Exponential Hope — Designing a landmark for Shenzhen's identity
Contextual Research and
Vision Definition
With Shenzhen Science and Technology Museum
Challenge
International design competition for the public hall at the new Shenzhen Science and Technology Museum.
Outcome
An architectural project that aims to become an icon of the progress of science working simultaneously as a physical landmark for Shenzhen’s identity and hope.
context
Shenzhen is one of the most fashinanting cities in the contemporary world, being nothing but rice fields 4 decades ago, it is currently considered the silicon valley of China. It all started as the central chinese government making a economic experience by creating economic special zones to boost its innovation and progress, so the rice fields start becoming factories, and from factories centers of science.
Many of the high technological companies in the world have headquarters there, and many of the technological products have their origin in Shenzhen. Currently, almost 13 million people live in Shenzhen coming from all over china, to work on the most recent technological companies.
To celebrate this success story, the local government decided to create a science and technological museum to become a reference in the world by its scale and importance.
our role
01
We needed to think how such a museum would have its interior, how it should function and be organized to be a solution for the future.
02
How we could do such a project that will connect the city of Shenzhen with the museum in a deeper level by enhancing local features.
03
How could we make a fully remote project in 2020 being the majority of the world in lockdown, specially China.
RESEARCH & STRATEGY
We explored how the area of Shenzhen and the Greater Bay had become a world leader in technology development, cementing its place as one of the most innovative places in the world, bringing it all together to define what this leadership role means for the new Shenzhen Museum of Science and Technology.
We organized In-depth interviews with locals and expats in order to understand the relation they had with the city and their vision of progress.
In parallel we organized our team to run an extensive online ethnographic research, dividing the research in different areas and having the process made with design sprints for quicker results for discussion.
Then we explored for the most advanced technologies and companies in Shenzhen, the objective was to bring the state of the art local technology into the museum, making the museum a permanent showroom of the best practices and innovations which are forged locally.
We look for the symbols and references that connected the people on The Greater Bay Area region. And we explore how these symbols played a role in the many elements in the local culture.
We explored how in China people use technology (its different from Western World) and how we could use that learning to make technology a great connector between people in a space.
We explore the relationship between ancient tradition and hyper modernity in China in order to find a balance that brings a future forward. Among our research we were particular interested in certain types of technology that despite their age, are still in use and have carry many traditions with them.
Our research took us to agree that one of the main identities of Shenzhen was Hope. Hope because it is a city of dreams for the Chinese, where a young farmer can arrive empty pocket and make a fortune over there. In parallel as it’s a very recent city, the vast majority of the population migrated to the city looking for a better life. So hope was a main characteristic among the population.
We then developed a vision around the theme of hope as a centerpiece for the design development. Hope was the destination that the entire city on its first place had been built for, still valid today as it was 40 years ago.
The core question at the end of this phase was: How will we teach hope?
FINDINGS
An Installation design to reflect The Greater Bay Area
When creating an installation piece to harbor our experience and resonate with visitors, we were inspired by the margins of the Pearl River Delta. This is the element that unites millions of people. Like the delta itself, the installation will feel alive. Inundating the entire hall with its presence, emanating vibrant light, deep sounds and tangible vibrations that vary according to the visitors interactions, creating an ambience that will bring the experience to a deeper level of immersion.
Technology as a great connector between people
We proposed cutting edge technology to provide every user a unique, hyper-personalized and interactive experience. One of the unique features of our proposal is a Magic Mirror with hidden displays and sensors that convey a feeling of human awareness to the installation, displaying information only when a user approaches, interacts or glances at the surface. Using computer vision it understands every visitor’s individual characteristics and context, distinguishes a child from an adult, interprets a face’s emotional state or expression, and collects data from the most minute to the most noticeable actions to better conduct intuitive, conversational and seamless interactions.
Hope grows from the Individual to the collective
As a perpetual ever-changing feeling, hope starts as an individual perception that merges into a collective vision. And just like the Pearl River Delta has its mechanical force from the sum of many individual water drops, the Shenzhen hope is the sum of many individual perspectives of hope that together become the city identity.
Our experience starts by helping every visitor construct their own individual idea of hope, your very own drop of water that comprise the big river. Using various interactions to translate the individual’s abstract sense of hope into a digital, visual representation of it — an Individual Hope Avatar, that further down the experience will comprise a bigger collective representation of Hope.
Building a Collective Identity of Hope
The installation is constantly gathering the visitor’s individual sense of hope to generate a visual representation of collective feeling. This process, that we’re calling Collective Hope is an embodiment of cumulative shared values, will permanently live in the museum. It is a symbol of Shenzhen’s identity, something of extremely significant value to its citizens making them closer together.
