Liangmao Village, a quintessential urban village in Shenzhen, was selected as one of the six pilot sites of the “City/Village Project: Longgang Six Village Practice Exhibition”. Faced with the twin challenges of homogenized urban form - “a thousand villages with one face”, and inadequate, fragmented public facilities, the design seeks to explore the possibilities of organic renewal under the pressures of rapid urbanization. Through multiple site visits, research, and conversations with local villagers, NODE devised a spatial framework of “Heritage Park + Community Park + T-shaped Street,” envisioning a new model that could cultivate a pluralistic public life - “one village with a thousand faces.”

Drawing upon the historic fabric of the old Liangmao Village, the Heritage Park inverts its spatial grain to reconstruct a new interplay of solid and void. On the ground level, landscaped courtyards echo the original village layout, interspersed with pedestrian corridors and grey spaces. Above, a new steel-structured walkway connects the old village, the new settlement, and the Liangmao Hill trail, enhancing regional accessibility. The park’s framework of lightweight lattice steel reimagines the demolished dwellings in abstracted “void” form, complemented by various wall compositions with traditional Chinese garden windows. What was once a derelict settlement has been reborn as a ruin-garden, a pleasant everyday retreat for villagers and a playground for children.

The Community Park perches on the terrace where the new village meets the hillside, once offering little more than a basketball court and scattered exercise equipment, insufficient for residents of all ages. The design employs a vertical spatial strategy to break through conventional functional boundaries, stacking programs such as a community theater, children’s activity zones, and basketball courts across multiple levels—significantly enhancing both spatial efficiency and site value.

Enlivened through collaboration with Atelier XI and artist Xue Feng, the T-shaped street has become a public stage offering richer experiences and vitality. Narrow sidewalks barely a meter wide were cantilevered outward to form expansive viewing platforms, creating a verdant “village balcony” with open vistas for social interaction and activities. Murals, entrance canopies, and pavilions draw inspiration from traditional bamboo weaving, strengthening cultural identity and collective memory.