Thumb Plaza RenewalThumb Plaza Renewal

Thumb Plaza sits at the core of Lianyang international community in Pudong, Shanghai, and has long been a well-known community retail benchmark. As large numbers of new middle-class families moved in, the plaza needed an upgrade to match higher expectations. team+ led an integrated renewal design in 2019.

Three strategies organise the renewal — spirit of place, spatial remodelling and programme restructuring. The central plaza and main entrances are reworked, a ring bridge strengthens the sense of enclosure, and a stage hosts performances, festivals and night light shows. The central sculpture evolves into a series of artworks, building an art IP for the community.

Programmatically the scheme regroups around women's fashion, parent-child interaction and cultural leisure, strengthening the outdoor and family character. Inside, the “magic ring” concept links the previously closed and passive interior vertically, so that light and movement travel between floors. The scheme won the 2023 IAF Ideal Architecture Festival Annual Merit Award; for reasons outside the design, it was ultimately not built.