Under bridges

The site Zhu and her classmates chose in their renewal plan was the 500-meter stretch beneath the elevated rail of Dabaishu Station in Yangpu district on subway Line 3. The area is currently occupied by rail pillars, small stores, parking lots and pockets of greenery.

"Due to the lack of good design, the space could not be fully utilized by people even though there is a creative industry park next to it," says Zhu, who along with her classmates visited the site many times to take measurements and observe human activity in the surrounding area.

"There are many abrupt ends on the sidewalk, and people have to walk on the car lane," she says. "As such, the first thing we made was to redesign the traffic lane and make the area an unimpeded corridor for people to walk."

According to the team's plan, the corridor will be divided into three functional areas. One area will be a sports zone, with exercise and children's recreational facilities. The other will be an informal business zone with a small convenience store, benches and boxes for meetings. The third zone, which will be at the southern end of the corridor, will become a park with a themed exhibition on the Shanghai-Woosung railway system.

"During my observations, I noticed a boy who couldn't go through the corridor because of the existing blockage and had to instead walk on the traffic lane," says Zhu. "I hope that when my design is implemented, people will find this area more enjoyable and safe to walk in."

The idea of turning the underutilized areas beneath bridges and highways into functional spaces is fairly new to Shanghai-the concept was piloted in the city in 2018 when the Shanghai Urban Public Space Design Promotion Center launched a micro-renewal project titled "revitalizing space under bridges".

Wang Mingying, an officer with the promotion center, which recently merged with the Shanghai Urban Planning and Design Research Institute, says the renovation of such spaces is a tall task because it involves coordination across multiple administrative bodies, including the transport department, environment department and the subdistrict government.

"The pilot was a good start. We are now seeing more and more people paying attention to such areas," says Wang.

Because of this project, art installations now fill the space under the bridges over Kaixuan Road and Gubei Road. An animal-themed sports park, comprising two small soccer fields and nine basketball courts under the Middle Ring Overpass on Beidi Road, was unveiled to the public in July. Many spaces under the bridges across the Suzhou Creek were also renovated and adorned with paintings and lights during the city's riverside renovation project in 2020.