Pingshan River Water Purification Station, a leisure spot overlooking Shenzhen and the Pingshan River

Pingshan Terrace is a design practice beyond the traditional architectural definition. Nanbu Water Purification Station is located in Yanzihu Area, Pingshan District, Shenzhen, by the midstream of Pingshan River. Facing the Pingshan International Convention Center diagonally across the river, the project is planned to be surrounded with large artificial lake and a wetland park in the perimeter. In the blueprint, Yanzihu Area will be a new city parlor of the eastern Shenzhen and even the eastern part of Guangdong-Hong KongMacao Greater Bay Area. Originally, Nanbu Water Purification Station was just an underground water purification station – a water infrastructure in the sense of engineering. In view of its characteristics and potential openness, as well as the particularity of the site, we make it go beyond a functional infrastructure and become a mega public space with regional climate characteristics through design intervention. The original Nanbu Water Purification Station in construction was designed with 5,100 ㎡ main body underground and 1,200 ㎡ one-floor office management space above ground. We were involved in the project when the original work was not completed, so the construction and renovation took place at the same time .Our intention is to transform the indispensable water purification facility for Pingshan River into a pleasant public space for experience and education through our design. We redefined the infrastructure in both spiritual and aesthetic dimensions, and created a sense of 'rituality' in daily life by making it into an infrastructure for the people. Pingshan Terrace has become a back garden for local citizens for leisure and entertainment; it also shows the operation of urban water purification to the public. The vitality of the public has inspired the continuous improvement of the space. In the near future, we will contribute new designs to the Terrace with a new library and a coffee bar on the second floor. We look forward to more enriching activities here. We set a public footpath running through the building, extending from the green park on the north side to the roof of the management office, as well as connecting the waterscape square and Pingshan River on the south side. On the top of the office space, a large terrace roof for activities in the same size of the office space is built with steel structure. The platform is composed of multiple folding surfaces of different dimensions, interwoven with the roof of single-story building, forming a meaningful, continuous space for rich experience. Echo with the lake and the surrounding landscape, it serves as a public leisure place overlooking the city. The space, while allowing citizens to stay and rest, has an independent system of pedestrian circulation to avoid disturbing the daily operation and management of the water purification plant.