A group of 25 students and 6 tutors of the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design meet in Shenzhen from May 7 until May 10. They participated in a three-day design workshop on the Gateway Area of Guangming New Town on May 7, 8 and 9 organized by INTI in close collaboration with the Shenzhen Center for Design and the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design.
In the Gateway Area, a major elevated train station has already been executed, but lies isolated in the area. Furthermore, the current master plan of the Gateway Area is totally car-driven. In order to avoid private car dependency and to reduce the environmental impact of road infrastructure construction, alternative proposals are necessary in the early development phase of this area:
1. Creating good connections from the train station to the neighborhoods with public transport, bicycle lanes and pedestrian areas;
2. Creating small-scale street patterns and smaller blocks within the Gateway Area;
3. Creating connections with the green landscape of the Ecological Control Line right next to the train station.
Students worked in sub-groups on one or more of the above themes, supervised by staff members of the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design. The groups presented the results to the Guangming Urban Planning Bureau and the Shenzhen Center for Design on the final day.