On March 14, 2025, Meishajian, Shenzhen’s third-highest peak (753 meters), witnessed a defining moment with the official opening (trial operation) of the Meishajian Viewing Platform, designed by line+ Co-Founder and Chief Architect Meng Fanhao. Joining Shenzhen Yantian District Party Secretary Li Zhong, Deputy Party Secretary and District Mayor Deng Feibo, and other officials, Meng ascended to the summit for the unveiling, where they experienced firsthand this urban landmark—one that dissolves into the mountaintop, seamlessly integrated with the landscape.
Following Shenzhen Yunhai Forest Service Station, Meng Fanhao was once again entrusted by the Shenzhen Yantian District Government to shape a new urban landmark. line+ pursued a minimal-intervention strategy in response to the mountain’s unique conditions: while the former hovers within mist-laden slopes, evoking a sense of weightlessness, the latter is grounded in stone, embracing the summit’s unshielded exposure.
"Our goal is not to impose a visual statement but to mend the wounds of the mountain—when concrete speaks the language of the terrain, architecture reaches its most profound tribute to nature."
— Meng Fanhao
01
DE-Architecturalization-Restoring the purity of experience
With its rugged trails and expansive views, Meishajian stands as a summit where five routes converge, embodying the spirit of perseverance.
During his on-site survey, Meng Fanhao observed that any conventional architectural intervention would feel disruptive in this exposed terrain. The summit endures relentless, gale-force winds, lacks infrastructure, and is scarred by abandoned excavation pits that diminish the experience. After an arduous climb, hikers are not looking for enclosure within a man-made structure but rather for a space that opens seamlessly to the vast sky and landscape.
In response, line+ approached the project as a “mountain restorer”, allowing architecture to withdraw so that the landscape could regain its natural rhythm. Rather than a conventional viewing platform, the team conceived an open, site-sensitive space—one that flows with the mountain’s contours and extends the hiking experience, offering climbers a place to pause, feel the wind, and engage in an unmediated dialogue with nature.
Rejecting the conventional typology of viewing platforms, the design follows a "de-architecturalized" approach—dispensing with verticality as a marker and instead shaping the path itself as space. A series of cast-in-place concrete "artificial boulders" interweave with the mountain’s natural rock formations, creating pockets of shelter while maintaining an uninterrupted hiking experience, ensuring that the terrain remains visually and spatially cohesive.
Rooted in the principle of "rugged contextuality," the design fuses Brutalist material integrity with site-specific adaptation, embedding the structure as an organic extension of the mountain. Subtle steps and gently sloping platforms mitigate wind resistance, while gravity-anchored concrete ensures stability. Textured surfaces, informed by the site’s geological patterns, create a near-seamless transition between the built and the natural, allowing the architecture to quietly recede into the landscape.
02
Extreme Construction - The "Three Most" Battle
The Meishajian Viewing Platform represents an unprecedented feat in Shenzhen’s architectural history, defined by three extremes: the highest-altitude summit construction site, the most confined work surface, and the most logistically demanding build, relying on an intricate transport system that incorporated drones, mules, cableways, tractors, and manual relay teams.
In response to Meishajian’s extreme terrain, the team implemented a precisely coordinated construction strategy:
• Optimized Component Sizing: The primary structure was divided into 12 modular units, with each segment carefully dimensioned to ensure feasibility for manual transport.
• Innovative Transport Methods: Initial trials involved using agricultural drones to lift precision molds and small equipment. Later, a cableway system was adopted, enabling the daily transport of 30 cubic meters of construction materials and increasing efficiency fifteenfold.
• Minimal-Intervention Construction: Strictly following the principle of minimal impact, all temporary facilities were dismantled upon completion, leaving only the cableway anchor points as a subtle trace of the site's construction history.
• On-Site Supervision: After the structure emerged above ground level, line+ deployed a resident architect to remain stationed at the summit, documenting site conditions and addressing construction discrepancies in real time, ensuring the design vision was fully realized.
Rather than an isolated pavilion, the Meishajian Viewing Platform extends the journey of ascent, acting as a continuation of the climbing path and an exploration of the site’s intrinsic spirit. The cantilevered platform rises into the clouds, while the three-meter-deep stone recess below offers shelter. The trail winds through the structure as if it had emerged organically from the mountain’s terrain.
Over time, as moss gradually envelops the concrete formations, merging them with the mountain’s rugged surface, the architecture itself will recede into the landscape. All that will remain is the fleeting yet timeless image of a hiker standing in the wind, their clothing rippling in harmony with the vastness of the peaks.
Project Name: Shenzhen Meishajian Urban Viewing Platform
Design Firm: line+ studio
Website: www.lineplus.studio
Contact: pr@lineplus.studio
Chief Architect/Project Principal: Meng Fanhao
Project Architect: He Yaliang
Design Team: Xing Shu, Han Yuyan, Xu Hao, Xu Yifan, Li Renjie
On-site Architect: Xing Shu
Client: Yantian District People’s Government of Shenzhen
Structural Consultants: AND Office / Zhang Zhun, Hu Xiaojie
MEP Consultant: Shanghai Zhuzhi Architectural Design Consulting Co., Ltd.
Lighting Consultant: Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co., Ltd. (TJAD) Architectural Lighting Institute
General Contractor: Shenzhen Zhonghe Construction Engineering Co., Ltd.
UHPC Contractor: Zhejiang Jianxin Decoration Co., Ltd.
Signage Design: SURE Design
Location: Shenzhen, Guangdong
Building Area: 300 sqm
Design Period: 2022/10 - 2024/06
Construction Period: 2024/07 -Present
Structure: Concrete slab-column shear wall
Materials: Reinforced concrete, UHPC high-performance concrete with stone texture
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