Time: 2000/2004    Location: Shenzhen     Size: 35,0000 sqm

The site is located in the geometric center of several commercial zones in Nanshan District, ShenZhen. Bounded by a major thoroughfare and highly active shopping streets, its 150,000sqm area has the potential to become a multi-functional retail and entertainment center due to its accessibility and other infrastructural conveniences.

The original plan was to build 300,000 Sqm of mixed retail, offices and high-rise residential buildings on this site. But the new urban planning changed the land use from commercial to park use. This planning completely erased all previous efforts and the developer asked for a large sum of compensation for the price paid of the land and also a new site for the development. We were asked to develop an alternative strategy to possibly satisfy both the government's need for a park and the developer's need for their development, in order to minimize the compensation.

Urbanus came up with the idea to combine a public park with large scale retail and also add programs like office buildings, a hotel, rental apartments and lofts, in order to develop a hybrid 24 hour city. The key concept here is to build a terraced park with retail underneath; with several of the pedestrian paths that are cut through the raised park becoming the shopping streets. These cuts act as a geometrical extension of the existing street pattern around the site, each having different widths with corresponding functions and characters. The site is also divided into blocks with differing scales, increasing the number of paths passing through the site in different directions. This could potentially raise the land value by adding more ground floor retail areas, and by improving accessibility to each block.

To become a real urban attraction for shoppers and commuters, the proposal tries to set up a strong spatial link to the city. Along the southern and western boundaries an “L” shaped commercial strip is added. This strip with openings and coner squares draws people into the shopping district from the surrounding dense neighborhood. It also redefines the relationships between work, leisure and commercial spaces. The park and retail are intertwined with each other, which encourages maximum overlapping and interpenetrating. Several independent pavilions are floating above the strip, accommodating both a mixed program and a strong urban identity for the entire area.