Bihailou Art Village in Shenzhen
5 August 2026
Architecture: MVRDV
Location: Shatoujiao, Yantian District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Images © Antonio Luca Coco, Lorenzo D’Alessandro, Angelo La Delfa, Stefano Fiaschi
MVRDV designed cultural project in Shenzhen is a vertical reinterpretation of the surrounding village
Construction is underway on the MVRDV designed Bihailou Art Village, a mixed-use cultural and commercial centre that forms an eye-catching focal point for the community in Shatoujiao, just a stone’s throw from the Shenzhen – Hong Kong border. With its multic oloured stack of irregular shapes, the design is based on the concept of the Vertical Village. Underpinned by this concept, the project gains much more than just a spectacular appearance: with each element of the programme contained in its own “house”, com plete with an individual shape, colour, and material, different functions can operate at different hours. Meanwhile the circulation spaces and terraces can be freely accessible – redefining the traditional commercial complex as a three – dimensional cultural landscape that is active at all hours of the day.
The Vertical Village concept was first developed by the thinktank The Why Factory and MVRDV in 2011 and published as a book in 2012. In response to the rapid densification – and increasing homogeneity – of Asian cities, it proposed a development model that would combine all the individuality and community of village life with the density of the city: each resident would be able to design their own house, and they would be stacked in a manner that everybody has their
own front door and access to views and na tural light.
The Shenzhen Bihailou Art Village adopts this concept to serve the function of a retail and cultural centre in a number of ways. Instead of a single large volume, the fragmented elements of the art village match the human scale and visual diversity of the other buildings in Shatoujiao. Instead of residents who would design their own individual house, the Art Village has many different functions that are each given a sense of identity by their colour, shape, and material – all features inspired by the colour s, shapes, and materials of both the surrounding buildings and the Bihailou building, a well -known restaurant that once occupied the site.
Each “house” is designed to fit the function that occupies it: for example, the multifunctional performance theatre g ets a large, double -height space, with retractable chairs that allow it to transform into a spacious exhibition hall, and a floor -to-ceiling window facing the neighbouring plaza that allows unexpected interactions between inside and out. Meanwhile, shops a nd restaurants can find a home in the design’s smaller blocks.
Crucially, just as residents of the Vertical Village would have their own front door, each “house” in the Art Village has its own entrance, meaning that the building’s circulation is part of the public space. This allows all the building’s functions – the shops, restaurants, theatre, and the Fish Lantern Museum that celebrates the unique cultural heritage of Shatoujiao – to operate independently, choosing their own opening hours. It also means the stairs, escalators, ramps, and gangways at the heart of the stack are permanently accessible; as visit ors traverse this network, they will be able to glimpse the surroundings through the many gaps between the boxes, until they reach one of the project’s many roof terraces for views of the mountains, the cityscape, and the bay at any time of the day.
“The joy of this design lies in its contradictions”, says MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. “It looks spectacular from afar, and up close, there is an intimacy to each space. It looks complex, but the idea of one space for every function is really quite si mple. And though it may look like something that has never been done before, it is in fact a remix of the surrounding village: combining the colours, materials, and shapes of both its neighbours and the restaurant that once stood on this site. Fifteen year s after the book, it manifests the call to humanise the city, in contrast to the scale of the monolithic tower developments all over the world, especially in Shenzhen. It combines density with humanity – what if we could make all our cities like this?”
The Shenzhen Bihailou Art Village sits as the centrepiece of a plaza that itself is at the heart of its neighbourhood. As such, the design is imbued with a kind of civic generosity, not only in the form of its permanent accessibility and public roof terrac es, but also on the ground level, where the stacked shape creates overhangs where people can shelter from sun and rain. The landscaping surrounding the building is designed to blend seamlessly with the existing plaza cementing the building as an integral piece of the village of Shatoujiao.
Bihailou Art Village in Shenzhen, China – Building Information
Design: MVRDV – www.mvrdv.com
Project Name: Bihailou Art Village
Location: Shenzhen, China
Year: 2023–
Client: Shenzhen Shatoujiao Commercial Foreign Trade Co., Ltd.
Size and Programme: 6500 m2 – Mixed use Theatre, Museum, Retail, Food & Beverage
Credits
Architect: MVRDV
Founding Partner in charge: Winy Maas
Partner: Wenchian Shi
Design Team: Kyo Suk Lee, Geert Folmer, Samuel Tam, Seunghan Yeum, Yifei Zhang,
Manuel Villalain Gonzales, Xinyuan Zhang, Peter Chang, Yihong Chen, Luca Xu, Marcella
Tamez Cabella, Kevin Zhao, Runjie Liu, Martin Chen
Visualisations: Antonio Luca Coco, Lorenzo D’Alessandro, Angelo La Delfa, Stefano Fiaschi
Copyright: MVRDV Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries
Partners:
Project coordination: Wancheng Urban Design & Research (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.,
Guangzhou Ruihua Architectural Design Institute Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Branch
Construction drawing: Guangzhou Ruihua Architectural Design Institute Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Branch
Structure consultant (Concept design): Shenzhen Qiandian Building Structure Design Office Co., Ltd.
Landscape architect: Guangzhou Turen Landscape Consultants Co., Ltd.
Façade consultant: Shenzhen Longcheng Curtain Wall Design & Consulting Co., Ltd.
Lighting consultant: Shenzhen Guangchengshi Technology Co., Ltd.
Cost calculation: Shenzhen Dongsen Engineering Project Management Co., Ltd.
Construction contractor: Shenzhen City Construction (Group) Co., Ltd.
Renders: Antonio Luca Coco, Lorenzo D’Alessandro, Angelo La Delfa, Stefano Fiaschi
Bihailou Art Village, Shenzhen, China images / information received 050825 from MVRDV architects
Location: Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China, eastern Asia
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