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Nantou Hybrid Building

Celebrating Diversity

Urbanus Architecture & Design

Nantou Hybrid Building
By Elisa Grossi -

The Urbanus studio envisioned a city in which different value systems coexist, fully leveraging the complex urban environment in all of its myriad, contradictory facets.

This vision underpins the Urban Coexistence concept and inspired the Nantou Hybrid Building project in the oldest part of the metropolis of Shenzhen, in southeastern China. An alternative to the dominant model of contemporary cities, Nantou urban village bears living witness to 1,700 years of history. Inclusive Nantou preserves the memory of the past, embracing present-day diversity while following the principle of juxtaposition rather than replacement, resisting the process of homogenization inherent to mainstream culture.

The Nantou Hybrid Building project began when Urbanus was invited to research the regeneration of Nantou’s ancient city in 2016. Ultimately combining microscale interventions with a cultural events program, the firm’s strategy to progressively rejuvenate the area drew on historical documents and field research. The following year, Urbanus brought the seventh edition of the Shenzhen and Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture to Nantou. Curated by two of the studio’s founders, Meng Yan and Liu Xiaodu, and art curator Hou Hanru, the event heralded the start of the area’s revitalization. This has now reached another significant milestone with completion of the Nantou Hybrid Building.

Located next to Baode Square, the complex is a cluster of five buildings that reflects the collage-like appearance of Nantou’s identity. Belonging to three different owners, the buildings went up in different historical periods, in different styles and using different materials. Urbanus’s adaptive reuse approach focused on preserving changes the buildings had undergone over time. The firm renovated the interiors and exteriors, adding two new rooftop volumes concealing a small rooftop garden. Volumetric expansions added over the...

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