Overviewed by the statue of Chairman Deng Xiaoping up on Mount Lianhua, a strong north-south axis gives order to Shenzhens center, alining the city‘s most important buildings. Huang Gang village, being directly penetrated by this axis, is a neighborhood of people living together for generations in a traditional community. The daily village life has a high social value while institutons such as the Huang Gang ancestral temple add cultural value to the society. Giving this authentic community a contemporary form, suitable for the 21st century, is the aim of this project.
The urban planning of this design proposal respects the central axis by opening a generous gap between the buildings and continuing it throught the whole depth of the site. We propose four main volumes in the north part of the site, in a stepped line reacting to the axis of Huang gang ancestral temple, separated by carefully adjusted gaps to ensure natural ventilation. Three of these volumes break down to six 162m high residential blocks, while the fourth one, developed to an equally high building, containing three differently sized types of appartments which creates a terminus to the arrangement on the east side. Located on the opposite side of the site, another 108 m high residential complex, being composed of two volumes, further divided into four buildings, will be arranged parallely to Fumin road in one line with the Huang xuan Hotel in the east.
The key to transform Huang Gang village`s original character into a modern language is to respect its identity. One main aspect of reacting to this topic is the translation of the villages unique diagonal order in the context of the surrounding urban planing into a three dimensional sculptured facade. Thereby, the site’s essence can be read on the facade from an urban scale, even until Mount Lianhua, like on an overdimensional screen.
To preserve the social character of a village, the buildings contain many interconnected public and half-public spaces, such as an extensive roof garden which offers space to meet and relax and a community floor on level 31, in the western part of the north buildings. A sky bridge connects both eastern and western parts, augments the expression of the space between both parts of the complex to create a gate-like appearance, thereby reinforcing the visibility of the central urban axis from a far distance. Within the lower floors of the two rows of residential high rises a high class commercial space is propsed, providing attractive and flexible tenant space in any internal location. The commecial area is connected below grade where an ice skating area resides, but is separated above ground by the internal boulevard lined with a series of light mushroom shaped screen roofs aligned on the central urban axis.
Working like an adapter in the urban context, this buiding not only links the public functions of the 31st floor of the north eastern residential highrises indirectly to the ground and directly to the Huang xuan Hotel, it also completes the commercial‘s volume shape and communicates with the Huang xuan Hotel by the use of a light screen wall. It is suggested to be designed by the artist Ned Kahn, who is internationally known for the creation of kinetic facades which generate fluid, ever changing patterns driven by wind.
