Tall & Urban News

Architecture firms OMA and CCDI have won a competition to design the waterfront International Conference and Exchange Center in Shenzhen.

Dutch practice OMA and Chinese firm CCDI beat six other entries in the international design competition.

The studios’ design divides the conference facilities and 400-room hotel into three distinct volumes, which will be angled towards each other to create a large, triangular atrium.

Situated on the Pearl River Delta in the Qianhai district, the International Conference and Exchange Center (IFEC) has been designed to be a beacon for the ships sailing along the 21st-century maritime silk road.

The conference center block will be a stepped building with terraces that face the large public park that is also part of the scheme.

A taller, polyhedron-shaped volume next to it will house hotel rooms, with hotel amenities and public spaces contained in a third volume facing the business district.

The three blocks will be built around an “urban atrium”, which will serve as a foyer to the conference center and the hotel, as well as a stage for cultural events held in the city.

The IFEC is one of several buildings OMA has developed in Shenzhen. In 2013, the Dutch practice completed the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, a 250-meter skyscraper that earned the nickname “the miniskirt” for its three story podium that is elevated 36 meters off the ground.

That same year, OMA also won the competition to design the Essence Financial Building, a 180-meter tower with two large outdoor terraces that slice through the project’s façade.

For more on this story, go to Dezeen.