Dusk view from the footbridge: the retail centre’s rippling bands open toward the street, with the metro bridge landing at the front door — Arrival at dusk — the footbridge from the metro lands at the open heart of the centreDesign: Architecture Georges Hung with Ho & Partners. Image: Ho & Partners.

Case study · Retail & mixed use · Shenzhen

Ang’e Pingshan
Retail Centre

A Shenzhen Metro depot site in Pingshan, reimagined as an urban living room: pebbles and ripples drawn from the hills, gathered around a park and a station.

Project: SZ Metro Ang’e Depot Pingshan Retail Centre, Phases 2 & 3
Location: Pingshan, Shenzhen, China
Client: Shenzhen Metro Real Estate Development Co., Ltd.
Year: 2023
Site: 6.6 ha, two plots
Programme: Retail centre, cultural facilities, community leisure hub
Status: Invited competition, first place; under development
Design: Architecture Georges Hung, with Ho & Partners

People no longer need a shopping centre to shop. They need a reason to be there.

The challenge

Pingshan is changing from a district of factories into one of research and development. Shenzhen Metro asked for the next two phases of a retail centre on its Ang’e depot site: two plots, 6.6 hectares, among new housing towers, schools and workplaces, with a metro station at the door.

The programme set 52,710 m² of retail beside 2,000 m² of cultural facilities and a 3,000 m² community leisure hub. The people it had to serve were young families, couples, technology workers and young creatives — each with a different day, and a different reason to come.

Aerial view: residential towers frame the retail centre, a winding park and pavilions with green roofs, and the red running track crossing the site — The site in its district — housing towers on every side, the park and pavilions at the centreDesign: Architecture Georges Hung with Ho & Partners. Image: Ho & Partners.

A conventional mall would have turned its back on all of this: a closed box beside the station, busy at weekends and dark at night. The site also lies on the city’s green axis. A sealed building would have cut it in two.

My role

Lead design architect for the masterplan and the retail centre in the competition entry with Ho & Partners. I set the masterplan strategy and established the retail strategy and positioning, linking the metro depot, public space and landscape, with Ho & Partners’ team in Shenzhen coordinating the competition production through to first prize.

Bring the hills into the city. Let the city walk through.

One decision

Position the centre as a neighbourhood living room around a park, not an enclosed mall beside a station.

Client challenge
Shenzhen Metro needed the next two retail phases on its Ang’e depot site to serve a district changing from factories to research and development, with a metro station at the door and the city’s green axis crossing the site.
Assessment
Research into who the centre would serve — young families, couples, technology workers and young creatives — showed four different days and four different reasons to come. A closed box would be busy at weekends, dark at night, and would cut the green axis in two.
Design action
I set the retail positioning around time spent rather than floor area. It changed three things.
Programme: culture, community and leisure face the park, and each floor holds a part of the day — supermarket and gourmet below, children and learning above, cinema, dining and an event park on the roof.
Connections: metro, bus stops and footbridges lead straight into the park, and the green axis runs through the site on walkways and bridges.
Masterplan priorities: the park became the centre of the plan, ringed by pavilions, with the main building behind.
Client outcome
First place in Shenzhen Metro’s invited competition, 2023; now under development. The commercial benefits — longer visits, use from morning to night, a stronger destination — are intended, and not yet measured.

The design response

I took the rolling landscape of Pingshan as the guide and cascaded it across the site. The result is an urban living room made of pebbles and ripples: a ring of small pavilions around a central event park, and a main building that rises in soft, layered bands.

The green axis runs straight through, east to west, on walkways and bridges. People arrive by metro and step into the park, not into a car park or a lobby. Shops, cafés, culture and play face the park, so the public space is the centre of the plan rather than what is left over.

Hand sketch in blue and green ink over the site plan: a central park and terraced podium with the community experience centre — First sketch — a central park, ringed by pavilions

Hand sketch in blue and green ink: the green corridor threading east–west through lifestyle pavilions and the event plaza — Second sketch — a green corridor through it

Sketches: Georges Hung.

Massing diagram: soft, stacked forms with contour-like roof lines, rising gradually from the ground — Forms that build up gradually, like contours

Close aerial rendering: pavilions with stepped seating and grass roofs, open to the park and track — Roofs you can walk on, stepping up from the park

Design: Architecture Georges Hung with Ho & Partners. Image: Ho & Partners.

Aerial rendering of the central park: winding paths and a red track, pavilions with grass roofs, sculptures and the silver main building beyond — The urban living room — pavilions like pebbles, paths like ripples, the main building behindDesign: Architecture Georges Hung with Ho & Partners. Image: Ho & Partners.

Diagram: a wide green band carries the city’s green axis east–west across the site — The green axis, carried through the site

Diagram: pedestrian routes from every direction converge on the central park hub — Every route meets at the park

Design: Architecture Georges Hung with Ho & Partners. Image: Ho & Partners.

Site model seen from above: the main building’s rippled roof, a triangle of pavilions, the park and green corridor between housing blocks — The plan from above — the main building, the pavilions and the park on the green axisDesign: Architecture Georges Hung with Ho & Partners. Image: Ho & Partners.

How it works

01
Arrive by metro
Station, bus stops and footbridges lead straight into the park. Arrival is part of the experience, not a car park to cross.
02
A park at the centre
A central event plaza and park, ringed by lifestyle, retail and F&B pavilions, works as the neighbourhood’s social hub.
03
Many ground floors
Terraces, ramps and roof gardens let each level meet the landscape, so upper floors feel as easy to reach as the street.
04
Indoor and outdoor as one
Shops open onto terraces and covered streets. The edge between mall and park is soft, so people move between them without noticing.
05
A floor for each part of life
Supermarket and gourmet below, fashion and culture at the park, children and learning above, cinema and dining at the top, an event park on the roof.
06
Open all day, all week
Live, work, play and learn within fifteen minutes on foot: a hub that stays alive from the morning coffee to the late film.

Stacking diagram from basement parking to rooftop event park: supermarket, international gourmet, fashion and beauty, green corridor and culture, education and children, cinema and food — From parking to the rooftop park — each level holds a different part of the dayDesign: Architecture Georges Hung with Ho & Partners. Image: Ho & Partners.

6.6 ha: across two plots, beside the Ang’e metro depot.
52,710 m²: of retail, from supermarket to rooftop.
5,000 m²: for culture and community: 2,000 m² cultural, 3,000 m² leisure hub.
7 levels: from basement parking to an event park on the roof.
15 min: on foot to homes, schools and workplaces around it.
1st place: invited competition for Shenzhen Metro, 2023. Now under development.

Inside

The interiors carry the same idea indoors. Atria open to the sky, balconies curve like contour lines, and planting climbs every level. Each space is designed as a destination in its own right: a place to meet, to linger, and to come back to.

Rendering of the main atrium: curving balconies with planting rise to an oval skylight, with a lattice sphere at the centre — The main atrium — balconies like contour lines, rising to an oval of lightDesign: Architecture Georges Hung with Ho & Partners. Image: Ho & Partners.

Rendering of a glazed atrium with a hanging sculpture, toy-figure displays and visitors taking photos — A glazed hall for events and displays

Rendering of a multi-level retail street with cafés, bridges overhead and escalators to the lower floors — A layered street of cafés and shops

Design: Architecture Georges Hung with Ho & Partners. Image: Ho & Partners.

Rendering of an F&B gallery under a sculpted, rippling ceiling, with coffee bars, planting and pebble-patterned floor — The F&B gallery — a rippled ceiling above, a floor of pebbles belowDesign: Architecture Georges Hung with Ho & Partners. Image: Ho & Partners.

The value — intended

The scheme won first place in Shenzhen Metro’s invited competition in 2023 and is now under development. It is designed to show how a transit company’s land can become more than a station with shops above: a neighbourhood centre, built around a park, that people choose to spend their time in.

A retail centre is no longer measured by its floor area. It is measured by how long people stay when they have nothing to buy.

Rendering at sunset: a glass pavilion and sculpture on the plaza, the red track curving past, and residential towers beyond — The plaza at sunset — the pavilion, the track and the towers of the new districtDesign: Architecture Georges Hung with Ho & Partners. Image: Ho & Partners.

The challenge

My role

One decision

The design response

How it works

Arrive by metro

A park at the centre

Many ground floors

Indoor and outdoor as one

A floor for each part of life

Open all day, all week

Inside

The value — intended