Chanel at Power Station of Art — Gabrielle Chanel Space at PSA (2025)

The third floor of the Power Station of Art reopened as the Gabrielle Chanel Space, holding a library, a theatre and a design centre.

The venue

The Power Station of Art occupies a converted power plant on the south bank of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. Its upper floors hold large open halls left over from turbine equipment, reached by stairs and lifts from the riverside entrance. The third floor, normally used for exhibitions and public programmes, was closed for restoration before reopening as a set of rooms for reading, performance and design.

How the space was used

Inside, the floor is divided into connected functions: a library, a theatre, a design centre and reading areas. Kazunari Sakamoto's library uses a continuous, topology-based layout, so shelves and floor plates curve without hard partitions and browsing becomes a walk-through. Around 50,000 volumes are held, with a research collection of Chinese contemporary art documents organised alongside them.

Why it works here

Museum floors of this scale suit slow, research-led projects rather than timed queues. Visitors already moving through the building's galleries can enter a reading room without booking, and the riverside setting draws an audience for talks and performances. A brand-supported library sits inside the museum's existing programme of study and public talks.