Tenchuang Towers – Cross Laminated Timber (CLT)

Tenchuang Towers is an invited competition proposal for a 241,400 sqm headquarters development in Shenzhen Bay, China. The project was developed for Tenchuang, a digital entertainment and game development company, and brings together workplace, trade, exhibition, laboratory, studio, office and hotel programmes within a large mixed-use headquarters campus.

The proposal is organised as an open public podium containing retail, exhibition and shared public functions, with a planted park landscape on top. Four timber towers — two rising to approximately 100 metres and two to approximately 75 metres — frame a public place and elevated landscape, extending the spatial logic of Shenzhen Bay Park into the project.

Drawing on Scandinavian approaches to timber construction, workplace planning and environmental design, the project explores cross-laminated timber as the basis for a high-rise headquarters typology. Flexible timber structural systems allow deep and adaptable office floors while maintaining daylight, spatial variation and changing patterns of collaborative work.

The facade combines vertical shading elements with coloured glazed terracotta and photovoltaic glass. This creates a more expressive and climatically responsive alternative to the generic glass towers of Shenzhen, while connecting the project to Chinese traditions of colour, ceramic material and landscape composition.

The environmental strategy combines timber construction, photovoltaic energy generation, sea-water assisted cooling through heat pumps, rainwater collection and a planted podium ecosystem designed to support biodiversity within the dense urban context of Shenzhen Bay.