As an industrial building built in the 1980s, the old factory building is located east to the central open area of Hangxing Science Park. The old buildings carrying the historical memory of the park are on its south and east sides, while the newly built office buildings are on the west and north sides. The whole park is nearly in the form of a nine-square grid, and the plot of the factory building is located to the east of the centre of this grid, which becomes the central landmark viewing from the central open area as the future central green open space . The project site covers an area of approximately 3,625 square meters and the renovation includes: surrounding roads and landscaping, building facade renewal, seismic strengthening of the building structure, interior renovation, water supply and drainage, electricity, heating and ventilation renewal for the whole building. The total floor area of the renovated building is approximately 5,000 square meters, with 4 floors on the north side of the main building and 6 floors on part of the south side.
In the new scheme, the old factory building has changed its function from a production-based factory to an office-based corporate headquarter, so the idea is to create an new programming of a modern office but to preserve the original spatial characteristics of the old factory building at the same time. With the decision of moving the main entrance from the east side of the building to the north side, the internal circulation has been re-planned and one more lift is added except for replacing the existing freight lift. The spatial concept of the renovation is a partially nested structure of a concrete box in the northwest and a glass box in the southeast, while the nested part of the two boxes is transformed into a vertical traffic nucleus in which there are an replaced freight elevator, a new lift, an enclosed stairwell, toilets and tube shafts, equipment rooms, etc.
The ground floor functions mainly as an entrance lobby and showroom, with the semi-basement space to the south for fitness and bathrooms. The original south mezzanine has been retained as the first floor for office use. The second and third floors are dominated by open offices and small meeting rooms, while the fourth floor houses small offices, large meeting rooms and a shared lobby, and a partial mezzanine floor is used as the fifth floor for meeting rooms.
Due to the high floor height of the original building, approximately six metres on the first floor, over seven metres in the middle of the top floor and approximately five metres on the other floors, the principle of retaining the quality of the high space becomes the principle of the interior renovation. All new fire sprinklers, fresh air conditioning, smoke extraction and various bridges were carefully designed in the integrated ceiling to obtain the minimum ceiling area and the highest net interior height.
Although this old factory building is not an important industrial heritage building, it has a special historical memory for the Hangxing Science Park. Therefore, the renovation design takes into account the historical memory in the design of the facade as well as in the interior space where some of the old walls have been preserved as a carrier of historical memory after being reinforced. Behind the new glass curtain wall on the east and south sides of the fourth floor, the original non-structural walls were removed and the old structure was juxtaposed with the new one, part of the old one at a higher level was carefully preserved and the historical memory sewed the new and the old together, where the Hangxing Science Park and the old factory building have gained new life.
The choice of materials for the interior, based on the conceptual scheme for the renewal of the building, continues the character of the curtain wall with the use of metal and glass as the main materials for the glass box. The concrete box is also a continuation of the façade, with gray white materials. The traffic nucleus, where the two boxes are partially nested, is clad in wood-grained aluminium panels, while perforated acoustic panels of the same material are used to reduce noise in some of the multifunctional spaces. This traffic nucleus also follows the same logic of nesting, with the different materials of the glass and concrete boxes nested together to present an internal expression of the spatial renewal concept of the building.
Architects: CU Office
Location: Hepingli Dongjie 11, Beijing, China
Site Area: 3625 M2
Area: 5000 M2
Year: 2020- 2022
Lead Architects: Fei Che, Xuefeng Zhang
Design Team:
Gaojie Mu, Yitong Jie, Yaowen Zhang (Architecture),
Haifeng Chen, Huiming Yu (Interior)
Jinlong Huo, Ying Sui, Yang Li (Electronic Engineering)
Yuanfang Shi, Jingjing Li (Equipment Engineering)
Ping Li, Qing sun (Structure Engineering)
Qiaohong Zhang (Water Supply And Drainage), Xiaoyang Huang (Landscape)
Local Design Institute: Zhongke Ruicheng Design Co., LTD
Client: Hangxing Science Park
Photographs: Weiqi Jin
