Shenzhen Technology Center

Project Status: Competition
Project Year: 2019
Use: Mixed-use
Area: 198,000 m2
Location: Shenzhen, China
Design: Mauricio Ceballos, FR-EE
Renderings: Sandlab

Project developed for FR-EE Fernando Romero EnterprisE by Mauricio Ceballos and Team.

Context

The project responds to the contemporary demand for specialized facilities that support technological innovation across multiple cutting-edge disciplines. The complex brings together diverse fields including medical science, new materials, microelectronics, robotics, fintech, big data, and artificial intelligence within a unified architectural framework. This convergence of disciplines reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of technological advancement, where breakthroughs often emerge from unexpected intersections between different areas of expertise. The facility must therefore accommodate not only the distinct requirements of each field but also foster the potential for cross-pollination and collaboration between researchers and companies working in different domains.

The scale of the project is substantial, encompassing 198,000 square meters predominantly dedicated to private spaces for tenants. This allocation acknowledges that technological innovation requires secure, customizable environments where proprietary research and development can proceed without compromise. The state-of-the-art laboratories and offices must meet the latest industry standards, which continue to evolve as technology advances and new modes of research emerge. The challenge lies in creating spaces that satisfy today's rigorous technical requirements while remaining adaptable enough to accommodate tomorrow's unforeseen needs. The project must balance specificity with flexibility, providing the high-performance infrastructure demanded by advanced research while avoiding obsolescence through overly rigid spatial configurations.

Design Principles

The design strategy centers on transparency as both a physical and organizational principle, recognizing that visibility fosters collaboration and knowledge exchange between different research groups and disciplines. Physical transparency through glazing and open planning allows occupants to perceive the broader community of innovation surrounding them, breaking down the isolation that can occur in specialized research environments. This openness extends beyond mere aesthetics to embody a philosophy of shared discovery, where the visibility of ongoing work can spark inspiration and encourage the informal interactions that often lead to breakthrough insights.

Flexibility emerges as a fundamental requirement given the rapidly evolving nature of technological research and the diverse needs of different tenant organizations. The spaces are designed to accommodate varying configurations and uses without requiring major structural interventions, allowing companies to adapt their environments as projects evolve and new equipment or methodologies are introduced. This adaptability extends to the capacity of building facilities, which must support intensive and variable demands for power, data, cooling, ventilation, and other utilities essential to high-tech research. The infrastructure is engineered with substantial capacity headroom, ensuring that tenants are not constrained by building limitations as their research intensifies or shifts direction.

Structural resistance and modularity work in concert to provide both robustness and reconfigurability. The structural system must accommodate heavy loads from specialized equipment, vibration-sensitive instruments, and dense mechanical systems while maintaining clear, unobstructed floor plates. Modularity in planning, systems, and construction allows spaces to be subdivided, combined, or reconfigured according to tenant requirements without compromising performance or requiring extensive reconstruction. This modular approach extends through all building systems, from partition walls and ceiling systems to electrical distribution and mechanical infrastructure, creating an environment that can be continuously tuned to the specific and changing needs of its occupants. Together, these principles create a facility that is simultaneously highly specialized and remarkably adaptable, capable of supporting the unpredictable trajectories of technological innovation while maintaining the rigorous standards demanded by contemporary research and development.

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