Project Location: Liuxiandong, Shenzhen                                   Building Area: 4792sqm    

Design Period: 2014—2017                Status: Built                    Category: Experimental

This is a semi-propositional experimental underground development. The ground level must be spared for public green, while the underground level may be used as creative office and public service facilities if possible. But how to realize effective and open basement area of over 7,000sqm that is daylit and ventilated the same as the ground level? How could we incubate an extraordinary shared yard through design?

The flat level at grade is easily reminiscent of a smooth tabletop. What if it’s composed of several tabletops in varied forms? Inspired by the idea of breaking up the whole into parts, we create a tabletop that appears as an integral whole but is actually propped up by a number of tables in different structural forms. Unexpected spaces are thus created to dialogue with each other, while the gaps between tables allow for the possibility of natural daylight and ventilation.

Each underground singular building may be conceived as a table in abstract sense, with the tabletop as urban green and the space underneath it as below-grade levels. The occupied spaces of the buildings are designed and combined on top of the structure. Those independent, simple and differentiated tables together form a nearly 4,800 sqm of double-level landscape at and below grade.

After defining the spatial relations via structural diversity, we employ a basic grid module of 3M for control of functional dimension, and intersperses office spaces with such public functions as basketball court, forest square, stand, and coffee shop to offer experience spaces and routes of diverse hierarchies. Such a concept is inspired by the void-solid relations between public street and buildings as shown in the urban gray space of NOLLY MAP in Roma and the climatically responsive gray building spaces in Lingnan region.

Structure means space. Our design is a tribute to the classic structures in history. 31 buildings in varied forms can actually be attributed to six structural systems, i.e. core + beamless floor, frame structure + ordinary slab, colonnade + non-covered, shear wall + beamless floor, single-point supporting + beamless floor, and multi-point supporting + beamless floor, presenting a varied and fascinating table view on multiple levels and from multiple perspectives.