ADEPTs proposal ‘The Healing City’ is the winner of an invited international competition for a 900 ha future city in Yanzihu, in the greater Shenzhen area. Central to the design is a set of six strategic principles that promotes a sustainable approach to healthy urban living.
In the international competition to shape the future of a 900 ha mixed urban district, the winning proposal by Copenhagen based ADEPT forms a new set of strategies for Yanzihu to heal the nature, people and neighborhoods of the area through a diverse landscape approach, sustainable mobility and public space hierarchies.
Image © ADEPT
The project area suffers some of the typical side effects of rapid urbanization that are continuously threatening to deteriorate its invaluable natural resources – the river, the green river banks, hills and mountains. The term ‘Healing City’ is used to explore a series of six strategic principles focusing on the health of nature, people and neighborhoods to demonstrate the possibility of sustainable urban growth.
“The six principles are the strategic backbone of the masterplan. It is a vision that unites urban structure and sustainability with nature and history, tailored to the site. It is a vision that bring people together in healthy and active environments. A vision of a city of short distances, prioritizing pedestrians and public transportation”, explains ADEPT partner Martin Laursen.
Image © ADEPT
The Yanzihu masterplan rests on the concept ’Healing Nature, Healing People and Healing Neighborhoods’. Through upgraded and renewed water quality and connected landscapes that act as the ‘lungs’ of the area, nature becomes an integrated part of the masterplan.
Through a nuanced strategy for open spaces, renewed recreational quality, public access to the water and a better produce supply through urban farming, the masterplan promotes a healthy way of life. And finally, through a conscious strategy for mobility and public space hierarchies, neighborhoods are connected, diverse and encouraging to the individual. Source by ADEPT.
Image © ADEPT
- Location: Shenzhen China
- Architect: ADEPT
- Project Team: Martin Laursen, Martin Krogh, Anders Lonka, Simon Poulsen, Tatyana Eneva, Jens Peter Nielsen, Viktoria Matryuk, Karolina Kędzior, Martine Seedorff
- Client: People’s Government of Pingshan District, Shenzhen
- Size: 900 ha
- Year: 2020
- Images: Courtesy of ADEPT
Image © ADEPT Image © ADEPT 
Image © ADEPT Image © ADEPT 
Image © ADEPT Image © ADEPT 
Image © ADEPT 
Master Plan 
Restorative Lakes 
Connective Landscape 
Public Access to Water and landscape 
Urban farming 
Conscious mobility 
Healthy prosperity 
Site