MVRDV has started the construction of a mixed-use project Shenzhen Terraces in China. The 95,000 square-meter project is located in Shenzhen’s Longgang District. Designed with sustainability as a focus, the outdoor space will have a theatre, a library, a museum, a conference center, and retail.
It is designed for meeting, learning, leisure, culture, and relaxation. Shenzhen Terraces is poised to become a sustainable hub for the surrounding area. The plants and water will reduce the local temperature and provide habitat for urban wildlife, while gardens and rainwater collection generate food and water resources.
An open-air atrium is located at the center of the largest building, on the east of the site. In the buildings on the western side of the site, the library acts as the glue that connects educational and commercial programs such as a Youth Activity Centre and a Youth Entrepreneurship Centre, with a “books park” outside. On the second floor, the bridges merge the buildings into a continuous route with surrounding development and connect shenzhen terraces.
MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas said, “Shenzhen Terraces can be seen as a three-dimensional park that makes it possible for students to walk outside to their lectures in the warm weather instead of being locked inside. In this project we are not working against the climate, but with the climate.”
One of the important feature of this project is to merge the building with the landscape and make it as sustainable as possible. The landscaping is developed in collaboration with Openfabric, adding patches of jungle-like greenery and public programming between pedestrian routes. These patches host planting that imitates the sub-tropical natural forests of the region, mixed alongside features such as grassy hills, public art, reflective pools, and activity zones for climbing or table tennis. The roofs are also part of this landscape, used not only for photovoltaic panels and rainwater collection but also large, accessible green lawns.
