
Address: 20 Huqiu Rd
虎丘路20号
