Kengo Kuma turns Guangzhou shipyard slipway into walkable volcanic stone roof

Kengo Kuma and Associates has completed Shipyard 1914 on the site of the former Guangzhou Shipyard in Guangzhou, China. The 4,400-square-meter mixed-use complex preserves the historic slipway—the incline once used to launch ships into the Pearl River—and extends it into a layered roofscape covered in porous reddish-brown volcanic stone. The roof functions as a public ground plane with steps and gentle inclines, offering views of the river and city. Beneath it, halls of varying sizes house art spaces, retail, cafés, and cultural programming. A straight glass axis keeps the former launch path legible from inside. The project treats the slipway as both circulation and memory, avoiding a frozen preservation approach. The team includes Yutaka Terasaki, Xin Wei, Chensitian Wang, Wenyu Wu, and Shengfang Su. Construction was by China Construction Second Engineering Bureau Co. Ltd. Photography is by Eiichi Kano.