The essence of the stock market is speculation: it is based on capital, not material. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange is conceived as a physical materialization of the virtual stock market: it is a building with a floating base, representing the stock market – more than physically accommodating it.
Status: Competition: 1st prize 2006. Completion: October 2013
Client: Shenzhen Stock Exchange
Site: 39,000 m2, in the downtown area of Shenzhen at the meeting point of the north-south axis between Mount Lianhua and Binhe Boulevard, and the east-west axis of Shennan Road, Shenzhen’s main artery
Program: Total 265,000 m2; 180,000 m2 above ground: Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s offices, Listing Hall, conference centres, a Chinese art gallery, a technical operations centre, canteen, and a restaurant / club, rental offices, a registration & clearing house, a securities information company, and a retail area; 85,000 m2 below ground.
Partners in charge: Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, in collaboration with Ellen van Loon and Shohei Shigematsu
Associate in charge: Michael Kokora
On Site Team: Yang Yang, Wanyu He, Daan Ooievaar, Joanna Gu, Vincent Kersten, Yun Zhang
Design Team: Kunle Adeyemi, Ryann Aoukar, Sebastian Appl, Laura Baird, Waichuen Chan, Jan Dechow, Lukas Drasnar, Matthew Engele, Leo Ferretto, Clarisa Garcia Fresco, Alasdair Graham, Jaitian Gu, Matthew Haseltine, João Ferreira Marques Jesus, Matthew Jull, Alex de Jong, Santiago Hierro Kennedy, Klaas Kresse, Miranda Lee, Anna Little, Luxiang Liu, David Eugin Moon, Cristina Murphy, Se Yoon Park, Ferdjan Van der Pijl, Franscesca Portesine, Idrees Rasouli, Korbinian Schneider, Wolfgang Schwarzwalder, Felix Schwimmer, Richard Sharam, Lukasz Skalec, Christine Svensson, Lukasz Szlachcic, Ken Yang Tan, Michela Tonus, Miroslav Vavrina, Na Wei, Xinyuan Wang, Leonie Wenz, Su Xia, Yunchao Xu, Yang Yang, Yun Zhang
What could we do in the context of revitalizing architecture to keep a more vivid picture of an old building with (even partial) special features? It is a question to which we can respond in two ways. The valuable part – the special one – will be restored and the unworthy one we rebuild, complete, emphasize – in a first variant – absolutely in the same stylistic story as theold valuable one, or we dress it – in a second variant – in a completely new concept in major contrast with the existing situation.
The Traders’ Commune envisages a society of total self-sufficiency that aims to embrace and regenerate the surrounding area. In reaction to the current economic climate and deterioration of outer cities, the project acts as a critique of the development and decline of a failed planning model in Brighton’s suburbia.
For millennia, the solid building stands on a solid base; it is an image that has survived modernity. Typically, the base anchors a structure and connects it emphatically to the ground. The essence of the stock market is speculation: it is based on capital, not gravity. In the case of Shenzhen’s almost virtual stock market, the role of symbolism exceeds that of the program – it is a building that has to represent the stock market, more than physically accommodate it.
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