diff --git a/src/Orchard.Web/Core/Shapes/CoreShapes.cs b/src/Orchard.Web/Core/Shapes/CoreShapes.cs
index be95189eb..c1260411e 100644
--- a/src/Orchard.Web/Core/Shapes/CoreShapes.cs
+++ b/src/Orchard.Web/Core/Shapes/CoreShapes.cs
@@ -301,9 +301,12 @@ namespace Orchard.Core.Shapes {
             var progress = 1;
             var flatPositionComparer = new FlatPositionComparer();
             var ordering = unordered.Select(item => {
-                var position = (item == null || item.GetType().GetProperty("Metadata") == null || item.Metadata.GetType().GetProperty("Position") == null)
-                                   ? null
-                                   : item.Metadata.Position;
+                string position = null;
+                var itemPosition = item as IPositioned;
+                if (itemPosition != null) {
+                    position = itemPosition.Position;
+                }
+
                 return new { item, position };
             }).ToList();
 
diff --git a/src/Orchard/ContentManagement/ContentPart.cs b/src/Orchard/ContentManagement/ContentPart.cs
index cdb4bbfbe..16ed02311 100644
--- a/src/Orchard/ContentManagement/ContentPart.cs
+++ b/src/Orchard/ContentManagement/ContentPart.cs
@@ -21,14 +21,6 @@ namespace Orchard.ContentManagement {
 
         public virtual ContentItem ContentItem { get; set; }
 
-        //interesting thought, should/could parts also have zones (would then have zones on the page, content item and parts...)?
-        private readonly IZoneCollection _zones = new ZoneCollection();
-        public virtual IZoneCollection Zones {
-            get {
-                return _zones;
-            }
-        }
-
         /// <summary>
         /// The ContentItem's identifier.
         /// </summary>
diff --git a/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/IPositioned.cs b/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/IPositioned.cs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..898cdc76a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/IPositioned.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+namespace Orchard.DisplayManagement {
+    public interface IPositioned {
+        string Position { get; }
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/IShape.cs b/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/IShape.cs
index 27ad21151..5ec1483cb 100644
--- a/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/IShape.cs
+++ b/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/IShape.cs
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-using System.Diagnostics;
-using Orchard.DisplayManagement.Shapes;
+using Orchard.DisplayManagement.Shapes;
 
 namespace Orchard.DisplayManagement {
     /// <summary>
diff --git a/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/PositionWrapper.cs b/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/PositionWrapper.cs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e684bfdb5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/PositionWrapper.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+using System.Web;
+
+namespace Orchard.DisplayManagement {
+    public class PositionWrapper : IHtmlString, IPositioned {
+
+        private IHtmlString _value;
+        public string Position { get; private set; }
+
+        public PositionWrapper(IHtmlString value, string position) {
+            _value = value;
+            Position = position;
+        }
+
+        public PositionWrapper(string value, string position)
+            : this(new HtmlString(HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(value)), position) {
+        }
+
+        public string ToHtmlString() {
+            return _value.ToHtmlString();
+        }
+
+        public override string ToString() {
+            return _value.ToString();
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/Shapes/Shape.cs b/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/Shapes/Shape.cs
index d009d1123..a3e30e6d8 100644
--- a/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/Shapes/Shape.cs
+++ b/src/Orchard/DisplayManagement/Shapes/Shape.cs
@@ -4,11 +4,11 @@ using System.Dynamic;
 using System.Linq;
 using System.Collections;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
-using System.Web.Mvc;
+using System.Web;
 
 namespace Orchard.DisplayManagement.Shapes {
     [DebuggerTypeProxy(typeof(ShapeDebugView))]
-    public class Shape : Composite, IShape, IEnumerable<object> {
+    public class Shape : Composite, IShape, IPositioned, IEnumerable<object> {
         private const string DefaultPosition = "5";
 
         private readonly IList<object> _items = new List<object>();
@@ -22,6 +22,12 @@ namespace Orchard.DisplayManagement.Shapes {
         public virtual IDictionary<string, string> Attributes { get { return _attributes; } }
         public virtual IEnumerable<dynamic> Items { get { return _items; } }
 
+        public string Position {
+            get {
+                return Metadata.Position;
+            }
+        }
+
         public Shape() {
             Metadata = new ShapeMetadata();
         }
@@ -33,13 +39,14 @@ namespace Orchard.DisplayManagement.Shapes {
             }
 
             try {
-                // todo: (sebros) this is a temporary implementation to prevent common known scenarios throwing exceptions. The final solution would need to filter based on the fact that it is a Shape instance
-                if (item is MvcHtmlString ||
-                    item is String) {
-                    // need to implement positioned wrapper for non-shape objects
+                if (position != null && item is IHtmlString) {
+                    item = new PositionWrapper((IHtmlString)item, position);
+                }
+                else if (position != null && item is string) {
+                    item = new PositionWrapper((string)item, position);
                 }
                 else if (item is IShape) {
-                    ((dynamic)item).Metadata.Position = position;
+                    ((IShape)item).Metadata.Position = position;
                 }
             }
             catch {
diff --git a/src/Orchard/Orchard.Framework.csproj b/src/Orchard/Orchard.Framework.csproj
index 05643ba8a..bc54f1a22 100644
--- a/src/Orchard/Orchard.Framework.csproj
+++ b/src/Orchard/Orchard.Framework.csproj
@@ -150,6 +150,8 @@
   </ItemGroup>
   <ItemGroup>
     <Compile Include="BackgroundHttpContextFactory.cs" />
+    <Compile Include="DisplayManagement\IPositioned.cs" />
+    <Compile Include="DisplayManagement\PositionWrapper.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Localization\Services\ILocalizationStreamParser.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Localization\Services\LocalizationStreamParser.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Mvc\Html\LinkExtensions.cs" />