From 16-23 August 2025, an international design workshop (Reactivating Liverpool’s Chinatown from Nelson Street to the Waterfront) was organised between Liverpool’s School of Architecture and Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Design. This project has been funded by the Liverpool – Shanghai Jiao Tong University (UoL-SJTU) Research Seed Fund.
Led by Dr Paco Mejias Villatoro and Dr Junjie Xi from Liverpool and Professor Yinwu Huang and Dr Qian Du from Shanghai, the workshop is based on previous research and existing foundation work by students at Liverpool’s School of Architecture. During the workshop, students and teachers visited the local community centre, Pagoda Arts, and drew the future of Chinatown together with children attending summer music lessons at the centre. After over a week of lectures, site visits, and studio work, they proposed a new conceptual design to tell the history and stories of Chinese migration in Liverpool. The design is realised through a site model measuring approximately 27 sqm. The team presented the work to Andy Green, a member of the management committee of Liverpool City Council’s Chinese community centre (from 1984-2009), and to Polly Green, a trustee of the well-established charity Chinese Well-being, who promoted the Liverpool-Shanghai twin cities initiatives in the 1990s.
Review session with local planning experts
The team will present the work as a public exhibition at Pagoda Arts in early 2026, then move the exhibition to Shanghai in the summer for its opening there. The models will be presented in the new Liverpool School of Architecture’s new extension in March, designed by Dublin-based architects O’Donnell + Tuomey.
The conceptual design is presented through a model