Approved by the mayor and planning department, the project is located at the entry to the Shenzhen Bay Super HQ masterplan in Southern China.
The Shenzhen Wave is conceived of as a piece of the city, responding to its context, and integrating with the local community. As the building floats gracefully above street level, a new plaza beneath the suspended volume connects the waterfront to the urban fabric behind it and gives public space back to the city. On the other side of the plaza, a landscaped mound and amphitheatre create the ‘Culture Node', bringing light, activity and people down to the lower levels, where an exhibition space and cafeteria are located.
Sustainability, both environmental and social, defines the core values of this HQ for the future. The building hosts spaces for formal and informal work, research, innovation, and retreat into a wholly new type of architecture for the city.
A sinuous diagonal ‘Wave’ cuts through the building and links its multiple levels, lifting the structure off the ground and cresting up through the roof. This key element becomes an open and experiential pathway through the building for light, views and circulation, encouraging spontaneous encounters between users throughout the structure. The spatial organisation of the building both physically embodies and simultaneously amplifies the company’s culture of interaction and innovation.
The ‘Lobby Node’ at ground level, which houses the main entrance to the HQ, is connected by a diagonal atrium to the ‘Club Node’ in the cresting wave rising above the roof of the building. Here, the ZTE Club, a space flooded with natural light incorporates opportunities for individuals and groups to meet as well as a gym, cafe and bar with a roof deck embedded in a tropical green environment.
Radical flexibility is at the core of the project; a series of vast, open floor plates, each larger than the size of a football field, are piled up, shifted and calibrated to create the ‘Work Stack.’ Hovering above the ground plane, each floor is able to be freely subdivided, programmed and occupied, offering an unprecedented spectrum of possibilities for spaces of new forms of working.
Outdoor terraces on each level integrate indoor and open-air outdoor environments, with the connective 'Wave’ traversing and interconnecting the stacked floor plates.