Diller Scofidio + Renfro have been selected to create a 250 hectare eco-tourism hub for Haikou Bay in China’s Hainan province.

The studio finished ahead of nine fellow firms, including Foster + Partners and UN Studio, in an international competition for the ambitious project – which is being bankrolled by Chinese developer HNA Group.

Called South Sea Pearl artificial island, the crescent-shaped area of land is connected to the mainland by a bridge. HNA want to transform it into a leisure zone with hotels, resorts, a theme park, a yacht harbour and a cruise ship port. The company plans to invest around CNY8.4bn (US$1.25bn, €1.1bn, £958m) into the project.

In an interview with Chinese news service CCTV, Elizabeth Diller, a partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, said: "Our studio worked for a couple of months to imagine how to take this amount of land and how to consolidate all the building programme in the smallest footprint possible, but also in a very natural land form. It's a stitching of nature and culture together, so we’re very excited about that."

The mayor of Haikou, Ni Qiang, said: "This island will not only help boost local economic growth and create more jobs, but also bring some of the world's most advanced concepts in urban development to China.”

Construction on the vast project is scheduled to begin next year.