Overlooking the precinct of Shekou and its limitless port, the China Merchants Group History Museum designed by Shenzhen and Beijing-based studio URBANUS sits on Weiboshan hill like a giant, travertine-clad submarine. The site is one of the few remaining hilly terrains in the Shekou Industrial Zone in Shenzhen, established by the China Merchants Group at the end of the 1970s. Heralding China’s reform measures and subsequent economic liberation, the influential state-owned business enterprise based in Hong Kong transformed the town into an industrial hub by critically altering its natural landscape. The hills were levelled and land reclaimed from the sea to build ports, hence attracting foreign investment and setting the stage for the country’s era of economic domination. Established before the Shenzen Special Economic Zone was delineated, the Industrial zone would become emblematic of the country’s ideals of progress and development, with its operational mechanism being dubbed the ‘Shekou Model’. 

The conception of the museum marks the 150th anniversary of The China Merchants Group, founded in the late Qing Dynasty in 1872. According to URBANUS, the museum’s design is centred on the notion of treating "the hill as the exhibition venue and the city as the exhibition," with the cultural building providing panoramic views of the burgeoning cityscape, as a symbol of the enterprise’s influence on the region and country. The Chinese architects have previously worked on project sites with unearthed historical narratives, excavating and spotlighting a place’s forgotten relics and histories. As cities change and incessant development buries the relics of the past, treating the spatial palimpsest of the urban environment as a form of historical record is vital to preserving a place’s identity. The studio has explored these ideas in previous projects such as the renovation of the Kingway Brewery.

For the museum design in Shekou, the team conducted a thorough investigation, comparing historical drawings and on-site surveys of the site. A dilapidated structure was identified as one of the stations for China’s first terrestrial microwave relay station. This "ready-made artefact" would form the central core of the cultural building’s spatial planning. The museum’s narrative journey begins at the base of the hill, with events in the history of the country’s reform inscribed on a walkway that juxtaposes the current urban landscape with its historical counterpart, albeit in words. There are multiple rest stops along this route framing different views of the skyline, converting it into an open-air exhibition of sorts by critically engaging with its surrounding built context. Where with the Kingway Brewery, the site’s silos acted as mnemonic totems for its stories; here the urban landscape itself is called forth for visitors to consider the history of the city’s development. 

On the culmination of the walkway, one encounters a plaza-like space from which staircases and routes shoot off in different directions. These routes are open to visitors even when the public building is closed; with the different platforms affording visitors framed views of the city and the sea while facilitating movement to the different galleries and exhibition spaces. On their critical engagement with the rapidly changing built environment of Shenzhen, co-founder of the practice Meng Yan spoke to STIR in an exclusive interview, “Our practice is about adding new layers of urban substances. Our focus is to superimpose, to accept what is already there and to improve it. The intention is to bring new programmes into our spaces and the entire area. We see each of our projects as a fragment of a much bigger urban fabric. We have been working on various parts of Shenzhen's urban fabric since our first project 21 years ago and we keep inserting our projects into this fabric, making the city softer, in a way. We add softness to the city.” This “softness” is evident not only in the soft curves of the building’s volume that seem to seamlessly integrate into the hilly contours but also in the openness of its programme; a natural extension of the landscape.

Moving downwards from the viewing platform that functions as the cultural architecture’s largest open-air public space; the lowest level—sunken into the terrain—incorporates the main entrance, lobby, equipment room, as well as a multifunctional hall. The permanent exhibitions with the restored station forming the heart of the circulation are on the first and second floors. The third level, which is the viewing platform, also includes a café/reception room for meetings and salons, adding to the public amenities onsite while the fourth floor is designed to include an art gallery. This space floats above the rest of the volume, with a distinctive spiral staircase and bulky columns anchoring it to the solid museum architecture. Variously shaped windows on the gallery’s facade add to the exhibition sequence within its interior design. The roof again doubles as a spacious viewing platform.

Speaking about the studio’s multiple interventions in the Shenzhen region in a previous interview, Yan commented that it’s rare for a design practice to build solely in one region, especially in the Chinese architecture landscape that is inundated with experimental work by globally based architects. “I like the idea of always working in a familiar place and I do think that the architect must be well acquainted with the place where he works...We do a lot of research before making any design decisions. The point is to truly understand the place and the problem,” he goes on to note.

The design for their museum in Shekou represents this particular nexus: of place and problem, countered by the potential it presents. Lacking cultural amenities such as galleries and public spaces, the museum not only adds to the social fabric of the city but crucially connects the site to the larger arc of Chinese history. It looks not only at the past but at the future, creating an urban memory anchored in the present.

Project Details

Name: China Merchants Group History Museum & Weiboshan Park
Location: Shekou, Shenzhen
Client: China Merchants Real Estate Co., Ltd
Principal Architect: Meng Yan
Design Team: Yue Ran (Architecture) and Zhang Xuejuan (Landscape) (Project architects); Matt Eshleman, Zhu Hongrui, Sun Yanhua, Yuen Chi Wai, Yuan Ruizhe, Wen Ting, Yu Shiyao, Sun Pengcheng, Ni Ruoning, Ji Hengwei (Architecture ) | Li Guanda, Gao Yufeng, Jin Xin, Ma Xiying, Pu Jinyan (Landscape) | Deng Tingfang, He Jiamin (Interior) | Lin lingyu, Lin Siyao, Wei Tianqi, Wan Yuqing, Lin Shuyi, Liu Jiaji, Gao qingyue, Zhang Manjia (Interns)
Collaborators:
(LDI) Structure/ MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing): Huasen Architectural and Engineering Design
Interior Construction: You Gaoya Decoration and Construction Industrial co., Ltd.
Landscape Construction: Shenzhen Origin-End Anchoring Landscape Design
Lighting Design: Handu Design Consultant (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. / zdp (z design & planning)
Graphic Design: Huangyang Design
Exhibition Design: Media Scenography Group
Area:
Site Area: 2,426 sqm
Floor Area: 7,014 sqm
Landscape Area: 13,733 sqm
Year of Completion: 2023