Used as a temporary sales center in the early stage and then a commercial facility supporting the residential area, C Future City Experience Center is located in Shangsha, is a unique urban village located in the Shenzhen, China. According to the owner's preferences and the trend of modern people's life, CCD / Cheng Chung Design (HK), best known for hospitality design, arranged the layout and functions based on people's needs, and introduced oriental style landscapes.

Stepping into the sunken experience space from the first floor, visitors are able to catch the sight of courtyard, sky and water at different time, angles and perspectives. Such design borrowed the style of Chinese classical gardens, which is simple and unadorned, leaving room for imagination.

Scale of different spaces in the building also varies in accordance with the design concept of Chinese classical gardens. Narrow aisles going through the 1st floor, B1 and B2 reproduced the sight-seeing lounge bridges in Chinese gardens to some extent. Transitional belts between aisles, aisles and outdoor gardens as well as aisles and indoor functional areas, are acting like “lines” that provide perfect perspective to enjoy the view of the garden, cloud, sky and the interior settings.

Various distinctive artworks were used to decorate the experience center, such as the wooden structure in the corridor and spherical pieces in the transitional zones, which were all made of warm-toned woods, injecting vitality to the space. Lighting in the space was designed with appropriate color temperature, which created a friendly atmosphere for habitation. 

Based on the concept of inheriting the natural charm of the former fishing village, designers chose to use sandstone, granite, gray burls and crushed stones, etc. as major materials. Besides, artworks in the space, such as the boat-shaped solid wood table, white beaded installation in the form of fishing net and water wave and karesansui landscape composed of moss balls, rocks and gray crushed stones, also retained the marks of the past.

Shangsha is used to be a coastal fishing village, which has developed along with the renewal of the city, while now it is witnessing the rising of C Future City. Through reflecting on the values that rooted in the village, CCD finally decided to take "marks of the fishing village" as the starting point for the design.

Designers drew inspirations from Li Bai’s most famous romantic poem "A Visit to Sky-Mother Mountain in a Dream". The imaginary scene described in the poem "I would like to travel to the kindoms of Wu and Yue in the dream, and fly over the Mirror Lake in a night with moonlight" and "The stone gate of a great cavern, yawned open", was what the designers tried to create in the space.

The poem described a wonderland that the poet explored with imagination. Designers intended to create similar scene and atmosphere in the C Future City Experience Center. The building acts as an apartment marketing center in the early stage, but also provides a space for the youth engaged in busy work in CBD of Futian district (Shenzhen) to get out of the workplace and explore the inner self.

Project Facts:

Project name: Shenzhen C Future City Experience Center

Interior Design: CCD / Cheng Chung Design (HK)

Project Area: 3000 sqm

Opening time: April 2018

All images courtesy of CCD / Cheng Chung Design (HK)

> via CCD / Cheng Chung Design (HK)