What if a corporate headquarters gave more to the city than it took from it? In Shenzhen, the Tengyun Centre does exactly that, lifting its office campus into the air to free up the ground below. Designed by MAD Architects as part of Tencent’s 80-hectare headquarters spanning Qianhai and Da Chan Bay, the 72,000 sq m development brings together three interconnected office buildings, two office towers and generous shared public spaces, forming an open corporate campus that integrates seamlessly with its waterfront setting.
The showstopper is a trio of “cloud buildings” that hover 8.6 m above ground, carried on just ten structural cores. This engineering feat clears the ground plane for landscaped public areas, shaded pedestrian walkways and the site’s existing mangroves, letting people move through the campus uninterrupted. The three glazed volumes step down towards the bay, linked by sweeping steel-truss bridges that double as circulation routes and architectural statement pieces. Long-span structural systems keep internal columns to a minimum, opening up flexible, unobstructed office floors.
Inside, the central and northern buildings wrap office space around sunlit atriums with semi-open skylights, while the southern building takes on a more public role, hosting flexible event and exhibition spaces alongside areas open to all. A standalone droplet-shaped building and two glazed office towers round out the campus. Curved façades fitted with horizontal shading cut solar heat gain without sacrificing daylight, a critical balance in Shenzhen’s subtropical climate.
Sustainability runs through the structure itself, not just the finishes. By lifting the primary building mass off the ground, the design hands back valuable space for public use and landscaping while protecting the site’s mangroves. High-performance glazing, external solar shading and smart structural planning do the rest, cutting the building’s environmental footprint without cutting corners. The Tengyun Centre makes the case that steel construction, used boldly, can deliver a workplace that works just as hard for the public realm as it does for the people inside it.
