The 85-year-old primary school was lifted off the ground - in its entirety - and relocated using new technology dubbed the “walking machine.”

In the city’s latest effort to preserve historic structures, engineers attached nearly 200 mobile supports under the five-story building.

Lan Wuji, chief technical supervisor of the project, said the supports act like robotic legs. They’re split into two groups which alternately rise up and down, imitating the human stride. Attached sensors help control how the building moves forward, said Lan, whose company Shanghai Evolution Shift developed the new technology in 2018.

“It’s like giving the building crutches so it can stand up and then walk,” he said.

A timelapse shot by company Shanghai Evolution Shift shows the school inching laboriously along, one tiny step at a time.

According to a statement from the Huangpu district government, the Lagena Primary School was constructed in 1935 by the municipal board of Shanghai’s former French Concession. It was moved in order to make space for a new commercial and office complex, which will be completed by 2023.

Workers had to first dig around the building to install the 198 mobile supports in the spaces underneath, Lan explained. After the pillars of the building were truncated, the robotic “legs” were then extended upward, lifting the building before moving forward.

Over the course of 18 days, the building was rotated 21 degrees and moved 62 meters (203 feet) away to its new location. The relocation was completed on October 15, with the old school building set to become a centre for heritage protection and cultural education.

The project marks the first time this “walking machine” method has been used in Shanghai to relocate a historical building, the government statement said.