Our studies and competition entry for Tencent are an attempt to show that the smart city is also the green city.
– Winy Maas

MVRDV's design for a new campus for Chinese technology firm Tencent is, in reality, an urban district in which for employees to live, work and play, with cutting edge smart city technology and nature deeply integrated into its design.

Tencent began plans for a new headquarters shortly after completing their current headquarters in Shenzhen, China, due to the speed on its growth.

Located the city's Qianhai Bay area, MVDRV's proposal includes 2 million sq m (21.5 million sq ft) of office space for 80,000–100,000 employees and homes for 19,000 residents.

Tencent also briefed that the campus should integrate smart city technologies in such a way as to provide a model for others to follow.

The campus would be built on a peninsula of land and laid out in as a grid of over 100 buildings with bridges between them providing interconnectedness and "an undulating roof of photovoltaic panels".

The design is described as being reminiscent of a mountain range, with greenery and green space knitted into it and the base of the buildings giving way to a waterfront park running along one side of the site.

Public buildings, like a school, a kindergarten and a sports centre, are spread throughout the park, a distinctive, rock-shaped conference centre sits on a waterfront plot at on end of the site and an "information plaza" public space displays data about the running of the campus, like occupancy and to carbon usage.

"Our studies and competition entry for Tencent are an attempt to show that the smart city is also the green city," said MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas.

"With ubiquitous smart city elements, headlined by a futuristic data hub at the heart of the campus, Tencent employees would feel enveloped by technology. But they are also literally surrounded by nature, with the serpentine park always within a short walking distance, and green terraces all around them."