Program: Commercial, Office, Apartment
Location: Shenzhen, China
Period: 2018
Client/Coorperator: Shenzhen Vanke
Bantian Boulevard
Driven by new trends of urbanization and retail models, urban complex has been divorced from the banality of "Big box" and has coupled with the task of “solving urban problems”. In response to the paradigm-shift, "Bantian Boulevard" puts forward two related strategies: Horizontally, to open a diagonal "boulevard" in accordance with the urban axis; And Vertically, to implant a "floating amphitheater" to active pedestrian flows. In such ways the design explores the transition of urban complex, from simply a "functional cluster" to "living hybrid".
"Central Boulevard"
Taking the future urban axis as a hint, a channel cut through from southeast to northwest corners. This open space connects buildings with landscapes, commercial with people, communities with future developments. A series of “pockets spaces” are set along the “boulevard”, to improve natural light and commercial interface. The city block is re-filled with street lives, which have long been missing in contemporary Chinese cities.
"Floating amphitheater"
Top floors in commercial spaces are often defined as inefficient spaces. The design digs a massive concave amphitheater on the rooftop. A constellation of culture and recreation supports a floating gallery ring. The overall system is emerged as a monument, integrating the podium and towers. Pedestrians can ramble around, gaining interwoven experiences of commercial, cultural and city lives.
The Bantian Boulevard is a place where city lives can be gathered: Young couples are having coffee while looking through the glass of atrium; There is an art show happening on the link bridge; Walkers are passing occasionally, quickly disappear at the corner. On the amphitheater people are gathering, as an open-air movie is just launched; Escalators moving ups and downs, carrying local residents with baskets. More people on the towers are hiding themselves from office windows, looking at everything …
By such, we hope Bantian Boulevard can regenerate urbanity here at Bantian, Shenzhen.