MAD Architects, headed by Ma Yansong, announced the general planning and architectural design of the Shenzhen Bay Culture Park. The ambitious cultural complex covers almost 51,000 m2, with a total area of 182,000 m2, and includes the Creative Design Hall, the Museum of Science and Technology, as well as a large public green space along the waterfront sea in Shenzhen, China.
Over the past decade, the Nanshan district of Shenzhen has grown exponentially and earned the nickname of China’s Silicon Valley, due to the presence of the headquarters of multinationals such as Alibaba Cloud, Huawei and Tencent. The project fits between Houhai, a modern and dynamic city with its high skyscrapers, and the waterfront, where nature seems to invite us to stay out of time, absorbed in contemplative quietude. It is between these two opposites that MAD Architects’ project is placed, consisting of the main buildings of the Creative Design Hall and the Museum of Science and Technology, support spaces (entrances and reception, exhibition rooms and training, library, auditorium, cafeteria, etc.) and the large green park. The whole is revealed to the public like an ethereal urban artistic landscape. The aim is to create a surreal atmosphere, as architect Ma Yansong asserts, which allows visitors to stand out of time and space, seeking new perspectives and establishing a dialogue between the past and the future. To do this, the masterplan developed provides for the distribution of support functions around a large green square immersed in the ground, so that it is not visible from the outside, and the creation of an artistic landscape, thanks to the route connecting with the city and architectures incorporated into the greenery. The park, designed by cycle paths and pedestrian walks, becomes an extension of the main street of the city towards the seafront. Opposite this axis, the north and south pavilions appear as two monoliths melting into the greenery. The architects planned open areas or integrated into the structure, which lend themselves to multiple uses, with in particular the swimming pool carried out in the heart of the master plan and which can, if necessary, transform into an open-air amphitheater with a view of the sea, or the top floor of the south pavilion which will become a panoramic platform, from where the public can admire the skyline of the city of Shenzhen and its bay. The Shenzhen Bay Culture Park is expected to open in 2023, as the icing on the cultural cake concocted by Shenzhen, after ten years of rapid economic growth. A model à la Shanghai.