London-based designer David Chipperfield is teaming up with Dutch firm Metropolitan Architects and Japan's Sou Fujimoto to build a $1.4 billion art and retail complex in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The project is being developed by K11Ecoast, a subsidiary of Hong Kong New World Development and China Merchants Group.

Completed by the end of 2024, the project covers an area of more than 22 hectares and is located in the seaside area of Taiziwan, Nanshan District, Shenzhen. K11Ecoast said that its selected team of architects will "deeply study the careful balance between architecture and nature, and skillfully integrate architectural design with the coastal landscape to create a new hotspot and destination for creative culture and ecological living in the Greater Bay Area.

David Chipperfield is the designer of the West Bund Museum in Shanghai, OMA is known in China for its CCTV headquarters in Beijing, and Sou Fujimoto is known for integrating his designs into the natural environment.

K11 added that the design of the development complies with environmental rules set out in China's 14th Five-Year Plan, including implementing circular economy principles to reduce waste, a sponge city concept to manage floods, hospital-grade air filtration, and LEED Platinum-compliant buildings.

The project is part of the Chinese government's efforts to further develop the Greater Bay Area, which has a GDP of about $1.6 trillion, roughly the size of South Korea. The goal is to transform major cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan into cultural and commercial centers by 2035.

The Eco Coast project has partnered with some 50 cultural institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Palais de Tokyo, to help build its exhibition spaces. The aim is to create a venue for artists from all over the world, with a focus on those from China's burgeoning contemporary art scene. Two sculptors, Phyllida Barlow from the UK and Monika Sosnowska from Poland, have been commissioned to provide public art for the development.Editor/XingWentao