THE Balvenie at JULU758 — Balvenie Time in the Making (2026)

JULU758, a converted industrial compound in Jing'an, hosted The Balvenie's eight-stage whisky craft walk-through with Daniel Arsham bronzes.

The venue

JULU758 is a converted industrial compound on Julu Road in central Shanghai's Jing'an district, a cluster of low brick and concrete blocks linked by open courtyards and narrow passages. Its ground-floor units hold cafes, boutiques and design studios, and the upper floors are worked as offices. The site is normally a slow pedestrian environment where people move between shopfronts, terraces and shared outdoor space.

How the space was used

Inside the compound, the exhibition hall was rebuilt as a stepped sequence of eight refining stages. A wheat-field installation and floor-malting tools moved the distillery floor into the city, while a separate zone held Daniel Arsham's eroded bronze sculptures around the 88-year bottle, set within layered scenery. Free serves and a tasting counter occupied the circulation, with visitors moving from installation to bar area.

Why it works here

The compound's raw industrial fabric reads as workshop rather than gallery, which suits a brand arguing for visible manual labour. Its small units and passages force a one-way walk-through, holding visitors in sequence, and its central Jing'an address brings in foot traffic already moving between cafes and boutiques.