Shekou Sea World Culture and Arts Center, Shenzhen Building, South China, Architecture Images

Shekou Sea World Culture and Arts Center in Shenzhen

Contemporary Visitors Centre Building in China – building design by Maki and Associates

27 Aug 2018

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2 May 2018

Shekou Sea World Culture and Arts Center

Architects: Maki and Associates

Lighting Design by GD-Lighting Design, Maki and Associates, LIGHTDESIGN INC

Location: Shekou, Shenzhen, China

Shekou Sea World Culture and Arts Center

photo © Shu He

The core of simplicity, I dream of it.
The spirit of purity, I keep seeking it.
The ultimate delicacy, I keep thinking of it.
The real beauty, I keep longing for it.
Happy research, I shall never give it up.
Top integrity, I live for it.

photo © Eric Cheung

The Ode to Simplicity by Yue Ya Shan Ren seeks the path to purity and tranquility. Shekou Sea World Culture and Arts Center is just a shelter in town from complexity and into beauty.

photo © Shu He

The building highlights openness and connectivity, so that people, space and nature can have quiet dialogues. The lighting coincides with them to hide among buildings and landscapes to give off soundless beauty.

photo © Shu He

GD (GD-LIGHTINGDESIGN) practices simplicity all through to have all the lighting hidden among spatial levels, interfaces and constructs, creating an effect of landscape changing with every step among mountains and waters. Except for part of the floor-lamps for guiding, the overall façade lighting emphasizes artistic conception instead of depiction and outlining, echoing with the architectural style of plainness and low profile.

The three huge window-style shapes facing mountain, sea and city only have their bottoms lightly decorated by light to leave appropriate space for the artistic conception.

photo © Shu He

A large area of white wall and glasses fills in the space to maximize the natural light and the sense of transparency, and people’s sight will easily interact with surrounding landscapes at the sea and the green mountains.

photo © Shu He

However, it’s a great challenge for the technical level of lighting, so that lighting design must give off top neatness by ultimate simplicity and accurate light matching and controlling technologies.

photo © Shu He

Except for some parts to meet the flexible demand for exhibition in the future, all the lighting devices on the ceiling that can be abandoned have been wiped off to become the smallest possible number of down lights hidden in the groove.

photo © Shu He

The public passageway and the transitional space also tries to avoid any visual interference by the highest level of restrained lighting to present the visual surprise and impact of the exhibits themselves.

photo © Shu He

The space façade has special materials and texture change imbedded, including glasses, red façade and black façade to create balanced yet interlaced rhythm and impression.

photo © Shu He

The team of GD believes it’s part of the space, without deliberately stressing shaping but catering to lighting practices to create an effect of light and shadow by means of the textures of the light-reflecting materials.

photo © Eric Cheung

In order to meet up with the demand of temporary exhibition in a large-size space, we specially designed remote-control lamps and lanterns for the project to make point arrangement by accurate analog computation. As for details, the seemingly even and unified technique of illuminating line grooves in fact lights up space entrances to stress the guidance of the entrances.

photo © Shu He

Following humanized measure and the philosophy of being hidden in nature, Shekou Sea World Culture and Arts Center is presented to the world by an overall stance of harmonized order. The team of GD, by strict yet restrained lighting techniques, endows the culture landmark building with linear echoing inside and outside to acquire the biggest visual surprise by the ultimate restraint of lighting.

photo © Shu He

Shekou Sea World Culture and Arts Center, Shenzhen – Building Information

Investor: Merchants Real Estate (Shenzhen)
Architectural/ Landscape/Interior Design: Maki and Associates
Lighting co-design: GD-Lighting Design, Maki and Associates, LIGHTDESIGN INC.
Technical Support：ERCO (Tokyo & Shanghai)
Location: Shekou, Shenzhen, China
Area of Structure：73918.08 sqm
Complete Time: 2017.12

photo © Shu He

Photographer: Eric Cheung、Shu He

Text & images provided by: GD-Lighting

Shekou Sea World Culture and Arts Center in Shenzhen images / information from GD-Lighting Design

Previously on e-architect:

26 Jan 2018 + 27 Oct 2017
Design Society, China’s first design hub
Design: Fumihiko Maki Architects

photograph © Design Society
Design Society Shenzhen Building

27 Oct 2017
Sea World Culture and Arts Center: Cultural Design Hub
Design: Fumihiko Maki Architects

photograph © Design Society
Sea World Culture and Arts Center, Shenzhen