Shenzhen Creative Center
OMA

Image courtesy Shenzhen Crystal Island © OMA / Ole Scheeren

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), in collaboration with Shenzhen based architects Urbanus, were awarded first prize in the design competition for a major new cultural center, transport hub, and public landmark in the heart of the city of Shenzhen, southern China.

The scheme builds on Shenzhen's newly acquired status of "City of Design," awarded by UNESCO in 2008, and proposes for the city's Crystal Island project the formation of "Shenzhen Creative Center:" a focal point for the city's creative industries in front of Shenzhen's iconic city hall.
 
Above ground, Shenzhen Creative Center consists of a 20-hectare landscape of parks and gardens, populated by clusters of pavilions and small buildings - "Design Villages" - that form a vibrant micro-urbanism of public activity. The site is encompassed by an elevated pedestrian "Ring Connector," an urban walkway joining its multiple elements and infrastructures.
 

Image courtesy Shenzhen Crystal Island © OMA / Ole Scheeren

Below ground, a system of "Shortcut Connectors" link existing and future train and subway stations and provide access to buses, taxis, shopping areas, city hall, and the Creative Center, while accommodating diverse design-related display and activity zones.


Image courtesy Shenzhen Crystal Island © OMA / Ole ScheerenDiagram underground

At the heart of these two systems is the "Shenzhen Eye", a new landmark for the city. Instead of an object, it is a spherical void and symbolic "Space of Imagination" - open, unoccupied, a zone of creativity that concentrates Shenzhen's energy and vision for the future.
 
Shenzhen Creative Center introduces a space that fosters urbanity without density and supports aggregation through interconnected activities. Previously dispersed creative industries will be joined through connective infrastructure and cultivated in a landscape of multiplicity, permeability, and openness towards creative activity.


Drawing courtesy Shenzhen Crystal Island © OMA / Ole ScheerenConcept