Aedas completes nine-storey Huanggang Port hub on Shenzhen River

A nine-storey immigration hub designed to process 200,000 passengers per day opened earlier this month on the banks of the Shenzhen River, replacing the original Huanggang Port that first linked Shenzhen and Hong Kong in 1989.

Architecture studio Aedes conceived the New Huanggang Port Development as a "large-scale integrated hub" that combines border control, transport networks and 25,000 square metres of public space in a single tiered, round-edged volume.

The stacked building carries a "flowing facade" of horizontal metal fins, and its rounded form evokes a pebble in reference to the riverside site.

"The grounded, rounded form responds to the building's large scale and waterfront setting, evoking a pebble resting on the banks of the Shenzhen River," Aedas told Dezeen.

"Flowing metal fins wrap the elevation like ribbons, reinforcing the building's fluid appearance and symbolising the close connection between Shenzhen and Hong Kong."

What does the vertical stacking change?

For practitioners, the project demonstrates how a constrained border site can absorb multiple programmes that conventionally spread horizontally. Transport, immigration and public functions stack vertically under one roof and connect through a network of internal escalators.

Two floors hold immigration halls with a "barrier-free" design, sized for the expected average of 200,000 daily passengers. Floors below link directly to four of Shenzhen's rail and metro lines, which Aedas said would "support a seamless border-crossing journey".

"The nine-storey building uses vertical stacking to organise pedestrian crossing, vehicle crossing, public transport and civic amenities efficiently within a constrained site, separating passenger and vehicular flows while maintaining convenient connections between programmes," the studio said.

A modular, prefabrication approach built the volume, which opens at ground level through two sunken plazas and carries a solar panel-covered roof terrace. Across all four elevations, the rhythmic horizontal fins lift to form large glass curtain walls that draw daylight into the interior.

How is the interior organised?

Structural arched columns informed by Shenzhen's emblem flower, the Bougainvillea, divide the expansive interior spaces. Daylight enters through 73 roof skylights, facade openings and an integrated lighting system.

"[The building's] integrated transport networks, flowing facade and welcoming civic spaces express the close relationship between the two cities while establishing a distinctive point of arrival," the studio added.

The commission positions Aedas within a cluster of major cultural and commercial work now reshaping Shenzhen's built edge: RSHP has unveiled designs for a skyscraper with a "striking butterfly layout" nearby, and MAD has completed a series of boulder-like galleries across a green-roofed museum at Shenzhen Bay Culture Square. As cross-border traffic between the two cities grows, the Huanggang model of vertically stacked, rail-integrated border infrastructure sets a benchmark that future crossings will likely be measured against.