THE planned Shenzhen Sci & Tech Museum, one of the city’s new top 10 cultural facilities, will be located in Guangming Science Town in Guangming District, said a tender notice for its design issued by the Shenzhen Public Works Bureau on Monday.

Construction of the museum will start this year and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023. The project will be located in Guangming CBD, next to Guangqiao Road and Cuihu Station (temporary name) on Metro Line 6.

The museum will cover an area of 66,000 square meters, with a total floor area of 105,000 square meters and green coverage rate of no less than 30 percent.

Total investment in the project is about 2.11 billion yuan (US$312.9 million).

The museum will be built into a world-class public welfare science center that represents Shenzhen’s image and highlights the city’s technological and innovative development.

Guangming District is an important node of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao Science and Technology Innovation Corridor, according to a Shenzhen Economic Daily report yesterday.

Additionally, the district’s 99-square-kilometer Guangming Science Town has been planned based on the concept of “Science + City + Industry.” It will take full advantage of its geographical location and lay out a multi-level science and technology infrastructure cluster in order to develop a world-class science town with outstanding competitiveness and influence.

In terms of regional transportation, the high-speed rail, subway and expressway networks in the district will help connect it with major cities in the Pearl River Delta. Hong Kong and Guangzhou can also be reached from the district in half an hour.

The museum will have seven main functional areas, namely the science and technology exhibition area, science and technology theater area, educational activity area, science and technology communication center, public service area, business management area and outdoor science square, said the bureau.

The tender for the museum’s schematic design and preliminary architectural design is now open for prequalification application. Design teams from home and abroad are welcome to participate in the bidding.

The tender process will be divided into prequalification, design competition and winner selection stages. The winner will be announced this July and the total design cost is tentatively budgeted at 26.49 million yuan.

The venue of the museum was originally planned for the Greater Airport Town in Bao’an District. Earlier this year, it was disclosed that the size of the museum had been reduced from the previously planned 105,000 square meters to between 60,000 and 80,000 square meters.(Zhang Yu)