An Urban Valley on the Road | Shenzhen, China | Shenzhen Fangxing Design Development

An Urban Valley on the Road is located inside Yuehai Street Software Industry Base, the most developed technology park in Shenzhen.

The site area is 1,230m2. a height of 1.5m in relation to the municipal main road, and a distance of less than 6m from the two high-rise office buildings on the east and west sides. A highly folded space hems in the project, forming an efficiently operating time-space where no one seems to travel far or need amazing views. It is arguably a cramped space in a forest of glass and reinforcing steel bars. Right in a crevice between office buildings where the office staff of corporate headquarters works, people are seriously alienated.

The design team did a long-term site survey in the hope of expressing their sympathy for anxious urbanites. This separately built poetic green space is different from the other spaces nearby in that it reminds people to pay attention to the world in which they exist and to hold expectations of a distant mountain valley.

1. Still on the Road

The road designers choose to ensure efficient traffic management within the site. The landscape architect looked to create spaces for people in the initial stages but at the same time avoid interfering with the traffic. The newly built landscaped roads and barrier-free passages better meet people’s needs in multiple folding scenarios.

2. An Encounter with a Green Environment

An extensive green partition separates the site from the surrounding office buildings and other open spaces, and road segmentation ensures the relative integrity of the natural greening layers, rendering them eye-catching and pure. The design revolves around “green” to deliver a sense of comfort.

3. Experiencing an Urban Valley

The designers used seating terraces and straight lines to compose a multi-plane landscape that offers peace and comfort. The landscape wall and gallery frame the rest area to create important spatial expressions. The design featuring differing heights combines the landscape and the rest space, broadens its view, and increases its capacity. The stairs re-integrate the site, creating the sense that they serve as a viewing platform for the site.

The mirror provided at the bottom of the gallery frame compensates for the thinness of the narrow, long space and raises the possibility of having a dialog with oneself for those who enter, not only draws people’s attention to the space but also enhances the spatial experience. It makes the shift from the working state to the resting state to bring a sense of detachment (through changes to behavior and location) to people busy at work.