The entire complex will provide high-quality public space with an array public and cultural facilities, making it a place for relaxation and excitement for the people who work and live here
– Nathalie de Vries

Dutch architects MVRDV are have announced a large-scale leisure project in Shanghai that will see the firm meld nature, culture and entertainment in a huge public park on an island in the Yangtze River.

Zhangjiang Future Park will become a new focal point for the district of Pudong, with communal public facilities built into a series of green landscaped buildings surrounded by 10,000sq m (107,600sq ft) of plazas converging towards a main square.

At its heart, the development will feature a performance centre with large and small theatres; a sports centre with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a multifunctional sports hall; a large glass library; and an arts centre.

These four distinct buildings have been designed “to emerge from the ground like silhouetted cracks in the landscape”, offering strikingly different perspectives depending on your position. All will have activated roofs, linked together by pedestrianised bridges “creating a second city layer that provides views of the river and neighbourhood.”

The green programming will integrate with a 56,000sq m (602,700sq ft) public park at ground level, as well as aiding stormwater drainage, noise reduction, thermal insulation and clean air initiatives.

“We wanted to respect the natural green landscape for Zhangjiang Future Park and drew from its island location separated by two rivers”, says Nathalie de Vries, co-founder of MVRDV. “The entire complex will provide high-quality public space with an array public and cultural facilities, making it a place for relaxation and excitement for the people who work and live here.”

The Future Park is being built by the Zhangjiang Group, which since 1992 has operated a high-tech business park and residential zone close to the site. The new scheme will cater for Pudong’s 100,000 workers, who are employed by around 4,000 national and international companies predominantly in the high-technology sector. It has been conceived as an architectural landmark for the region, which "combines the relaxation coming from a natural setting with the intense excitement of a city centre."

The project is set for completion in early 2019. No budget has been publicly disclosed.

MVRD, who won the project following an international design competition, are collaborating with co-architects ISA Architecture from Shanghai and Dutch landscape designers Openfabrc.

In addition to this project, the practice are working on several other big projects in China, including a sports and cultural complex in Shenzhen and a reflective “hollowed-out” library in Tianjin.

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