Design inspiration that stems from the natural beauty of the surrounding mountains and placid waterways.
One Shenzhen Bay is a new mixed-use high-rise community that represents the future of urban eco-living in one of the most high-density cities in the world. We refused to follow the popular “towers in the park” model, where landscape is nothing more than a setting for a signature building. Instead, One Shenzhen Bay integrates with the surrounding context by threading public promenades through the block to create fluid connections with the adjoining developments. Landscape is layered through a series of porous architectural volumes to create a living building. Here high-performance landscapes soak up and recycle stormwater, shade and insulate dwellings, and passively cool residents.
The center of the site is vacated to create a central garden courtyard designed as an artful retreat for residents. Active site amenities are intentionally located on upper level roof gardens to preserve the tranquility of the courtyard. The streetscape includes dedicated cycle tracks, generous sidewalks, and covered walkways with porous paving to infiltrate stormwater locally.
In response to Shenzhen’s intense heat and torrential rains, we designed a folded terrain to both channel rainwater and insulate the project from heat. Greywater in the towers and stormwater from the site are collected and recycled. Reflecting pools passively cool residents. To reduce energy loads, moving water is limited to a thin skin over a water curtain and a water stair propelled by gravity. Trellises, green and blue roofs, and photovoltaic panels shield rooftops. To reduce irrigation demands, the vegetated slopes are specially designed as deep planters rather than thin green wall systems to improve soil moisture retention and insulate the parking below. Light-colored stone is used for all primary pedestrian surfaces and walls to reduce the urban heat island affect. The granite is locally sourced. Mature trees line the streets and shade the interior of the site. Perhaps the most valuable ecological contribution is committing to building a project that will stand the test of time. Using quality materials and thoughtful design, it is our hope that this project will live on as a community asset for many years to come.
Shenzhen’s cultural heritage of storytelling, ceramics, and wood carving is reflected throughout. The design team worked with an artist to create illuminated benches, sconces, and sculptures to reference the brightly colored shadow puppets found locally in the shape of fish. The north wall of the garden features a high-relief wave pattern translated from local ceramics. The upper decks feature wood carved into the contour of the building to create cascading lounge seating overlooking the pool deck.
Railway transportation requires massive investment. AECOM is able to integrate expertise from strategic planning, transportation planning, land use economic feasibility, property development planning and financing schemes to provide totally transit-oriented development (TOD) solutions.
The Shenzhen Metro Line 6 is along the axis of development of the Shenzhen’s city center, located in brand new Bao’an District. With a total length of 37.8 kilometers, the line connects through Futian Central District, Hong Kong and directly to Dongguan area. It is the key project of the city’s Phase III Rail Construction Plan, with an investment of US$2.42 billion (RMB 14.88 billion).
Shenzhen Metro Line 6 is Mainland China’s first pilot transit-oriented development project plus public private partnership funded mass transit line. The project aims to better utilize the limited land resources, optimize the structure of urban space and to promote the construction of rail transit. The added land value is collected by the government and used to improve the public transportation. It will supplement the construction and operating funds.
By creating a highly efficient public transportation system, smart development and people-friendly environment, maximizing the returns of the property development, investing the added value back to the rail construction, creating win-win situation for public and private sectors and increasing passenger volumes to generate the operation income, AECOM helped to build a green transportation system along the Line 6.
AECOM’s definition of eco-tourism guides our architecture design concept and building engineering works that ensures the integration of hotel facilities into the dynamics of its surrounding nature. The Jingji Dameisha Sheraton Hotel represents that aesthetic interpretation of the relationship between built and natural environments.
The Jingji Dameisha Sheraton Hotel is located in the famous tourist destination, Dameisha Scenic Area, in the Yantian District of Shenzhen, along the south side of the Mei-Yan Highway and 24 kilometers from the city center. The site is connected to many key local visitor attractions, with Dameisha Seafront Park to its west and Xiaomeisha Seafront Visitor Center and the Ocean World Park to its east. The hotel sits on a beach slope, covering 60,000 square meters land area. The complex consists of one five-star hotel and resort and their supporting facilities, owning 440 guest rooms and two villas of over 77,000 total floor areas including 12 storeys above ground and two storeys underground. The main building is 50 meter high. The underground space is built using steel reinformed concrete structure, and the floors above ground are built in steel structure.
The harmonization of the architecture to the surrounding nature comes from its dynamic wave-shaped structure, symbolizing the beach and hill typography in the surrounding areas and ocean waves. The curved facade design also expanded views and maximized the intake of sunlight for each guest room to the waterfront to its south or the green parks to its north.
The project won China’s National Excellent Engineering Exploration and Design Building Engineering Second Prize in 2009. TFP is the design partner of the project.