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.