As urban construction in Shenzhen enters a stock renewal phase, Dapeng New District, endowed with coastal ecological foundations and aligned with the city’s strategic positioning as a national marine central city, has emerged as a core platform for revitalizing and upgrading Shenzhen’s coastal spaces. Leading the ZY Urban Design team, Chen Keshi centered the master plan on organic urban renewal. Rejecting large-scale demolition and reconstruction, the team revitalized existing stock spaces, preserved local cultural heritage, and upgraded industrial formats to deliver the comprehensive urban design of Dapeng Marine Cultural Town, creating a benchmark renewal model in Shenzhen where old and new coastal landscapes coexist harmoniously.
Dapeng New District sits on a peninsula extending far into the sea. At its southeastern corner stand two landmark developments under construction: China’s sole LEGOLAND theme park and a marine university. Against this backdrop, paired with Shenzhen’s designation as a national marine central city, our team formulated the full design scheme for Dapeng Marine Cultural Town. Unlike greenfield development of newly built urban zones, this project revolves around organic urban renewal and the regeneration of built stock. All upgrades, integration and revitalization work were built upon the site’s original physical fabric to the fullest extent possible, maximizing retention of the area’s native spatial texture while achieving dual improvements in urban functionality and spatial quality.
Conceptual Sketches by Chen Keshi
The Dapeng Marine Cultural Town leverages existing traditional villages as its core anchor. Combined with the upcoming LEGOLAND and marine university, the design draws on planning experience from European coastal towns to integrate all these key elements. This design philosophy encapsulates the core of Chen Keshi’s urban renewal ethos: respect indigenous built resources, revitalize underutilized spaces within age-old hamlets without wholesale demolition or cultural discontinuity, while absorbing globally proven town-building expertise. Through an integrated renewal approach blending heritage and modernity, the design unlocks the dormant spatial and cultural value of the district.
In terms of architectural character, the design highlights distinctive morphological hallmarks of a marine town alongside the architectural language and stylistic features of indigenous Dapeng vernacular dwellings. For reshaping the district’s built identity in the urban renewal process, the team adhered to the principle of "restoring heritage while sustaining cultural lineage, fostering harmonious coexistence of old and new". Avoiding generic replicated modern architecture, the design thoroughly conserves and restores the layout and stylistic traits of local Dapeng dwellings. Paired with the spatial temperament of a coastal marine town, this delivers organic renewal of the built landscape, endowing the area with both the authentic everyday charm of local heritage and the fresh aesthetic of a contemporary coastal town.
Chen Keshi’s team boasts well-established track records of delivered urban renewal projects across Shenzhen. Previously, the team completed the master design of Gankeng Hakka Town in Longgang District. Years after construction, Gankeng has evolved into one of Shenzhen’s most popular cultural tourism destinations, drawing an average of 100,000 visitors each day on weekends. The success of Gankeng Hakka Town validates the team’s design logic of "revitalizing traditional villages plus upgrading cultural tourism business formats", laying solid practical groundwork for the urban renewal of Dapeng Marine Cultural Town.
The Dapeng Marine Cultural Town project stands as a quintessential manifestation of Chen Keshi’s coastal urban renewal vision. Abandoning extensive, low-efficiency development models, the scheme centers on revitalizing traditional villages, weaving together indigenous architectural heritage, international town planning standards and emerging local assets. Adopting a low-intervention, high-revitalization renewal strategy, the design redefines the comprehensive value of the entire district.
2026-06-23
