Merchants Bank, The development along the bay of Shenzhen will represent an important step for the city: not only the skyline will be profoundly changed, but the concept of what a contemporary megalopolis is, will be challenged. The tower of China Merchants Bank will be a relevant part of the composition of Shenzhen’s bay coastline.
Courtesy of Mecanoo
Following this aim, the high-rise building takes the opportunity to reinvent this typology and explore different possibilities to create a dialogue between indoor and outdoor spaces, private and public. At the urban scale, a tower is normally a building that becomes the center of attention, a standalone object that polarizes space around its own footprint.
Courtesy of Mecanoo
In most cases, it is the tower’s plinth that generates the city and creates urbanity.
The vertical element (tower) and the horizontal (plinth) merge into single volumes with a unifying character and language, and the central element of the composition becomes a public square. In order to build a city, we need spaces, not only objects.
Project info:
Architects: Mecanoo
Country: China, Shenzhen Shi
Year: 2017
Size: 140,000 m2
Photographs: Courtesy of Mecanoo
Status: Competition entry
Client: China Merchants Bank
Ibrahim Abdelhady is an architect, academic, and media entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in architecture and digital publishing. He is the Founder and CEO of Arch2O.com, a leading platform in architectural media, renowned for showcasing innovative projects, student work, and critical discourse in design. Holding dual PhDs in Architecture, Dr. Abdelhady combines academic rigor with industry insight, shaping both future architects and architectural thought. He actively teaches, conducts research, and contributes to the global architecture community through his writing, lectures, and media ventures. His work bridges the gap between practice and academia, pushing the boundaries of how architecture is communicated in the digital age.