NADAAA + cooper union students build linear pavilion in shenzhen

the dense urban villages of shenzhen comprise of a series of historic cores, which are facing extinction as a result of the city’s unprecedented growth. ‘surrounded by the rapid expansion of the contemporary city, the dense urban fabric of these communities serves as a reminder of a past that is not so distant as it is fundamentally out of scale with the emerging forces of real estate,’ says NADAAA, who has realized a pavilion in the chinese city as part of the 2017 bi-city biennale of urbanism \ architecture (UABB).

NADAAA teamed up with students from cooper union to realize the project
image © designboom (also main image)

to complete the project, NADAAA — the boston-based architecture firm led by nader tehrani — teamed up with students from cooper union, the new york institution of which tehrani is the dean of architecture. the result is a permanent and flexible structure that will continue to serve the neighborhood long after the bi-city biennale is over. currently used as a weekend marketplace, the pavilion takes the form of a classical portico or roofed colonnade.

the pavilion is a permanent and flexible structure
image © designboom

‘the advent of the ‘biennale’ as a cultural event is maybe a good vehicle to draw light onto these vulnerable communities, but the curatorial constraints require economies that do not afford permanence,’ says NADAAA. ‘precisely because of this, we imagine a structure on the main plaza that is designed to become part of the urban fabric, to serve as a civic structure, and to become part of the community it serves for a longer time to come, with the flexibility of housing varied programs.’

the structure is currently used as a weekend marketplace
image courtesy of UABB

‘the site of the plaza produces an urban edge along the village wall that is ripe for programmatic activation,’ continues the design team. ‘as a structure that adopts the wall as datum, we propose a linear stoa of sorts that has the power to respond to the length of the plaza itself. with each bay composed of a customized section, the structure is fabricated of standard steel scaffolding, and thus generic, economical and culturally standardized in nature’.

see here for designboom’s full coverage of the 2017 bi-city biennale of urbanism \ architecture.

the design takes the form of a classical portico or roofed colonnade
image courtesy of jeremy son