Shenzhen's OCT-LOFT: Creative space in the City of Design

- A successful creative cluster is placed in the wider urban context of Shenzhen.
- Detailed account of a creative cluster developer and reasons for success.
- We show how the creative cluster relates to the distinct urban culture of Shenzhen.
- We show how industrial heritage can be used to articulate urban memory and culture.

This paper presents a case study of a 'creative cluster' in Shenzhen, China. It places this creative cluster in the context of China's creative cultural industry policies and its increasing emphasis on creative parks or clusters as a key means to promote these. However, it also looks at OCT-LOFT in the context of the unique development of Shenzhen as a new city, given a high degree of local policy autonomy, and a long way from Beijing. It suggests that the particular kind of entrepreneurial economic policy, urban planning and the urban culture that emerged from these allowed OCT-LOFT to develop a space that is much more successful than many of those elsewhere in mainland China. The paper details the background of OCT-LOFT developers and their use of build-form and cluster management. It concludes by pointing to the lessons its success might have for other clusters in China.