Photographer Paul Clemence has documented West Bund Orbit, Heatherwick Studio’s public exhibition hall on Shanghai’s West Bund waterfront, in a photo series exploring the project’s evolving architectural identity. Located in Xuhui District along the Huangpu River, the building was conceived as a cultural destination within the area’s emerging Financial Hub while extending the network of public spaces that define the redeveloped riverfront. Rather than focusing solely on the building as an object, Clemence’s photographs examine the relationship between architecture, circulation, and landscape, revealing how the project’s interconnected pathways and layered form engage both the waterfront and the surrounding city.
Occupying a prominent site adjacent to the West Bund riverside park, West Bund Orbit was designed to be accessible from every direction, inviting visitors to move through and around the building. This approach reflects Heatherwick Studio’s intention to create a civic destination that functions beyond its exhibition program, encouraging everyday interaction with the architecture itself. The project also occupies a site directly opposite the location of the studio’s UK Pavilion, known as the Seed Cathedral, presented at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
The building is defined by a series of interwoven ribbon-like elements that wrap around the central exhibition volume, forming an interconnected system of staircases, bridges, terraces, and elevated walkways. These circulation routes extend to a rooftop garden overlooking the Huangpu River, transforming the building’s exterior into a sequence of publicly accessible spaces rather than a conventional façade. Heatherwick Studio has described the design as drawing inspiration from the traditional Chinese moon bridge, reinterpreting its curved geometry into a contemporary architectural language that suggests continuous movement. Throughout Clemence’s photographs, these overlapping ribbons become the dominant subject, their shifting geometry producing different spatial relationships as the building is viewed from multiple vantage points along the waterfront.
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At the center of the composition sits the project’s primary exhibition hall, around which the remaining program is organized. Large glazed openings punctuate the exterior, allowing views into the exhibition spaces while establishing visual connections between interior activity and the public realm beyond. A secondary gallery surrounds the main hall, further reinforcing this dialogue between inside and outside and contributing to the building’s openness toward the surrounding promenade.
West Bund Orbit joins Paul Clemence’s growing body of photographic work documenting major contemporary architectural projects across different urban and environmental contexts. His recent series have explored works such as Zaha Hadid Architects’ International Gateway Centre in Hong Kong, Ruy Ohtake’s Bioparque Pantanal in Campo Grande, and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, revitalized by Gensler and Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Across these projects, Clemence’s photography focuses on the relationship between architecture, landscape, infrastructure, and public life, using the camera to examine how buildings are experienced within their broader surroundings.
