Abstract:

This project reimagines mixed-use architecture in Dongmen, Shenzhen, addressing the challenges of vertical commercial-residential stacking. At Nantong Plaza, women dominate the shops, often blending professional and domestic labour while caring for children. Tight layouts deny privacy and agency, with children spilling into corridors and disrupting shoppers. The mall is dim and introverted, and upstairs flats favour large living rooms over essential kitchens and bedrooms — reflecting patriarchal norms of design.

Challenging this phallocentric logic, the proposal reinterprets Hannah Arendt’s vita activa (labor, work, action). Starting from the unit, for a shop-owner mother (with partner and one child), solid boundaries define work, a vertical corridor organises cyclical labour, and a double-height volume enables action through direct shop-to-porch supervision.

For a single mother working externally, aligned labour corridors with flexible boundaries foster collective action and mutual childcare.

Heavy shear walls delineate layers; lightweight I-beams support translucent, retractable partitions; extruded polycarbonate corridors reveal blurred glimpses of domestic life.

Within the field, enfilade-connected porches revive 1920s Viennese Wohnküche. Six courtyard types are formed for ventilation, legibility, and diverse uses. The adaptable prototype allows removable walls for universality, with only shear walls and I-beams fixed for evolution in Shenzhen’s dynamic urban context.