Pumphole art space

The Pump Pit Art Space is located within the Yangshupu Power Plant Heritage Park at 2800 Yangshupu Road. This site was originally the Yangshupu Power Plant, built in 1913 with British investment, and comprises important industrial heritage including a chimney, gantry cranes, coal conveyor trestles, conveyor belts, clean water tanks, wet ash storage silos, and dry ash storage silos. After the Huangpu River public space improvement plan was launched in 2015, this area gradually transformed from a closed production waterfront restricted to insiders into a cultural and ecological shared living waterfront open space. The pump pit was originally the power plant's deep-water storage pit, covered with a blue corrugated steel roof, with unfathomable river water inside, like a black box that was extremely difficult to construct. When the site was cleared, the roof was removed, divers were sent to the pit bottom, and concrete formwork was installed at the water pipe opening connecting to the Huangpu River to cut the connection between the pit and the river, before pumping out the accumulated river water, revealing this semi-enclosed underground space for reuse. To break the inaccessibility of the original space, a spiral steel plate staircase was newly inserted inside the south-facing river pit. The project by TJAD creates an art space within an industrial ruin, demonstrating how difficult, forgotten infrastructure can be transformed into a unique cultural venue.