Shenzhen Bay Culture Square

About this place

Shenzhen Bay Culture Square is MAD Architects' expansive cultural complex along the reclaimed coastline of Nanshan District, completed in 2026. Most of the programme — exhibition galleries, a design library, education spaces, and a multifunctional theatre — is housed below ground beneath an undulating green roof that doubles as a public park connecting the city with the shoreline. Above the roof, a cluster of boulder-like volumes clad in polished granite rise at varying heights, the tallest reaching 28 metres at the city end and tapering down toward the adjacent Talent Park. Irregular and geological in form, these masses contain additional gallery spaces and draw daylight into the underground levels through a ring-shaped atrium that links the floors below. MAD founder Ma Yansong conceived the project as a response to Shenzhen's origin as entirely reclaimed land — an attempt to turn "ancient nature into people's imagination of the future." The gradual slope of the green roof creates a continuous ground from the urban grid to the coastline, with winding paths, lookout points over Shenzhen Bay, and an outdoor plaza for markets, art events, and performances. Native planting blends into the wetlands of the adjacent Talent Park without a hard boundary. The building was also sited deliberately low to remain clear of the flight path of migratory birds on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.