China Mobile Ltd. selected international architecture, planning, engineering, interior design and program management firm LEO A DALY to design three buildings at its new international headquarters campus in Beijing.
In partnership with Local Design Institute WDCE, LEO A DALY won a competition to design Phase 2, Plot B, of the campus. The new international headquarters, which will be built in several phases in an area of 1.3 million square meters, consists of a campus of 26 specialized buildings to accommodate a variety of functions, including information collection, research and innovation, information services, international cooperation and exchange and display functions.
Phase 2, Plot B, of the campus, which totals 148,000 square meters near a green park space, consists of two research and development office and laboratory buildings, and a public facility building. As lead designer, LEO A DALY is providing the exterior design for the three buildings, interior design for the buildings’ major public spaces and landscape architecture while WDCE is providing interior design services for the rest of the spaces as well as all engineering work.
LEO A DALY’s design for the research and development office and laboratory buildings, each a five- and nine-story facility, are organized on an east-west pedestrian axis and mirrored in their massing to establish opposite, formal entries linked to internal courtyards at the ground level.
Each sculpted block features facades that convey the dynamic activity within by way of large, diagonal windows. The windows reveal perimeter stairs, which act as impromptu gathering steps with excellent views to the landscape. Central to LEO A DALY’s design concept is taking conventional, internal stairways typically found in research buildings’ central core zones and placing them on the perimeter in which employee brain storming activities may freely flow. This design approach of providing informal interacting zones is currently adopted by leading global research and technology firms whose goal is to support new work lifestyles preferred by younger generations.
The buildings feature fenestration that shades the external glass skin with copper-colored brise-soleil, graduated in color from dark at the bottom to light at the top, to visually ease the building’s mass and suggest an organic quality which links the building to the site. The two buildings are being designed with emphasis on reducing ecological and energy consumption impact. The buildings’ roofs provide sustainable landscape areas and are planted with grasses, annual and perennial materials and include some man-made materials (such as colorful rubber-based walking surfaces). The landscape for both perimeters and courtyards feature sculptural earth forms, fountains, pools, terraces and gardens.
A third, public facilities building is placed adjacent to the research and laboratory buildings in the campus’s central park and signature waterway. Within this building, recreation, food and beverage, light retail and central campus meeting facilities provide a multilevel, public place for both employees and China Mobile visitors. Its architecture is differentiated from the adjacent buildings by the portrayal of careful massing and purposeful sculpting of form, reinforced by diagonal fins which artfully echo the treatment of its neighbors. The cladding, materials and roofing of the facility incorporate a number of sustainable features, and are designed to meet Three Star Green Building standards (equivalent to LEED Platinum criteria), the highest rating for sustainable buildings in China. BD+C
Related Stories
| Aug 20, 2013
First look: $550 million Billie Jean King National Tennis Center renovation
The United States Tennis Association has announced its plans for a sweeping transformation of the USTABillie Jean King National Tennis Center that will include the construction of two new stadiums, as well as a retractable roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium. The transformation will be implemented in three phases to begin at the conclusion of the 2013 US Open, with the goal of overall completion by the 2018 US Open.
| Aug 15, 2013
Design-build project delivery holds steady at nearly 40% of nonresidential construction: DBIA study
The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), the only organization that defines, teaches and promotes best practices in design-build, has released research indicating that design-build project delivery represents nearly 40 percent of total market share in the United States, based on dollar value at the end of 2012.
| Aug 14, 2013
Five projects receive 2013 Educational Facility Design Excellence Award
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on Architecture for Education (CAE) has selected five educational and cultural facilities for this year’s CAE Educational Facility Design Awards.
| Aug 14, 2013
Sluggish gains in architect compensation due to weakness in construction sector: AIA survey
U.S. architecture firms have experienced modest improvements in business conditions over the last two years that has resulted in very small gains in compensation levels for staffs.
| Aug 14, 2013
Green Building Report [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Building Design+Construction's rankings of the nation's largest green design and construction firms.
| Aug 13, 2013
DPR's Phoenix office, designed by SmithGroupJJR, affirmed as world's largest ILFI-certified net-zero facility
The new Phoenix Regional Office of DPR Construction, designed by SmithGroupJJR, has been officially certified as a Net Zero Energy Building by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). It’s the largest building in the world to achieve Net Zero Energy Building Certification through the Institute to date.
| Aug 8, 2013
Energy research animates science sector [2013 Giants 300 Report]
After an era of biology-oriented spending—largely driven by Big Pharma and government concerns about bioterrorism—climate change is reshaping priorities in science and technology construction.
| Aug 8, 2013
Top Science and Technology Sector Engineering Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Affiliated Engineers, Middough, URS top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest science and technology sector engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Aug 8, 2013
Top Science and Technology Sector Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
HDR, Perkins+Will, HOK top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest science and technology sector architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.