Internationals architectural practice Aedas have completed their first building for the forthcoming Hongqiao World Centre in Shanghai, which will be a major mixed-use leisure complex for China’s biggest city.

The Gallery is a leaf-shaped arts and exhibition space which will anchor the wider World Centre project; which will open later this year and will include a five-star hotel and a major shopping centre serving Hongqiao’s central business district.

All the World Centre buildings will resemble leaves, in response to the ‘clover leaf’ concept of the nearby Qingpu Xujing Conference and Exhibition Centre, which is linked to the Gallery via a pedestrian bridge.

“The leaf-shaped buildings are organised coherently to direct circulation towards the Qingpu Centre, one of the world’s largest exhibition centres” said the architects in a statement.

“The hotel and shopping centre will work together to form a very welcoming entrance to the whole development, while the Gallery, as the first building visitors will see coming out from the convention and exhibition centre, is designed to be seductive with a strong visual impact.”

A number of exciting mixed-use projects are being developed in Shanghai.

Heatherwick Studio have designed a vast mountain-inspired development to be located next to the city’s arts district; Schmidt Hammer Lassen are expanding the 1950s West Shanghai Worker’s Cultural Palace into a leisure hub; and Gensler have recently finished Shanghai Tower, the world's second largest building, which contains a hotel, cultural facilities, a six-storey retail zone and an observation deck.