Shenzhen North Station Hub District Masterplan

Client: Shenzhen Municipal Government

Place: Shenzhen, China

Date: 2020 Competition (Finalist)

Type: Urban Planning, Transport, Culture, Education, Office, Landscape

Area: 150000m2

AZPML

Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Maider Llaguno-Munitxa, Ivaylo Nachev, Carlota Mendes

Our proposal for the design of the urban space in front of North Station in Shenzhen is aimed to give an integrated form to private urban developments and public infrastructure, as part of what we would like to consider a model of Public Oriented Development for Shenzhen, at a crucial time when the city has become a test of a socialist urbanity with Chinese characteristics.

Central Park North is the answer from Shenzhen to the concentration of Public Cultural Infrastructure that was enjoyed since the 1970’s in the Welfare State cities in Europe.

Given the programmatic ambiguity of the project at present, we propose to give priority to the image of the Park topography over the individual buildings, giving flexibility to future programs to occupy a 2-level socle under the park. Southern China enjoys specific climatic conditions which sustain a luscious vegetation. The Lingnan gardens typical of Guangdong have been the inspiration for this Park/Public Facility Centre. Vegetation will contribute to regulate the urban microclimate, by providing shade and evapotranspiration.

We are inspired by the possibility to extend the Park vegetation to the vertical cliffs forming the edge of the Park. Our proposal is to design the perimeter of Central Park North with stepped buildings which provide multiple green terraces on their facades, which will add to the quality of the buildings. We have aimed to densify the edge of the Central Park North Complex with FAR ranging between 9 and 12 FAR on the perimeter blocks. The Green Cliff Towers will therefore create a closure of the Central Park North urban space, creating a readable form. The Green Cliff Towers will also provide an extension to the vegetation on the park onto its vertical enclosure, creating a strong impression of the urban void, attuned with the aim to engage with the emerging economy of ecology, biotechnology and urban health. Typologically, the Green Cliff Towers are based on well-tested existing typologies of employment space in Shenzhen. They are based on floorplates of 48m x 48m with a gross floorplate of 2300m2 and a central core which leaves façade-to-core column-free spaces of 15m.