A skyscraper with a height of just under 205 m appeared in the Shekou region - in the Nanshan district, between the mountains of the same name and the waters of the Shenzhen Bay, where they are close to each other. This is one of the starting points of the development of Shenzhen - this very young metropolis, the answer of socialist China to then British Hong Kong.
Now this coastal landscape has changed a lot, although the mountains and waters, of course, remained in place (although the alluvial territories have shifted the coastline). Prince Plaza was built in a visual "corridor" between them, and it was important for OMA architects to preserve it - which influenced the project.
Instead of a single prism, the tower consists of four elongated rectangular volumes ("bars") shifted relative to each other around a central rod. So the building recedes from the main view lines, and also increases the perimeter of the floors, thanks to which more sunlight gets inside.
Three terraces have been created between the "bars", accessible not only to office employees, but also to everyone. They are decorated with a pattern of hexagons, inspired by the same mountains and waters (which constantly reminds of the name of the landscape genre of Chinese painting). These terraces, as well as the shopping center in the stylobate with a "walking" roof, logically continue the adjacent Sea World entertainment complex with its hotel on a cruise ship in the center.
If the office tower has an area of more than 60,000 m2, then the mall - 40,000 m2. The authors tried to make it "porous", unlike most buildings of this type, and on the line of sight between the sea and the mountains they even placed a glazed area with the same pattern as on the terraces.
