Building a contemporary city means making connections — within spaces, between spaces, and most importantly, between people.
This was The Oval Partnership's goal for the new Shenzhen Bay Cultural Plaza: to connect Shenzhen Bay with the broader urban context, creating a space for culture and community and, ultimately, a waterfront destination in the vein of Tokyo Bay or San Francisco Bay.
Contemporary Shenzhen is home to a burgeoning cultural ecosystem, and the site’s location in Houhai positions it as a key node close to established and emerging cultural institutions that position it as a culture-led complex. We set out first to reconnect the site with the urban fabric by linking the old bay area with new waterfronts and connecting transportation hubs to cultural platforms.
Our scope encompassed all masterplanning for the site, in addition to most of the architecture, with some architecture and facades created by other project partners. And key to our approach was our use of proprietary tools and processes based on Digital Placemaking (DPM), which enabled us to analyse the site and its potential at a deep level.
We viewed the multi-level site as a kind of three-dimensional lattice, with potential points of connection spanning it both horizontally and vertically. Using DPM, we analysed the existing scheme and created an improved version in the masterplan. This included increasing and evening out pedestrian density, and creating strong visual connections through the site, from the sunken plaza to the ground level and the elevated level.
In this way, we created a new connected public realm interweaving cultural elements that incorporate local crafts, brands and people, developed in collaboration with Philip Dodd of Made in China. The result is a series of ‘villages’— Field, Terrace, Townhall, Lighthouse and the Bay — each offering its own character and mixed uses. Carefully planned street routes, squares, terraces, alleys and open space invite people to interact and create community stories. What’s notable about the architecture is its absence: built elements step aside for landscaping that provides climate control as well as settings for productive horticulture, al fresco time and shared moments, while three-dimensional pedestrian networks — ground paths, elevated walks, and underground spaces with shops and greenery — link transit, culture and the bay to create walkable social spaces.
The deliberate eco-cultural layout is an antidote to Shenzhen’s frenetic pace, embracing the idea of manmanlai (‘take it slow’) and encouraging unhurried engagement with the contiguous public spaces, elevated streets and treewalks above and the subterranean ‘green valleys’ below. At the same time, the cultural programming harnesses Shenzhen’s ‘forever young’ vitality, creating spaces for the next generation to flourish by harmonising creativity, technology and ecology to serve the city’s diverse emerging communities. Importantly, the entire space remains profoundly local, highlighting authentic Shenzhen elements for a destination that appeals internationally yet feels distinctly rooted.
Shenzhen Bay Cultural Plaza’s sense of connection is not just social but also material: locally, attractions like Shenzhen MixC and Window of the World are nearby, with three metro lines offering seamless access to core business districts, Shenzhen Bao'an Airport, Xili Station and beyond. The project also integrates with Hong Kong via Shenzhen Bay Port, helping to create a ‘one-hour living circle’.
Through our people-centric approach to placemaking, supported by a rigorous methodology that’s equally analytical and empathetic, we and our partners have created a destination that embodies connection, and by doing so creates a space where the next generation of people can realise the next-generation urban environment.
