It’s not often you see a mammoth thermometer on the skyline. Yet this landmark sits atop China’s first state-run contemporary art museum, the Power Station of Art (PSA) in Shanghai, which opened in October. The chimney of what was once the Nanshi Power Plant is lit up with the daily temperature in lurid red and white. It’s a striking beacon for this 41,200 sq metre monolith overlooking the gently lapping Huangpu river.

With breakneck Chinese efficiency, the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee transformed the 19th-century industrial site into mainland China’s premier public art museum at a cost of Rmb400m (￡40m). The time taken? Nine months. “This decision reflects an attempt to situate PSA within Shanghai’s historical and cultural context, and it is in accord with the international consensus of transforming characteristic urban architecture into contemporary art spaces,” is the Orwell-esque party line.

“It is a prestige object for the city, to have a museum that, at least in scale, can compete with Tate Modern in London or MoMA in New York,” explains Jens Hoffmann, co-curator of the Shanghai Biennale. “The Shanghai Art Museum was also looking for a new home for the Shanghai Biennale [until March 31] in which it could expand and triple in size. The building was used as a pavilion for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, and was sitting empty on a very attractive piece of land that will be redeveloped into a larger cultural area.”