More and more often, we come across buildings which construction does not lead to any harms to the trees located on the sites. One of such projects titled Daisen Residence has been featured on our website too. Here is another building with the similar idea – Huaxin Business Center in Shanghai designed by Chinese architecture studio Scenic Architecture Office. However, the architects this time decided not only to keep six old camphor trees on the site of the future building, but also to make them a part of their project.
Keeping the trees untouched, the authors arranged a significant part of the building in gaps between them. For this, they divided the whole volume into four separate parts, which were then linked by bridges. Also, striving to maximize the open green space on the ground and reduce the impact on the root system of the trees, the architects raised the main body on the second floor level. On the ground floor, there are only ten walls, which support the overlying structures, and an atrium. The walls are covered with reflective stainless steel panels, and the atrium is enclosed by transparent glass walls, so, from the side, there is a feeling that the building literally levitates above the ground.
However, the most interesting design solutions is probably hidden on the second floor. Approaching it through the stair in the atrium, a new spatial order will be unfolded along the path. The twisted and tensioned aluminum strips assembled the translucent walls of these volumes, which present the truss structure in an indistinct way and become containers and boundaries of a series of interior and exterior spaces. When wandering across these translucent walls, the visitor will alternatively encounter rooms, courtyards, bridges and different sceneries guided by them. The branches and leaves of the trees traverse the building freely and become touchable friends.
Here the structure, its adherent material, and the branches and leaves of the trees interweave together to present atmosphere of each space. It is under the organization of time (or path) that these spaces (room and courtyard) realize an environmental experience where time and space interact. It is a work collaborated by both architecture and nature.
PROJECT DATA:
Project Name: Huaxin Business Center
Architecture: Scenic Architecture Office
Client: China Fortune Development Co.
Location: Guiling Road & Yishan Road, Shanghai Xuhui District, China
Program: Exhibition + Teahouses
Building Area: 730 sqm
Project year: 2012
Construction year: 2013
Design Team: Zhu Xiaofeng(Design Principal), Ding Penghua(Project Designer), Cai Mian, Yang Hong, Li Haoran, Du Shigang
Photographer: Su Shengliang