“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”

– Dickens.

“… the best way to see the way forward, is to look back at where you came from.”

– us.

In the context of the Pearl River Delta [or Greater Bay Area], the bottom-up actions have long informed the top-down decisions. When Deng Xiaoping took his southern tour, he was inspired by the dispersed yet collective behaviour of the people of the region. This ultimately led to the generation of the Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen [and other areas in China]. This sense of dispersed competition formed vast industrial areas that often have been transformed to key cultural districts within Shenzhen. Further, this creation of multitudes of working-class jobs drew vast immigrants from all over China to move to Shenzhen. This demand for massive rapid housing led to the transformation of many existing villages in the area to become ‘Urban Villages’ to house the migrants. Eventually these once perceived eyesores are now seen as the key to the future of Shenzhen as centers of affordable housing, small scale businesses, creative districts, etc.

Collective Individuality – The Chinese dream is about thinking big, starting small, and seeking friends to collaborate with. It is in many ways a form of critical regionalism at the human scale. The citizens of Shenzhen ideals are rooted in an international perspective, but tied to their geographic and emergent cultural context.

Scaled Diversity – Shenzhen is filled with an array of entrepreneurs, from an assortment of contexts, with a range of spatial needs. This need for flexible spaces for living and working manifests itself in a seemingly ad hoc arrangement of differing spatial moments.

Finger Plan – The existing grided framework is juxtaposed to the existing rigid grid system by providing a five-pronged series of themes that are the framework for emergent social space of the future while referencing the basic elements of nature.

Layered Linkages – Existing and new buildings are intertwined with a series of small scale upper level bridges and walkways to increase social cohesion, generate more common spaces as well as provide easy for networking and communication between elevated spaces.

- Sustainability = Energy: Shenzhen is a place gifted with intense access to sunlight and winds from the sea. By allowing lifted spaces that can harness both a series of intense, but small-scale solar and wind farms emerge.

- Climate Resilience = Adaptive Systems: Given the reality of typhoons and intense solar radiation the facades of the buildings are not static, but dynamic. Allowing for sun protection in the summer and access in the winter. Further this dynamic quality allows for them to transform to protect upon the arrival of typhoons.

- Ecology = Diverse Food Supply: With the need for quality local food, intense heat, and entrepreneurial spirit – a series of rooftop farms protect buildings and give locals direct access to locally grown produce.

- Regeneration+Preservation = Learning from Villages: A Preserve, Edit and Add strategy is taken towards the existing urban fabric. Existing buildings are maintained but a series of small-scale parasitic elements are added as well as the addition of thin vertical elements to add program and intensity to the area. A series of S: more personal start-ups, M: medium tech companies, L: communal centres, XL: commercial towers.

- Social Inclusiveness+Community = Augmented Common Space: A fresh interpretation of the ground scape takes the shape five fingers that responds to the digital social space of the future, Fire: gathering spots, barbecues, etc; Air: Carbon zero, air purification, Space: Outer space tech gathering / social engagement spaces; Earth: Tactile Topographies/ AR gaming spaces; Water: Hydrologically constructed wetlands

+ Transport/Connectivity = Micro Networks: Autonomous driving pods and drones allow for rapid and literal connection to adjacent high speed rail networks and to adjacent elevated living and working areas.

+ Transport/Connectivity = Micro Mobility: The community is adjacent to a massive waterway as well as some of the biggest train hubs in Europe. By providing micro-autonomy pods, self-driving boats, and flexible piers this community can link to extensive transit flows, distant countryside’s, and all right at their front door.