Under the national greater bay area expansion strategy,  Tekuma Frenchman was one of two international design teams, invited to work for two months  with the China Urban Planning and Design Institute and the Guangzhou Urban Planning Survey and Design Institute, on a vision for the southeast expansion of Panyu, Guangzhou. Forward-looking and futuristic urban design concepts and implementable design schemes were the mandate for a spatial planning area of 260 sqkm, and a detailed urban area of 1sqkm.

Inspired by vernacular village typologies and a rich landscape of small hills, ponds, and rivers, small comprehensive community clusters under the theme of ‘Island Development’ were proposed as a new resilient development pattern for the southeast expansion. Different themes and functions are attributed to the clusters, with denser development around a new high speed train station. A land swap strategy to naturalize former fishponds into wetlands while elevating urban areas away from floods, micro multi-modal hubs mixing water and land public transit, a floating cultural village as a tourism destination, a funicular to cross a large river with few pedestrian options, are additional layers on the island concept.

Two key areas were selected, in the North and in the South, planting seeds of development around new metro stations and a High Speed Rail station.