The Accidental Tourist

In approaching this project, our starting point was the raw fascination with the speed and scale of Shenzhen’s growth, which many of us have observed within our lifetimes from across the border. The most tangible part of this, at this site, was the flow of goods in the port of Shenzhen, crucial to the economy and the construction industry, which we represented quite literally with the most heavily traded commodities of grain, metals, cement, sand, oil, and coal. These contents, housed in small container-boxes, were placed in a container-like room with a mirrored interior finish, which we hoped would impart an impression of the industrial scale of international shipping. What is usually concealed, passing by in the background, is instead revealed and celebrated. Within this room, visitors are free to form their own understanding, and perhaps to draw parallels with the urbanism of industry.