The new nice rice concept store in Shanghai is located at West Bund Dream Center, adjacent to the Huangpu River and overlooking the Dream Shipyard, with access to an expansive waterfront promenade. Shanghai’s rich port history forms an important cultural backdrop, while West Bund Dream Center itself occupies a century-old former cement factory complex. Seeking to integrate with this context, nice rice positions the store as part of the city’s waterfront lifestyle, creating an open and relaxed “friendly harbor.”
An L-shaped “harbor” structure is introduced into the store, extending toward the northeast and forming a distinctive spatial signature of the West Bund location. On the eastern side, the riverside café area offers a place for brief pauses and rest, while pet-friendly facilities are incorporated to encourage interaction and connection. These elements enrich the harbor platform with added social vitality.
As visitors move deeper along the “harbor shoreline,” product displays are designed to resemble magazine racks found along embankments, reimagined as merchandising fixtures. Inside, both walls and floors are finished with recycled ceramic tile fragments, blurring the boundary between indoors and outdoors. This approach expresses friendliness on multiple levels — to the body, to people, and to pets — shaping an energetic, inclusive shopping environment where everyone can find their own place of refuge within the harbor.
