SHENZHEN has planned three passageways to accommodate migratory birds at its Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base, where the large-scale construction of infrastructure including the central green axis is about to start, according to the city’s housing and construction bureau.

The headquarters base lies in a special location as it is situated on the shore of Shenzhen Bay and is adjacent to the international mangrove center.

The central green axis running from north to south, 230 meters at the widest and 130 meters at the narrowest points, is one of the three passageways designed for migratory birds as they migrate through the city.

The other two passageways include a low-density building block with height limits imposed on the buildings at the area’s east side, and a belt-shaped park 60 meters wide at the area’s west side.

“The headquarters base is adjacent to Shenzhen Bay in the south and the OCT national wetland park in the north. Tanglang Mountain Park lies at the northern end of the base. The area has rich vegetation,” said Wei Ying, project manager and senior designer from TLS Landscape Architecture.

The design scheme of TLS and AZPML was the winning scheme for the central green axis and the area’s landscape design.

According to Wei, over 100,000 migratory birds make a stopover or spend the winter in Shenzhen Bay annually. During earlier field visits, Wei and her team discovered that migratory birds cannot enter the city and basically stay in Shenzhen Bay Park and the OCT wetland park.

“After research, we found that the central axis area is on the little egrets’ migration route,” Wei was quoted as saying in an interview. Wei said that it has been a major focus in their design scheme as to how they can avoid ecological isolation and guide birds to fly through this “corridor” connecting mountains and the sea.

“Our goal is not only to allow migratory birds to fly smoothly through the passageways, but also to attract these birds to stay and inhabit here as much as possible, ultimately forming a bird-friendly paradise in the area,” Wei said.

The design team has also aspired to attract target birds to forage by delineating different zones in light of sunlight and wind directions and introducing locally adapted native plants in different zones to create benthic habitats.

Small, dotted freshwater ponds will be formed in Shenzhen Bay Park to provide some freshwater supply for the traveling birds, especially the large number of egrets.

In order to reduce the impact of lighting on migratory birds, the city has also proposed an urban design that is friendly to these creatures at nighttime.

Wu Changsong, a housing and construction official, said that the area’s overall lighting brightness will be reduced, and the landscape lighting brightness limit is 20% below standard. Lighting that may have a negative impact on migratory birds’ migration will also be avoided.

The Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base is a key development area in the city that will serve as a gathering place for headquarters enterprises and technology companies.

At present, 16 construction projects are under way in the area, including those of Digital China, Telling Telecommunication, China Electronics Corp., ZTE, OPPO, and China Merchants Bank. (Zhang Yu)