MANGROVE MUSEUM

DRAPED CANOPY · SHENZHEN MANGROVE WETLAND MUSEUM
CULTURAL, CIVIC

Location Shenzhen Bay, Guangdong Province, China
Program Natural history museum, seven exhibition towers, covered public plaza, rooftop meadow, mangrove water gardens
Status International tender, concept design, 2020

A BRIDGE BETWEEN TWO DIMENSIONS OF NATURE

We conceive the future home of the Shenzhen Mangrove Museum as a bridge that unites two dimensions of nature: the vision of nature represented by the collections, and its rich embodiment in the surrounding mangroves, sea, and mountains.

The proposal begins with a single line, gently sculpted into a fabric-like landscape of ascending hilltops and descending valleys. Connecting the Tanglang and Antuo Mountains to Shenzhen Bay, the resulting Draped Canopy completes the master plan’s Mountain to Sea Corridor, echoing the bending coastline and overlapping forest canopies of the Mangrove Nature Reserve.

Lifted between 5 and 25 meters above the existing depot superstructure, the canopy creates two levels of public space: a rooftop meadow above and a sheltered plaza below, with a comfortable microclimate all day and year-round.

EXHIBITION TOWERS AND EXCAVATED COURTYARDS

Seven Exhibition Towers, one for each planned exhibition, rise from the superstructure like an archipelago and support the canopy. Faced in transparent and translucent materials, they become urban-scaled vitrines; at night they transform into lanterns.

Courtyards pierce the canopy and the service plinth below, bringing daylight to every level. Excavated like a moon gate, the main courtyard reveals a double-helix ramp that wraps the central lobby, moving from circle to square and evoking the ancient cosmology of Round Heaven, Square Earth.

FROM GARDEN TO ECOLOGY

The site’s entire footprint is restored with indigenous plant species, transforming the canopy into a rooftop meadow and the courtyards into mangrove water gardens. Together they form a bird sanctuary that extends the spirit of the Mangrove Reserve throughout the museum.

Conceived as a sponge for absorbing and collecting rainwater, the landscape restores a soft boundary between sea, mountain, and city, and mitigates erosion, saline intrusion, and flooding.

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