Project Positioning: Urban Renewal, Bay Area Cultural Landmark, Cultural Services for an Ancient Town's Historical Community
Nantou Ancient City is located in the rapidly developing Nanshan District of Shenzhen. Situated on the eastern bank of the Pearl River Estuary, its history dates back nearly 1,700 years to the establishment of Dongguan County in 331 AD (the sixth year of the Xianhe era in the Eastern Jin Dynasty) [1]. With Shenzhen’s reform and opening up, the area has not only preserved the spatial layout of its historical village settlement but has also integrated industrial development and high-density housing, evolving into Shenzhen’s most unique “urban village” (chengzhongcun). In 2019, with the official launch of the Nantou Ancient City Protection and Utilization Project, two core questions emerged: how to unearth Nantou's historical context, and how to address the contemporary challenges of urban renewal through innovative design? These questions became the starting point for our team, Diameter Narrative Design (DND), in curating and designing the visitor experience for the “Shared Origins Museum Group” (Tongyuan Guanqun). Nantou's history dates back to 110 BC, when the Han government established the Panyu salt office here to oversee salt production along the eastern shore of the Pearl River Estuary. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the seats of both Dongguan County and Bao'an County were set in the Nantou area, extending Dongguan's jurisdiction from the eastern bank of the estuary to what is now eastern Guangdong. Subsequently, successive imperial dynasties established political, economic, and military administrative organs in Nantou. Consequently, Nantou is not only a witness to the shared roots of Shenzhen and Hong Kong but has also directly experienced the historical evolution of the Greater Bay Area. From its inception, the Nantou project aimed to become a cultural landmark for the Greater Bay Area, with the “Shared Origins Museum Group” serving as both a physical manifestation of Nantou's historical value and a hub for community public cultural services.
