Test-bed for urban regeneration in China
Bao’An G107 Corridor Regeneration Masterplan
Location: Shenzhen, China
Client: People’s Government of Bao’An District
Programme: 53 km2 regeneration masterplan
Urban regeneration, instead of planning for city extension, is an increasingly important topic in Chinese urban development. Little experience with regeneration exists within the profession and the administration. Shenzhen again is acting as a laboratory for how handle the new challenges of working within existing cities in China.
The regeneration area is a new chapter in the history of G107, China’s first modern highway. With the economic opening in the 1980s investment into Shenzhen, then labelled “Factory of the World”, started when Hong Kong businesses built their first factories along this new spine connecting Shenzhen to Beijing. After now 35years of development, the zone along G107 is characterised by hyper diversity and a generally poor urban condition. Besides immediate problems of regular flooding and congestion, the area is blocking Shenzhen’s economic shift from production towards innovation and services.
Plan + Process The main challenge of the regeneration proposal was a future-proof a plan and to develop an implementation process that carefully integrates and addresses the complexity of the existing urban fabric and stakeholders. In the design of MLA+ the highway G107 is still the driving force of the area to connect the different areas, but its function changes from utilitarian infrastructure to a key driver for urban regeneration. Within this main structure hubs are created for different urban functions. With an emphasis on public space networks the different elements of the existing city are connected. Additional to the plan, the MLA+ proposed a Project Handbook and Regeneration Method based on our regeneration experience in China and internationally.
In the time to come, the MLA+ consortium will refine the plan to approval level, and work with the client on its implementation over the coming three years.
Stages:
2016 Concept
Awards:
2016 International Design Competition, 1st Prize
Team:
MLA+: Lamiaa Abouelala, Markus Appenzeller, Chang Chunyang, Elena Pardo, Martin Probst, Brechtje Spreeuwers, Yang Shuning
CAUPD China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Shenzhen Municipal Design & Research Institute, Felixx
