Shenyang Media Square

Shenyang, China

This First-Place winning competition proposal was completed for the new headquarters of Shenyang’s Media Conglomerate. The design synthesizes two distinct landscape strategies, a 24-hour synthetic urban landscape and seasonal neighborhood parks. The 24-hour synthetic urban landscape showcases two iconic elements: an electric palm tree grove and a Chinese media dragon. The seasonal neighborhood parks, located on the four sides of the urban site, are planted to bloom clockwise according to the four seasons.

24-hour synthetic urban landscape creates an ongoing link between the constant flow of digital media and the surrounding landscape. The media dragon travels around the entire site, dipping below the site into the carpark below and flying out over the sidewalk. The dragon passes through buildings and belts groves of seasonal trees in the neighborhood parks. Consisting of advertisements, LED media displays, and neon signs, the media dragon acts as a beacon of activity within the city inviting vibrant nightlife within the development. The media dragon acts symbolically as a landscape element that represents expansive and sometimes even invasive nature of media. It also shows that the urban landscape can be infused with energy and excitement by today’s media, including advertising.

The second 24-hour synthetic urban landscape element is a bar of 600 electric palm trees. These palm trees act as a transition element, like the Missing Link, between the media dragon and the living trees of the seasonal landscape. The neon lights and LED’s of the media dragon seem to reconfigure themselves into three dimensional representations of palm trees. The classic row formation of the palms creates a lively and powerful landscape element that further reinforces the connection between the constructed landscape and the dazzling, ephemeral world of media. This bar of palm trees creates the primary axis of the site, an allee into the inner courtyard of the media square.

In combination these 24-hour synthetic urban landscape elements create a landscape feature that infuses the site with constant movement and ensures healthy day and nighttime use. Large openings within the center of the square create a multi-storied landscape that becomes unified by the moving dragon. These openings to the lower level landscape create increased ventilation and natural daylighting of the carpark below. From the surrounding buildings, the media dragon can be seen passing through the different zones of the site, between the floor plates, and through the buildings themselves. The media dragon is the invasive and dominating power of media at work.

The seasonal neighborhood parks line the edge of the site tying the existing neighborhood context into the site. These parks are planted with four distinctly different planting schemes, each showcasing a specific seasonal bloom cycle. Neighborhood exercise equipment, picnic areas, and sports courts are common features within each of the neighborhood parks. The overlap between the neighborhood parks and the urban media dragon allows for the neighborhood park zones to share nightlife plazas on the media square.

These neighborhood parks are heavily in daily Chinese life in many ways. Streetfood vendors, morning exercise and impromptu markets often take root in these blended city zones. To further stimulate this activity this design proposal features specific neighborhood planting schemes that reinforce the individual identity of each neighborhood zones. These planting schemes create a seasonal rotation, showcasing the blooming cycles of each season.

Starting to the North, groves of weeping willows create a serene neighborhood park setting that is the first to bloom in the spring and the last to go in the fall. These willows also create an effective wind buffer zone on the North part of the site. Cherry trees famous for their spring blossoms line the Eastern edge of the site. These fragrant trees will create a captivating seasonal blossom for this zone of the site. To the south, Sycamore trees create a tall, broadleaf canopy. These deciduous trees will create a colorful effect in the fall as well as shade in the summer months. On the Western edge of the site White pines will create a year round hardy zone that will keep its green throughout the winter.

Despite winning the competition, it is not clear if the design will be build or if Shenyang Media Group will be constructing a new headquarters.

Project Facts Client: Sheyang Media Group Architectural: Michael Wong Architects