MVRDV has begun construction on Shenzhen Terraces, a large mixed-use development at the core of the university neighborhood in Shenzhen’s Longgang District. Designed with sustainability as a focus, the project’s green, outdoor spaces house an array of activities, including a theatre, library, museum, conference center, and retail space. All of these programs come together to make the site a hub for meeting, learning, leisure, culture, and relaxation.

Contrasting the surrounding high-rise towers, Shenzhen Terraces comprises a series of stacked and accessible horizontal plates. These features allow the project to seamlessly merge into the existing landscape. In addition, the plates perform an ecological function as they provide shade and their round shape promotes wind flow and natural ventilation. 

Shenzhen Terraces has been envisioned as a sustainable hub for the area as it combines a pedestrian-friendly landscape with twenty different programs, including educational, commercial, and public transportation. The abundant greenery and water features reduce the local temperature and provide a habitat for local wildlife, while gardens and rainwater collection generate food and water. The concrete used in the buildings will be made using recycled concrete, and photovoltaic panels will be present across extensive portions of the rooftops. 

Bridges connect the various buildings across the project, turning the second floor into a continuous route that connects Shenzhen Terraces with surrounding developments. The edges of the terraces dip down at strategic points to form connections between the various floors and to double as small outdoor auditoriums. Further functional components include façades that are pushed in order to emphasize entrances and to create recognizable places so visitors can orient themselves. 

Additionally, at the center of the scheme’s largest building, the terraces curve inward to form an open-air atrium. The library is the defining element of the complex. It acts as a glue that is divided over two buildings and connects related educational and commercial programs, such as youth activity center and a youth entrepreneurship center, with an outdoor “books park”.

With Shenzhen Terraces, the line between indoor and outdoor is blurred. MVRDV placed equal importance on the outdoor landscape as the interior spaces. The firm worked in collaboration with Openfabric to develop the landscaping, which adds patches of jungle-like greenery and public programming between pedestrian routes. These patches feature the subtropical vegetation present in the region, grassy hills, public art, reflective pools, and activity zones for climbing or table tennis. The roofs are also embedded into this landscape, used not only for photovoltaic panels and rainwater collection but also as accessible green lawns. 

“In cities like Shenzhen, it is essential to think carefully about how public space and the natural landscape can be integrated into a dense city. Cool spaces, sheltered from the weather, create an escape from air-conditioned interiors”, says MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. “Shenzhen Terraces can be seen as a three-dimensional park that makes it possible for students to walk outside to their lectures in the warm weather instead of being locked inside. In this project we are not working against the climate, but with the climate. The naturally ventilated terraces, protected from the sun by overhangs, will soon become fantastic hangout spots for people to meet and study.”