After being selected along with 10 other international consortiums, Tekuma Frenchman was asked to provide a masterplan and urban design for a transit-oriented science and innovation district area of 7km² in Shenzhen. The scope included the detailed urban design of key nodes around the metro stations. Its proposal, ‘The Self-Assembly City’ was awarded the first place, and will be the first Chinese city especially dedicated to scientists and researchers.

Rather than imposing a spatial structure on the city, organic principles that leverage transportation and ecology are proposed, becoming a place where city and nature are interlaced. With this framework, the objective is to identify and design the points of interaction between urban, green, and mobility. That is where the nodes are, from which the self-assembly city organizes and grows. In total five nodes spurt the development of the district, each with distinct themes and roles. At the heart of the project is the Central Science Park, a prominent green space that knits the five nodes and their urban edges together. While most of the park is programmed with recreational and cultural amenities, layered with the most cutting-edge technologies, its centre is an ecological preserve home to native species and rich biodiversity.