Tengyun Center (Tencent Cloudrise), the new headquarters campus for Chinese technology and internet services company Tencent, has opened in Shenzhen with its main office buildings raised above an expansive public coastal landscape, creating open ground-level space accessible to the wider community.
Designed by MAD Architects, the Beijing-based architecture practice led by Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, and Yosuke Hayano, the project forms part of Tencent’s wider headquarters campus across Qianhai and Da Chan Bay. The completed development occupies a site of about 72,000m² and delivers approximately 412,000m² of office space.
The development comprises two office towers, three interconnected cloud buildings, and a standalone water droplet-shaped building. Building heights gradually step down from the city towards the sea, creating a skyline that responds to the site’s waterfront setting.
At the heart of the campus, the three cloud buildings are lifted about 8.6 metres above ground on ten structural cores, freeing what would otherwise have been occupied ground level into a continuous public landscape with pedestrian routes, shaded gardens, lawns, gathering spaces, and uninterrupted views towards the coastline.
Rather than treating the ground level as private corporate territory, the design raises the headquarters to return it to the city. The space beneath the buildings becomes a continuous public realm where landscaped gardens, pedestrian routes, gathering spaces, and coastal views remain accessible without entering the offices. Raising the buildings also improves natural shading and ventilation across the site while opening visual corridors between the campus and the bay.
The headquarters is organised along a north-south axis, with the three cloud-like volumes linked by elevated steel-truss bridges that not only connect the buildings but also create shared spaces overlooking the bay. The sequence through the campus gradually shifts from the city edge to landscaped gardens, elevated walkways, workplaces, and finally the coastline.
Each building accommodates a different programme. The southern volume houses exhibitions and multi-functional events, including a second-floor public space overlooking the bay. The central building features an open atrium connected to a sunken garden, while the northern building contains office space arranged around an atrium covered by a semi-open shell-shaped ETFE skylight that allows daylight while helping reduce exposure to the strong coastal sun.
The workplace layout also departs from the traditional hierarchy found in many office towers. Around 80 per cent of workstations are positioned to face the sea, while circulation areas and shared amenities have also been arranged to maintain views across the waterfront.
The project has been designed to preserve the site’s existing coastal ecology. Working alongside a government-led coastal restoration initiative, the development retains existing mangroves, tidal habitats, and bird migration routes rather than relocating them as part of the landscape design.
The architectural expression is supported by long-span structural systems that create open floorplates and steel-truss bridges connecting the elevated volumes. Large curved façades, frameless glazing, and transparent ribless glass at the lower levels help dissolve the boundary between indoor and outdoor spaces while maximising views towards the sea. Integrated horizontal shading follows the building’s form to reduce solar gain.
MAD said these structural and environmental systems work together to strengthen the relationship between workplaces, landscape, movement, and climate rather than acting as independent architectural features.
Tencent Cloudrise was developed for Tencent Technology (Shenzhen), with Shenzhen General Institute of Architectural Design and Research, the Chinese architectural design institute, serving as executive architect. China Construction 4th Engineering Bureau 6th Corp., the Chinese construction company, delivered the project, while Arcadis Shanghai, the project and cost management consultancy, oversaw project management.
Completed between 2020 and 2026, Tengyun Center now forms a new public-facing gateway between Shenzhen and its coastline, combining office space, publicly accessible landscape, and protected coastal ecology within a single headquarters campus.
Images: Courtesy of MAD
