The Clouds

MAD's Lot 04 East includes two biomorphic office towers, three interconnected cloud inspired buildings, and a raindrop-shaped building. The design responds to Tencent's goal of creating a low-carbon and human-centered technology park, aiming to set a benchmark for sustainability and accessibility. The campus layout for the fluid structures was thoughtfully designed, with building heights gently transitioning from land to sea, adding to the dynamic reading of the cities developing skyline.

The lot will be transformed by three interconnected 'cloud' buildings at its center. These floating forms are designed to serve as versatile spaces for meetings, exhibitions, offices, knowledge-sharing, and stimulating creativity. MAD's design lifts the ground floor, creating a sense of movement and fluidity, and giving the impression of the structure hovering above the ground. This lifted design creates human scale at the ground floor, encouraging natural social interaction, preserving views, and enhancing the overall site experience.

With the lifted building, the ground level is integrated with the land and surrounding streetscape, allowing it to function as part of the environment, and creating a more open, ground-level space for people. This architectural approach, which drifts above the people below, opens to a series of urban spaces. This design feature also plays an important role in optimizing shading and ventilation, contributing to the site's environmental sustainability and comfort.

The fluid and soft shapes of the 'cloud' buildings are connected by steel truss sky bridges. These bridges serve as communal spaces for employee interaction and wellbeing. The southernmost 'cloud' building is designed to share innovations and engage in dialogues. It was created to accommodate a diverse program of exhibitions, discussions, and activities. The buildings main event space has a two-story circular design with frameless glass, providing panoramic views of Shenzhen's natural and built surroundings.

The central and northernmost 'cloud' buildings are dedicated office spaces, each with distinctive open landscape atriums. The central 'cloud' building features a completely open atrium that connects to a sunken garden, serving as both a public space and forming a new circular facade. In contrast, the northern 'cloud' building's atrium is topped with a semi-open, shell shaped ETFE skylight. These varied atrium designs not only enhance the diversity of the spatial experience for users but also contribute significantly to shading, ventilation, and energy efficiency.

Below the three 'cloud' buildings, the design elevates the park ground to create lush garden green spaces and plazas. This intentionally separates the pedestrian areas from the surrounding roadways, without disrupting traffic flow within the park. Additionally, it establishes seamless connectivity between the green space, office buildings and surrounding transit-oriented developments.