Alibaba, the world’s largest online retailer and e-commerce company, is set to receive a new signature office building in Shanghai courtesy of Foster + Partners. The building will showcase the company’s unique working culture to the public.
Situated at Xuhui Riverside, the building is formed around a central heart that opens up to create a large public urban room. The building is designed to be extremely transparent and includes an active social core with viewing terraces overlooking the central space.
The project’s unique building form has been guided by a design process that uses a genetic algorithm to evolve the optimal massing. The algorithm combines several aspects that are crucial to the project such as being highly responsive to the environmental conditions, maximizing outside views, and the specific area requirements for different functions. The massing is optimized to provide the best year-round user comfort in the central public space by protecting it from stronger winds in the winter and the harsh summer sun while creating tailored workspace solutions for the different departments at Alibaba.
Desk arrangements, break-out spaces, and meeting rooms are designed to encourage collaboration and teamwork with visual and physical connectivity encouraging interactions.
See Also: The Grand Canal Museum will tell the story of the world’s longest canal
“Our design emphasises the importance of communication, the integrity of the working community and above all, the creation of an image that reflects the standing of Alibaba,” said Luke Fox, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners, in a release. “The scheme is truly designed from the inside out, centred on a dynamic, sheltered public space capitalizing on its amazing location with its views of the Huangpu River and the Bund.”
The design will utilize off-site production for quality control, reducing wastage, and minimizing on-site operations to create an efficient construction program.
Related Stories
| Jan 31, 2013
The Opus Group completes construction of corporate HQ for Church & Dwight Co.
The Opus Group announced today the completion of construction on a new 250,000-square-foot corporate headquarter campus for Church & Dwight Co., Inc., in Ewing Township, near Princeton, N.J.
| Jan 31, 2013
More cities requiring large buildings to use EPA’s energy management and reporting
In 2012, Philadelphia joined several other U.S. cities in passing a requirement that large buildings use Portfolio Manager, the Environmental Protection Agency’s energy management tool, to measure and report energy performance.
| Jan 29, 2013
Astellas' New Headquarters for the Americas Earns LEED Gold Certification
The new headquarters for Astellas in the Americas in Northbrook, Ill., has been awarded LEED Gold certification by the USGBC.
| Jan 16, 2013
SOM’s innovative Zhengzhou Greenland Plaza opens
The 2.59-million-square-feet building houses a mixed-use program of offices on its lower floors and a 416-room hotel.
| Dec 9, 2012
The owner’s perspective: high-rise buildings
Douglas Durst on the practicalities of development: “You must think about a building from the inside out.”
| Nov 28, 2012
Project team to showcase design for first mixed-use retail center of its kind in Mexico City
Project reaching construction milestone, offering national model for urban development in Mexico.
| Nov 6, 2012
Goettsch Partners designs new tower in Shunde, China
200-meter-tall building will be located between Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
| Nov 1, 2012
Greenbuild 2012 Report: Green Architecture Firms
Design firms deliver gold, platinum, even net-zero projects
| Oct 17, 2012
Denver office building makes use of single-component wall system for retrofit
The Building Team selected Centria's Formawall Dimension Series to help achieve the retrofit project's goals of improved aesthetics, sustainability, and energy efficiency.
