Shenzhen Guangming Scientists’ Valley, China

In the middle of 2023, it was announced to the world that the trio of Mecanoo (Netherlands), Meng Architects (China) and Lola Landscape (Netherlands) had won the international design competition for what became known as Shenzhen Guangming Scientist Valley project. This was a competition organised by the winning company Shenzhen Guangming Science City Development Investment Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Position Spatial Culture Development Co., Ltd., with the advice of the Planning and Natural Resources Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality and the Guangming Administration’s Shenzhen Guangming District Science City Development and Construction Bureau of Shenzhen Guangming District.

According to the tender documents, the Guangming Scientists’ Valley was envisioned as a “home for scientists“, with scientists as the main user group. In other words, the competition called for envisioning it as “an international scientific campus that provides a sense of belonging, and merges scientific elements with the natural landscape to build an integrated service supporting system for work, communication and living”. At the same time, it will “create a comprehensive and immersive shared social space, and build a large-scale scientific social network “. And all this not only with a strong “artistic and cultural atmosphere“, but also as a clear demonstration of Shenzhen’s “pioneering character“. Finally, the Valley of the Scientists project was to embody “the design principles of ecology and low-carbon (…), as well as feasibility and sustainability“.

Indeed, the Shenzhen Guangming Valley of Scientists enters the privileged location with a soft, demure step, as if fearful of disturbing the reign of the lake and the mountains. Around a central square with a pond, the two blocks of buildings that compose it seem to camouflage themselves shyly and converse with each other in whispers. The first takes advantage of the slope leading down to the lake to unfold in a staggered manner, under the camouflage of a mantle of green roofs, the angular rhymes of its seven storeys (judging by the image). The second, facing the previous one and already over the lake, adopts circular forms and remains at water level, with sloping roofs that bend down as if in discreet genuflection until they almost touch the ground, humbled by the power of nature. Finally, a series of walkways connects the resident buildings with the green fingers of the “1001 forest gardens” planned on the banks of the lake.

Beyond the impressions suggested by the design, it is necessary to remember that Shenzhen, a city neighbouring Hong Kong and Macau, is home to many of the Asian giant’s technology companies. In fact, it is often compared to the Silicon Valley of the United States. With an area of approximately 1.2 km2, the Guangming Valley of Scientists is expected to become an international science and technology centre, even “a global symbol of scientific advancement and innovation“.