OMA won the Crystal Island competition in Shenzhen

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in collaboration with the Shenzhen firm Urbanus has won the competition for the design of a new cultural center, transportation hub, and public landmark in the center of Shenzhen, South China. The project, developed under the leadership of OMA partner Ole Scheeren, was selected by an international jury from a total of 32 competitive proposals.
The concept is based on Shenzhen's newly acquired status as a "City of Design," which it received from UNESCO last year. For the competition titled Crystal Island, a vision of a "creative center" was created; a place near the Shenzhen City Hall where cultural activities will be concentrated.
Above ground, the Shenzhen Creative Center will contain 20 hectares of parks, gardens with clusters of pavilions, and other small structures ("Design Villages") that create vibrant urban micro-spaces filled with public activities. A suspended pedestrian promenade ("Ring Connector") will encircle the site, linking the various elements.
Underground, the creative center will be connected via shortcuts to future train and metro stations, bus and taxi stops, shopping centers, and the city hall. There will also be a variety of exhibition spaces and places for additional activities.
At the center of these two systems lies the Shenzhen Eye, a new urban landmark. Instead of a built structure, it will consist of an empty space, a kind of empty sphere symbolizing "a space for imagination," a zone concentrating Shenzhen's energy and vision for the future.
The Shenzhen Creative Center is designed as an urbanized space with a low density of construction, where activities are grouped through interconnections. Originally dispersed cultural activities will be linked through infrastructure, creating a cultivated, diverse urban structure open to creative activities.
The project was a collaboration between Ole Scheeren, Rem Koolhaas from OMA, and partner Meng Yan from Urbanus, along with teams from OMA led by Dengmei Yao and Anu Leinonen.