Masterplan Service Center and Museum

International Competition of Urban Design of Luhu Science & Technology Cultural District and Conceptual Architectural Design of Public Building clusters in Longhua District, Shenzhen
Shenzhen Longhua District is located at the north side of Shenzhen Downtown. This District will be the “Shenzhen North Center”, a Modern and International Innovative Central New District, characterized by Innovative Energy, Big Manufacture Industry, Green and Ecological livable place.
As one of the planned six key development Districts in Longhua, Luhu Science & Technology Cultural District is the core area with public service and science & technology study and research functions.
The main target of this competition is to realize the high quality and iconic public service area with main public buildings.
Creating scenic environment, the design embraces vivacious surrounding nature, formulates intersecting and continuous system of elements. Nature, architecture and landscape are integrated together, provides the network of consecutive events.

Science & Technology museum
Science & Technology museum is one of the public building of the Science & Technology Cultural District.
The museum sits at the border between the built city and the park therefore it bears a double function: it is a transit node between two different environments while at the same time it serves a as a facade of the green and public area behind.
Because of its dimensions the plot is used entirely for the building; The museum rises directly from the soil of the park, lifting the ground as a new hill, twin of the one sitting on the other side of the lake, generating a green roof; no green area is lost.
As we don’t want the volume to obstruct the view from the city to the natural area, but instead to bring the nature at the very border of the street projecting it into the urban fabric while inviting to enter the park, the natural landscape is transposed on the facade, that acts as an environmental infrastructure.
Green wall, and catalytic surface clean the air while controlling solar exposition. The presence of plants attract insects and birds encouraging biodiversity .
In order to maintain the connections between city and park the volume is lifted and is cut in correspondence to the pedestrian walkway. Thanks to this, the entire site is connected to the park not only phisically but it also make better view to the landscape.
The public space at the ground floor is an uninterrupted system that interconnects the entrance hall of the museum, the food areas, the retail and the park in a fluid way encouraging continuous use and facilitating the meeting of people.
Inside the museum functions are rationally organized and confined in dedicated spaces, while functionally interconnected and centered on a common hall where a scenographic helicoidal ramp bring the visitor trough a continuous and fluent space.

Comprehensive Service Center
The site of the Comprehensive Centre is characterized by a hill overlooking a lake.
We have two local components driving the design of the building complex: topography and views.
The topography individuates a natural and organic movement parallel to the lake with peaks and valleys.
The architectural form set a dialogue with the terrain trough a reproduction of its own logics: the buildings sit on peaks of the hill empathizing its structure. Then the volumes are connected by a common ground in order to achieve a sense of continuity.
On the other side there is the need to preserve the views toward the lake from the higher part of the public park. Those view corridors cross perpendicularly the building complex determining two big cuts in the buildings and separating the blocks.
The intersection of the two drivers shapes a spaces highly integrated with the landscape both in terms of views from the inside and from the outside.
The resulting of the carving of the built mass consists in a system of public spaces overlooking the lake and interconnected by pedestrian paths and squares: the building shaped around a complex three-dimensional void with high spatial value.
The functions are distributed in the building according to a operational logic: while the public offices are founded in the most iconic buildings around the central public space, the commercial area is shifted towards the city and metro station to ease mass access with public transport.
The most recreational functions: conference hall and dining hall find place under the basement of the offices, taking the double advantage of a reduced soil consume and scenic views to the lake.
The building complex is thought for pedestrian use: access to vehicles to the public space is possible but limited to emergencies and special events, while the road is partially covered to reduce its impact on the environment.

credit

Project: Benedetto Camerana (Urban Design and Architecture); SUADIR (Coordination-Urban Design and Architecture); Gala China (Coordination)
Colloraborators: Arch. Eugenio Bosco, Arch. Marco Caretto, Arch. Alberto M. Spingor, Arch. Giulia Palmerini
Type: Luhu Science & Technology Cultural District Masterplan & Conceptual Architectural Design of Public Building clusters in Longhua District, Shenzhen
Client: The Government Invested Engineering Project Preliminary Work Office of Longhua District
Procedure: International Competition of Urban Design and Architecture
Chronology: 2018
Location: Longhua District, Shenzhen, China
Gross floor area: masterplan area: 11.2 ha; floor area: 185.500 mq