Bao’An District serves Shenzhen as a gateway between the outside world, the inner Chinese cities and mainland china. Located in the northwest side of Shenzhen along the Pearl river delta, and once a suburban town far away from the inner city of Shenzhen, Bao’An is now a booming district with an international profile, with many modern and contemporary buildings and infrastructural works underway. Part of the ongoing renovation of the old town area of Bao’An (where our site is located) are a series of projects aiming to improve the image of the historic district, now wanting to compete with other more developed districts within Shenzhen.

It is in this cultural and economic context, where the Bao’An Archive Building becomes significant. With the intention to build a comprehensive modern archive, one which will be up to international standards of public openness and civic accessibility, the Bao’An Archive Building will come to represent the future trends in terms of public service philosophy and quality, becoming a model for the development of archive architecture and comprehensive services in Shenzhen and the entire nation as a whole.

Our approach to the site is one of controlled porosity. Our urban approach to the site aims not to close it off from the existing neighborhood or even from the rest of the buildings within the site. Rather, we aim to produce a sense of permeability, enabling pedestrian access to and from the Zinzhen River corridor and its adjacent green park, conceiving as a result, an environmental suitable, modulated mass which engages and generates its own sense of community. We would like to conceive of this complex building as an urban ensemble, a multipart and even playful architectural puzzle which creates a civic aggregate, an integrated multiplicity and an urban network of objects with the capacity to relate, enhance and transform the character of the existing context and the growing Bao’An district.

Team:
Marcelo Spina
Georgina Huljich
Danial Mahfoud
Emily Sun
Aseel Alamoudi