look! up in the sky!
BAU210 Shanghai Hongxuan Office Building
Shanghai, China
Discipline
ArchitectureTypology
Office buildingCity
Shanghai, ChinaDate
2004-2006Status
Completed 2006Client
Shanghai Hongxuan Bus GroupProgram
Office and warehouseupside-down
Industrial buildings usually locate their offices on the ground level and the factory warehouse behind and above. In this project BAU asks, what can be gained by turning this now clichéd response upside-down? If the offices are placed on top of the factory they get a southern orientation, great views, a quiet environment conducive to an efficient working environment, excellent cross ventilation, and access to gardens on the roof of the factory.
Other opportunities then emerge. How to link the ground floor to the offices above? How to get customers to the admin levels? How to provide an enticing and active ground floor?
communication, communication, communication
A primary objective for any contemporary office is to enable and encourage both formal and informal communication.
At the ground floor is a lobby area that is exposed to parts of the manufacturing process – there is no back-of-house in this project.
The ground floor lobby is connected to the rooftop offices via a series of terraces and a grand staircase that connects all floors in one large and generous space that is stretched diagonally across the north façade of the building – this is not a dark and enclosed fire stair or corridor.
The office space is split into levels and wrap around an atrium that brings everyone within easy reach of the two adjacent floors, multiplying the communication opportunities, while provides everyone with a clear view of the garden – this is not an office of isolation.
monolith, diagonal terraces, hill-top-town
The factory program is expressed as a mass – a monolith with vertical fissures cut into its surface. It is more an unlikely geological feature than a building. Attached to this mass are two point-line-plane elements, one contains the diagonal terraces the other the hill-top-town.
building versus architecture
The clients wanted a building that was well built and that would work well now and into the future. BAU also wanted that – and more. By questioning clichés, seeing problems as opportunities, and not without a touch of poetry, BAU not only provided a well-built, flexible, environmentally sustainable building, they also provided a surprising and delightful piece of architecture.
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- 2000-2005
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Public Landscapes
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2016
2024
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Public
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2015
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2000-2005
Structures & Pavillions
2019
Office
2005-2010
2021
Culture
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2013
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2018
2017
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Culture
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2011
Residential
Infrastructure
Hotel
Hotel
Healthcare
2014
2012
Healthcare
Hospitality
1990-2000
Residential
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