Zaha Hadid Architects had the winning proposal to design the new Shenzhen headquarters for consumer electronics company OPPO, China's leading smartphone manufacturer. In stage two of the competition, ZHA was one of five big-name finalist teams, which included BIG, SOM, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, and Henning Larsen Architects HK.
As OPPO continues to expand, the new headquarters reflects their “commitment to connectivity through design”. ZHA's 185,000 square-meter scheme comprises of four interconnected towers standing at 200 meters tall (42 floors), which are orientated to maximize views over Shenzhen Bay.
Two of the towers have flexible, open-plan spaces linked by a 20-story vertical lobby, while the other two external service towers provide vertical circulation. The towers taper inward at the lower levels to create large public spaces at street level.
“Locating the towers' service cores externally frees the center of each floor from obstructions; providing uninterrupted views throughout the building. Large atrium spaces unite all occupants through visual connectivity, helping to foster collaboration between different departments,” ZHA says.
The towers provide abundant natural light, varied working environments, and different routes for employees and visitors to move through the building — all of which aim to help create a corporate office environment that is more “conducive to creative engagement and spontaneity,” according to ZHA.
The scheme also includes a landscaped plaza, art gallery, shops, restaurants, and connect to an adjacent station of Shenzhen's subway network. The Sky Plaza on the 10th floor offers dining and entertainment, and the rooftop Sky Lab will invite the public to take in views of the surrounding city.
The project is currently scheduled to break ground later this year, and is aiming to be completed by early 2025.
Cool but definitely not Zaha Hadid. Can sense the lack of handmade quality.
Is that firm just going to keep using the name Zaha Hadid forever? Even Zaha Architects would be better. But then again, I'm sure most of the public, clients, etc. doesn't care and nobody is going to call them on it. Make that cheddar.
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Nice collection of suppositories
I LOL'd.
First thing I thought...maybe second
not going to lie, my first go-to thoughts too. Seems like a particularly advanced dildo tho... something you probably want to ease into slowly.
As soon as Zaha is gone the vulvas becomes weiners...Was there a re-gendering of the firms ethos?
Zoom zoom.
Cool but definitely not Zaha Hadid. Can sense the lack of handmade quality.
Is that firm just going to keep using the name Zaha Hadid forever? Even Zaha Architects would be better. But then again, I'm sure most of the public, clients, etc. doesn't care and nobody is going to call them on it. Make that cheddar.
They're going down the fashion house route where the brand/style lives on after the founder's individual genius is gone.
Modernists were criticized for giving us an abstract, sterile conception of the present. Contemporary funk is giving an abstract, sterile conception of the future.
You have to consider what this building represents and where the construction boom in China is headed.
“Still, we see a lot of high towers in China being built to play one role, [which is] to flaunt their [owners’] fortune.”
The accolades and pressure are coming at the worst possible time for the industry as property consultants expect little relief in vacancy rates across major Chinese cities, with China’s economy growing at the slowest pace in almost three decades.
The average office vacancy rate in 17 cities tracked by CBRE rose to 21.5 per cent in the third quarter this year, already surpassing the forecast at the start of the year. The glut may reach the highest in a decade in most of the cities by the year’s end. Vacancy will rise in 15 of the cities, led by Tianjin, where the rate is expected to approach 50 per cent, while Wuhan, Changsha and Qingdao will also see record vacancy rates, CBRE warned.
https://www.scmp.com/business/...
And such desires and pressures, fueled by growth, have put design into the hands of a few architects, pushed to inflate client status by drawing attention, who have inflated their own status by their ability to to the same, who have no contact with place, with culture, with anything else. We're on a spaceship to nowhere. Or collapse.
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