Category: Office & Mixed Use
Principal Architect: Liu Xiaodu, Meng Yan

 

 

Shenzhen is rapidly becoming an international city with the help of its incessant economy and development, but the lack of city infrastructure and land for development has become an increasing problem. The challenge is clear when it comes to the construction of Shenzhen’s Metro lines. Each line typically demands a large service depot in a valuable urban area, therefore making this area very inefficient for urban development.

The city had decided to take on the idea from places like Japan and Hong Kong to develop a commercial complex on top of the metro service depot. After its completion, the Qianhai Complex on Top of Metro Service Yard will be the first of its kind in China, making it a template for new multi-functional urban complexes.

When work on the building-on-top was confirmed, the metro service depot had finished the design and was about to start construction. The challenge was to design the column network within the limited spaces between the rail lines, which actually brought an opportunity for us to incorporate the streamlined shape of the rail layout into our building design. It created a real vivid and dynamic form and place to fit the SOHO building type. The surface style echoed the function underneath perfectly. It was not easily achieved. Due to the load limit we were restricted to build only low-rise buildings. The fact that the ground level was raised at a height of 16 meters made it difficult to work out the circulation of the complex and to cooperate with the building codes. The irregular column grid and the huge site made the design process overwhelmingly difficult and time consuming. It has become the most complicated project that Urbanus has ever worked on.

 

Credits and Data:

Project Location: Shenzhen
Project Period: 2007-2013
Site Area: 200,000㎡
Floor Area: 354,910㎡

Project Director: Lin Haibin
Designers: Luo Renqin, Zhang Xinfeng, Li Hao, Huang Xu, Ai Yun, Sun Yanhua, Wen Jinxin, Huang Zhonghan, Lin Tian, Zang Min, Xi Jiang, Wu Chunying, Deng Jun, Zhang Haijun, Rao Enchen, Chen Yaoguang, Tu Jiang, He Yong, Xia Miao, Zuo Lei, Wang Yan, Fu Zhuoheng, Zhou Yalin, Liu Sizhao, Shen Zhenzhong, Li Qiang, Wei Zhijiao, Lin Ting
Technical Director: Xu Luoyi

Client: Shen Zhen Metro Co., Ltd.
LDI Collaborator: Beijing CCI Architectural Design CO.,LTD.