Tencent (Wuhan) R&D Center
TENCENT (WUHAN) R&D CENTER
GN
ARCHITECTS
GN
PARTNER
ZHUBO Design Co.Ltd
CLIENT
Tencent
BRANDS
Schneider Electric, ThyssenKrupp AG, Thorn
CHIEF DESIGNER & DESIGN TEAM
Zhenglei Shi, Chengyun Sun, Hao Ding, Youde Wu
PHOTOGRAPHS
Qingshan Wu, Yong Zhang
AREA
75000 m²
YEAR
2016
LOCATION
Wuhan, China
CATEGORY
Research Center, Headquarters, Offices
Text description provided by architect.
Wuhan Jiangxia District, where Tangxun Lake, the largest urban lake in Asia is located, is entering a period of rapid development. In a few years, it will turn from a village to an industrial park and eventually into an urban area.
The main task of our project is to solve and alleviate the conflicts caused by the rapid iteration of demands through the design.
Intensiveness, inclusiveness, resistance, and flexibility are effective factors for solving problems of the built environment, especially in China’s second-tier cities.
To get more viewable angles of lake scenery, the five-story building is expanding along the lake.
On each floor, maximized office area is supported by multiple vertical traffic cores. In this way, efficient communication and collaboration are achieved.
As a public service area, the ground floor is enveloped with printed glass, which interacts and communicates with the morning mist floating over the lake.
Office area ranges from the second to the fifth floor. An expansive interlayer terrace with large steps connects with the lakeside, which provides a place for lunch breaks and night parties.
From the office, the employees can also walk directly to the forest near the lake.
A neatly cut shape is formed of dark large walls along the urban interface, extending to the roof and then folding toward the wall facing the lake.
The wall handling is continued in the cuts and undulations of the building’s top, and roofing equipment is hidden from sight.
Looking over from the high-rise, people can have a panoramic view, with all the changes gathered in a dark gray block with metallic luster.
To widen the view to the lake from the main entrance, an elevated ground level with 10×30M sized is designed to form a frame of the lake view.
A water belt leads the entrance to the lake, functioning as an axis that connects the lake with the city.
From the phase of design to completion of construction, the process lasted for 7 years. After the opening, only one floor of the building is available for office tenants from Wuhan due to some adjustments in marketing strategy.
And the rest space is rented as Tencent's co-working office. Some of the initial design ideas became redundant due to the transformation of business logic, but fortunately, the design is still flexible enough to tackle the current changes.
