OMA a china again

OMA Commissioned for New Shenzhen Stock Exchange HQ
(Shenzhen, Rotterdam, 22 December, 2006) – The Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SSE) has announced the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) as winner of the competition to design its new financial exchange.

Located in Shenzhen’s new Financial District adjacent to the administrative and cultural center of the city, the new SSE will be a financial center with civic importance.

At a height of approximately 250 meters and 259,000m2 of gross floor area, the building will house the SSE offices and will include a trading floor, registration and clearing house, the Securities Information Company and ancillary services.

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The building features a floating base, edged up the tower to become a platform to support and launch the area which it liberates on the ground. The space between the raised platform and the ground is used as a covered urban plaza, large enough to accommodate public festivals and financial information streams down digital banners hanging from the elevated platform.

“Lifting the base in the air vastly increases its exposure; in its elevated position, it can ‘broadcast’ the activities of the stock market to the entire city,” said OMA founder, Rem Koolhaas.

“The essence of the stock market is speculation: it is based on capital, not gravity. In the case of Shenzhen’s almost virtual stock market, the role of symbolism exceeds that of the program – it is a building that has to represent the stock market, more than physically accommodate it.” He continued, “It is not a trading arena with offices, but an office with virtual organs that suggest and illustrate the process of the market.”

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange is one of the two stock exchanges in mainland China. Whilst the Shanghai Stock Exchange is “China’s NYSE”, the SSE is considered “China’s NASDAQ”: known for its trading of high-tech and many new, high growth stocks.

With construction to begin in 2007, the SSE is OMA’s second large-scale project to be built in China. In 2002 OMA won the competition for the new China Central Television Headquarters (CCTV) and the Television and Cultural Center (TVCC) in Beijing, together 575.000m2, which are both under construction.