DEEP GROUND
Longgang Centre and longcheng Square International Competition
G r o u n d lab
Intro
Deep Ground project designed by Groundlab Collective, has recently won
the design competition for Longgang Centre and Longcheng Square international
competition. The project deals with the regeneration of 11.8 Km2 of the
urban fabric in the centre of Longgang, north east of Shenzhen in the
Pearl River Delta, with estimated population of 350,000 and 9,000,000
m2 of new development. The design of the project is strongly based in
the methodology currently proposed by Landscape Urbanism, ranging from
spatial concepts such as thickened ground, bottom up approach to reading
the territory and deployment a relational urban design models. Collaborators
for the competition stage include Arup ILG providing input in the infrastructure
and InGame as local office.
Thickened ground
This concept describes the spatial strategy that Groundlab has used for
the implementation of the underground development in conjunction with
public space design and the river crossing. Central to the definition
of the figure ground is an attempt to understand and design the space
as a surface which acquires thickness and spatial complexity as the different
programs and land uses start to combine. In this way, the thickened ground
looks for mixture of programs rather than compartmentalization of functions,
working towards and open ended spatial result which combines good quality
open space with otherwise isolated infrastructural elements. For the case
of this project, the thickened ground emerges out of the bridge over the
Longgagn river, crossing north to LongCheng Square to then become a folded
surface containing both public programme, underground access and parking
for the CBD. The thickened ground becomes a whole strategy to challenge
the traditional opposition building vs landscape, managing to introduce
surprisingly high density and programme into areas which are currently
under used, increasing the overall value, open space usage and intensity
of life at street level.
Landscape
Longgang River is located at the heart of Longgang city but is radically
separated from the it with no interaction or relation apart from being
used as a back yard and wastewater sewer The infrastructural landscape
project used this contradictory condition to propose the recovery of the
river triggering the revitalization not just of banks and surrounded areas
but of the whole city , driving the landscape strategy, greenery and river
as one interactive and interconnected system. The infrastructure
designed along the river will serve as an anchor point to deploy cleansing
strategies, rainwater collection and flooding defence while creating green
areas, ecological corridors, public open spaces, sports fields and leisure
areas. The landscape network creates a major framework to articulate
the urban fabric, the public areas and the infrastructural equipment of
the city and will be able to generate a great variety of programmes which
do not exist or are in poor conditions, linking the river to the neighbourhoods
and with the city. This in fact will generate ecology inside the city,
highlighting the presence of the river in the city not just as an
aesthetic element but as a strategic, active and vital for the present
and future viability of the city.
The design for the infrastructural landscape incorporates a number of
principal elements: River and waterscapes, ecological corridors, river
valleys, as well as others in relation with them: biodiversity, connectivity,
use and activity and character. These elements are combined to produce
an inspiring, hardworking, accessible, safe, sustainable and contemporary
landscape.
Urban Villages
The concept of the urban villages is key in the project, as is an urban
typology which clearly defines the character and history of many cities
in China and Longgang in particular. There is a set of urban villages
which have been identified as potentially interesting to be preserved.
The project proposes the use of these areas as part of a strategy for
generation of various brands across the site, providing certain characteristics
and differentiation which will be the key for the success of the city
as a whole.
Urban villages tend to show an extraordinary character which in many cases
attracts visitors due to its distinctiveness. This is the case of the
so called the Dafan Oil Painting Village, also in ShenZhen, where an industry
of production of painting replicas has generated an unprecedented interest
from tourists, which in turn has sparked the arrival of different kinds
of artists and creative professionals.
In the case of this project, the villages show different characteristics
which make them unique, like the presence of a market or prominent historical
building. This fact is key in the management strategy of the urban villages
as this can be an important point to anchor the urban life around them.
Parametric model
For the purposes of this project, a relational urban model has been created
which can control simultaneously built mass quantities as well as 3D model
of the built fabric. The model is based in sets of urban relationships
which connect one another, hence the name of relational. One of the advantages
of this working methodology is that it enables the generation of different
options with a relative minor effort, as most of the drawing gets automatically
produced, while there is potentially the chance to evaluate the overall
built volume before the volume is even generated. It also enables the
combination of variables related to density with variables related to
typology. This can be used to produce varied and diverse urban patterns
with simple controls. The volumetry of the proposed built fabric shown
in the final drawing and renderings has been modelled to suit the quantity
of land use calculated in the Transport Chapter (around 9,000,000 m2).
The result of this work is a series of options which allow us to study
simultaneously the effects of different massing options in terms of GFA
(m2) and spatial arrangement as well. The image shows the type of iterations
that the model allows to do, evaluating options where the centre of intensity
of the model as well as the overall quantity of buildings are modified
in order to get a totally different, yet related, urban configuration.
This leads to the concept of Adaptable Design applied for the Longgang
masterplan, where changes on different variables (location and number
of density nodes, particularities in building catalogue, etc) can be added
into the design almost in real time so that further discussion on the
urban fabric and architectural qualities can be put forward during the
decision making process.
Groundlab Team
Eva Castro
Eduardo Rico
Alfredo Ramirez
Holger Kehne
Sarah Majid
Competition Team
Alejandra Bosch
Maria Paez
Brendon Carlin
Collaborators
Clara Oloriz
Arturo Lyon
Enriqueta Llabres
Chinese Buildings
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