Opening into a Scroll of History, Closing into Vast Waves
Forty-Five Years of Glory, A Century of Vision and Striving
The History, Present, and Future Narrative of a World-Class Enterprise
<China Overseas · Trendy Pavilion>
China Overseas Group is the world’s largest investment and construction conglomerate, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation, ranked 13th in the Fortune Global 500. It has established five listed companies under the China Overseas brand in Hong Kong. Born and raised in Hong Kong, the group has benefited from the mature mechanisms of a market economy and the principles of free competition. Over the past 45 years, generations of China Overseas members have carried forward a culture of pioneering innovation and bold leadership, continuously striving forward with dedication and perseverance.
01 Encounter & Reunion
In 2019, MOTSE was invited to create Brand Pavilion 1.0 for China Overseas Group’s 40th anniversary at the Shenzhen Urban Planning and Art Museum.
Within just over a month from planning to execution, under the theme “Answers to the Era,” we boldly designed a rare concept in corporate pavilions: a fully open immersive digital space combined with an archival history hall.
The 40th-anniversary Brand Pavilion was a comprehensive showcase of China Overseas Group’s development. Rooted in emotion and built upon history, it conveyed the group’s brand spirit through reflection and commemoration, serving as a phased summary of the enterprise’s growth at the corporate level.
In 2023, ahead of China Overseas’ 45th anniversary, MOTSE was once again invited to write a new chapter at the group’s new headquarters.
The new pavilion is a continuation and evolution of the 40th-anniversary hall, representing a new narrative language for the exhibition space constructed around China Overseas’ “TRENDY” culture.
Continuing the original vision, it interprets the group’s core mission from the perspective of Hong Kong, with a sense of national responsibility and a global outlook. It presents China Overseas’ development in a more composed and systematic manner, providing a continuously empowering stage for the construction of the China Overseas brand.
02 Project Background
China Overseas Headquarters Tower
Located in the Shenzhen Bay Headquarters Base, boasting rare bay resources and ecological landscapes, the tower serves as a vivid practice of the “China Overseas Synergy+” concept. Officially completed at the end of 2023, it is one of the country’s first batch of Class-A Grade-A office buildings achieving near-zero carbon energy consumption. It was also the only commercial project approved as a 2022 Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Zero-Carbon Intelligent Building Demonstration Project.
China Overseas · Trendy Pavilion
Situated on the 25th floor of the tower, covering an area of nearly 700 square meters, the pavilion is divided into two main zones, north and south, surrounding the building’s core structure.
03 Curatorial Design
In its design approach, the MOTSE team established three core principles centered around the exhibition hall’s primary application goals:
I. As a Digital Archive
-Collect and manage physical artifacts and digital materials from across the group, revealing the stories behind interactive exhibits;
-Collect and display physical and digital versions of key project models, sand tables, and technological achievements;
-Utilize flexibly adaptable spatial configurations and versatile equipment interfaces to suit different application scenarios.
II. As an Immersive “Hong Kong Style” Experience
-Employ multimedia techniques to create a dynamically evolving sense of a “Hong Kong style” era.
-Integrate “Hong Kong style” elements and period-specific features into the spatial design.
III. As a Flexible Communication Tool
-Design designated interaction points, providing spaces for summarizing and engaging in conversation within each exhibition area.
-Employ customizable modes and content design methods to accommodate various communication scenarios.
-Expand the “content space” of the exhibition hall by linking content with other group pavilions and materials.
Subsequently, focusing on the keywords of Hong Kong Perspective, Era Responsibility, Global Landscape, and Future Innovation, and centering on the theme of “Geocultural Identity + The Spirit of the Times as Embodied in Urban Form,” a master narrative for the entire exhibition space was constructed.
04 The Path of the Wave Pioneers
The overall space continues the color concept from the 40th-anniversary exhibition—”Golden Years”—using a light gold hue to bridge reminiscence and a promising future.
The space is open and well-structured. All multimedia equipment is subtly “hidden” within the space, which itself recedes into a series of era-specific scenes and stories, aligning with China Overseas’ image of “steadfastness” in the industry. The application of multimedia and AI technologies also responds to the contemporary mission of “promoting high-quality development through industrialization, informatization, and green practices.”
South Zone: City of Golden Years
In the South Zone, using the cultural and historical context of Hong Kong and Macau as a backdrop, the 45-year development journey of China Overseas is presented through a combination of digital imagery, graphics, text, models, and more. This narrative is woven through elements such as a CGI reconstruction of Hong Kong streetscapes, video footage of historical images from Hong Kong and Macau, lightboxes, a holographic theater depicting the impression of Hong Kong and Macau’s cities and seas, and models representing iconic projects from the two regions.
The company’s historical information, artifacts, and development achievements are presented in a detailed narrative. This forms the design theme for the South Zone: City of Golden Years.
Passing through the Wave Pioneer Culture Corridor, which extends the design concept of the opening waves of the era, the flow guides movement between the north and south zones while also symbolizing the transmission of the pioneering culture throughout the enterprise’s development.
North Zone: City of High-Quality Development
In the North Zone, urban scenes are constructed around the themes of technology, development, and the future. The collection of iconic projects spanning 45 years at the entrance to the North Zone represents both history and the beginning of a new era.
The North Zone features an interactive pioneering long-scroll painting depicting the grand spectacle of China Overseas’ current development. Combined with China Overseas’ AI-powered city, which blends the virtual and real, these elements form the design theme for the North Zone: City of High-Quality Development.
Epilogue: City of a Better Future
The pavilion’s future chapter opens into a boundary-free immersive space. Generative AI lets visitors imagine new forms of urban life and explore a city of the future. Together, the city-building experience and visions of future living bring the exhibition to its closing theme: A Better City of the Future.
Entering the future chapter of the pavilion, an unbounded immersive space breaks through the limits of time and space. Utilizing generative AI technology, it freely creates scenes of future urban life, leading the audience into the future. Through the construction of a future city and the exploration of future living, the final design theme of the pavilion is realized: City of a Better Future.
Moving from the present to the future, a blend of virtual and real, we connect the two using artificial intelligence and voice interaction technology. Using generative AI to create visions of future cities, the audience can explore the “Answers to the New Era” regarding China Overseas’ corporate development through interaction with the group’s AI assistant.
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