This is now the third research and development center for Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications company, designed by gmp; the site is located to the north-west of the Chinese capital in the Zhongguancun Environmental Protection Park. Designed in the style of a campus, three buildings for research and development (R&D) are grouped around the canteen building at the center of the development within open parkland.
The layout of the four-story R&D buildings consists of two square intersecting volumes, each of which encloses an inner courtyard, and which together form the figure “8”. Nearly all the workplaces have the benefit of daylight, which is why they are oriented towards the landscape. This means that visual connection with the park landscape also represents an element of the conceptual design. Access to the office complex is via an outer ring road, as well as a pedestrian path network through the park landscape.
The glazed foyer area is accessed via an entrance courtyard, which – like the garden courtyard – opens up to the surrounding landscape like a gate. Similarly, the canteen building replicates the sequence of rooms and the transition from the landscape to the architecture. With its monolithic, light-colored appearance, the building presents a different character in accordance with its more public function as a meeting place for the employees.
Photo credits: Christian Gahl