Time Valley
The site is located within the watch and clockmaking district of Shenzhen, inspiring the name of the project. Although some light manufacturing of timepieces still occurs in the area, the zone is predominately being converted into higher-density urban developments. The architectural program for the site is ostensibly a research and development campus with two major towers and an office block, both with small-scale retail programs in the base. In reality, the towers seem to be developed for sale to be used as homes or potentially office spaces, creating a mixed demand for the future landscape.
The landscape design concept explores the concept of time, creating three distinct zones within the development. At the time of the design process there was a known unknown, which was a park would take form on the western edge of the site yet we had no information regarding that park. For BAM this was correlated with the pre-Big Bang era. BAM created a Big Bang plaza in an emergency vehicle pad area in front of the office sector. One of the arms of the Big Bang explosion blasts across the inner street as a crosswalk, connecting to the Time and Space era which occurs in the aftermath of the Big Bang. Floating triangles, squiggles, and waves appear on this plaza, which is again meeting very demanding emergency vehicle requirements. The high visibility of the plaza to the towers above encouraged BAM to develop the pattern with graphic shadows, and in some places, the triangular shapes lift as planters holding Madagascar almond trees. BAM extended the geometric motif into a customized ceramic tile which is used to create the faces of the raised planters.
The southern street edge of the project is considered as ‘human time’ which includes both references to the analog and digital eras. This measured time is represented in the landscape with repetitive, and regular, elements, such as paving patterns, street lights, and benches which follow a rhythm and standardized increment.
Dotted around the site, often close to entries, as science-fiction-like objects, which could be interpreted as spaceships, rockets, lunar modules, or intergalactic surfboards. These objects, water features, and thresholds, are refence to the circular nature of human relation with time. As humans progress and the more technologically advanced we become the more driven we are to identify and explore the space-time continuum as opposed to simply tracking it or theorizing about it.
AWARDS: 2021 Grands Prix du Design Silver Award
LOCATION: Shenzhen
LANDSCAPE AREA: 11,400m²
TYPE: Landscape
YEAR: 2017-2019
CLIENT: Legend