Shenzhen has a new 200-meter tall office skyscraper, Prince Plaza, designed by OMA / David Gianotten and commissioned by CMSK (China Merchants Shekou Holdings) opens in Chinese city.

The mixed-use podium tower is located at Shekou district, on most prominent view corridor linking the Nanshan mountains and the Shenzhen Bay. The tower is an ensemble of four bars attached to a central core.

“Prince Plaza engages with Shekou’s dynamic context formed by its mountains and sea, industrial fabric from the early reform era, and recent skyscrapers. Its three sky decks are important design features. They are public spaces for everyone to appreciate the area’s natural environment through the city’s main view corridor. They also break down the otherwise monolithic skyscraper to create an architecture respectable to buildings of distinctive scales in its surroundings.”

OMA Managing Partner – Architect David Gianotten.

The tower offers 60,000 m² office space. Its fluted façade, with extra wide glass panels, enable office tenants to visually connect with the mountains and the sea. The sky decks—serving both tenants and the public—are highlighted by a hexagon-patterned facade inspired by hills and waves.

The base of the tower is a 40,000 m² podium mall. It occupies the full length of the orthogonal site to maximise street level retail frontage. A prominent opening—marked by a similar façade as the sky decks—is created at the location through which the view corridor runs. With a porous façade and a roof terrace, the podium mall is an extension of the existing commercial and recreational offerings in the area.  

“No other urban area in Shenzhen has such close proximity to both the mountains and the sea, with a view corridor and many open spaces. We fully utilised these features in our design of Prince Plaza.”

OMA Project Architect Bauke Albada.

Project description by OMA

Shekou is defined by a mixed landscape. Mountains and sea, an industrial fabric from the early economic reform era, and recent skyscrapers form a dynamic context. Prince Plaza is located in Shekou’s Sea World district—a unique coastal zone in Shenzhen backed by the Nanshan Mountains and facing the Shenzhen Bay, abundant in public outdoor spaces. The 200-metre mixed-use podium tower at once connects with Shekou’s latest commercial developments, its industrial past, and its everlasting natural environment.  
 
The site falls on Shekou’s most prominent view corridor that runs from the mountains to the sea. Prince Plaza takes full advantage of the view corridor without obstructing it. The tower is an ensemble of four bars attached to a central core. Three sky decks—highlighted by a hexagon-patterned facade inspired by hills and waves—are viewing platforms open to vistas of the mountains and the sea. Designed for use by both tenants and public, they add to the collection of the public outdoor spaces in the coastal Sea World district.  
 
The sky decks break down the otherwise monolithic 60,000 m² tower into four bars of different sizes that respond to architecture of distinctive scales in the surroundings. The two bars on one side are slightly set back to increase the perimeter or each floor plate, allowing more natural light into the office space. The tower’s fluted façade, with extra wide glass panels, enable office tenants to visually connect with the mountains and the sea, while further bringing lightness to the slender vertical bars.  
 
A 40,000 m² podium mall occupies the full length of the orthogonal site to maximise street level retail frontage. Different than typical enclosed shopping malls, Prince Plaza’s podium mall has a porous façade and a roof terrace— an extension of the existing commercial and recreational offerings of the Sea World district. A prominent opening— marked by a similar façade as the sky decks—is created at the location through which the view corridor runs. Underground levels of the mall are integrated with two metro lines that connect Prince Plaza to the rest of Shenzhen.

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Architects
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OMA. Partner-in-Charge.- David Gianotten. Project Architect.- Bauke Albada.
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Project team
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Competition team.-  Andreas Viglakis, Chee Yuen Choi, Lingxiu Chong, Luke Lu, Xu Yang, Yang Shi. With Max Bergman, Helen Chen, Tim Cheung, Vanessa Chik, Jocelyn Chiu, Ikki Kondo, Erick Kristanto, Charles Lai, Anthony Lam, Federico Letizia, Arthas Qian, Jue Qiu, Roberto Requejo, Ricky Suen.
Design team.-  Ka Tam, Saul Smeding, Vincent McIlduff, Wanyu He, Yin Ho, Yongwon Kwon, Xu Yang. With Daan Ooievaar, Jedidiah Lau, Jenny Ni Zhan, Kathleen Cayetano, Luke Lu, Mavis Wong, Paul Feeney, Slobodan Radoman, Thorben Bazlen, Vincent Kersten.
Construction team.- Ka Tam, Saul Smeding, Xu Yang, Yongwon Kwon. With: Christina Kuo, Hafsa Siddique, Joanna Gu, Mark Kanters, Yutian He.
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Collaborators
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LDI & MEP.- Huasen. Li Hongdi, Li Lian, Lian Xianrong, Liu Chong, Tan Lan, Zhong Yubo.
Structure.- RBS. Li Shengyong, Zhang Wenhua.
Traffic.- SUTPC. Jiang Jie, Shao Yuan.
Commercial.- World Union Properties. Ivy, Luo Yu, Zhang Lin.
Façade.- ARUP. Jason Paget, Lian Hongbo, Max Wu, Nina You, Robert Wu, Simon Wu.
Interior.- Benoy. Arnold Kee, Chris Lohan, Elaine Tao, Kai Chung Ng, Kali Chan, Keith Chau, Peter McCaffery, Sandy Tsui.
Sustainability.- Yuezhong. Songbo Shu, Yuanchang Yu.
Landscape.- Metrostudio. Ando Kraithera Lolurlert, Antonio Inglese, Lionella Biancon, Valentina Ticino, Zhang Fangfa.
Metrostation integration.- China Railway Tunnel Survey & Design Institute Hu Jianguo.
Lighting.- CD+M
Patrick Yu, Sunny Kang, Ted Ferreira, Tony Pascocello, Patrick Yu.
Models.- OMA / RJ Models.
Renderings.- OMA / Silkroad.
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Client
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CMSK (China Merchants Shekou Holdings).
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Builder
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Beijing Construction Engineering Group.
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Area
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Site.- 18,985 m².
GFA.- 106,500 m².
Program: Office.- 66,500 m², Retail.- 40,000 m².
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Dates
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2012. Construction start.- 2015. Completed.- 2019. Opening.- 2020.
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Location
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Nanhai Avenue, Shekou District. Sea World Shekou, Shenzhen, China.
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Photography
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Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond. OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.

OMA’s completed projects include Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).

AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU. AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.

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David Gianotten is the Managing Partner – Architect of OMA globally, responsible for the overall organizational and financial management, business strategy, and growth of the company in all markets, in addition to his own architectural portfolio.

As Partner-in-Charge, David currently oversees the design and construction of various projects including the Taipei Performing Arts Centre; the Prince Plaza Building in Shenzhen; the KataOMA resort in Bali; the New Museum for Western Australia in Perth; the masterplan of Rotterdam’s Feyenoord City and the design of the new 63,000 seat Stadium Feijenoord; and Amsterdam’s Bajes Kwartier, a conversion of a large 1960s prison complex into a new neighborhood with 1,350 apartments.

David led the design and realization of the MPavilion 2017 in Melbourne and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange headquarters. He was also responsible for the end stages of the CCTV headquarters in Beijing. David’s work has been published worldwide and several of his projects have received international awards, including the 2017 Melbourne Design Awards and the CTBUH Awards in 2013. David gives lectures around the world mainly related to his projects and on topics such as the future development of the architectural profession, the role of context within projects, and speed and risk in architecture.

David joined OMA in 2008, launched OMA's Hong Kong office in 2009, and became partner in 2010. He became OMA’s global Managing Partner – Architect in 2015 upon his return to the Netherlands after having led OMA’s portfolio in Asia for seven years. Before joining OMA, he was Principal Architect at SeARCH in the Netherlands.

David studied Architecture and Architectural Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology, where he has also served as a professor in the Architectural Urban Design and Engineering department since 2016. Additionally, he serves on the board of the Netherlands Asia Honors Summer School.

 
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