Location: Qingpu Dist., Shanghai
Project Type: Office Building
Scale: 2,000 m2
Year: 2004
Scope of Work: Conceptual Design

Bringing Forth Original Ideas
Initially, we expected the shape of the building would show definite or vague implications expressing the internal function of the building and unique characteristics rather than simply being a container in which people work. Especially as a building for the weather bureau, whose workers originally have the unique jobs, it could possess a special character that exhibit and issue the outcome of what is happening within.

Shared Antechamber
Here w tried to do our best to reduce unnecessary visual elements and clear the entrance space running vertically from the first floor to the fourth floor and to form a three-dimensional communication space, not just a transit space. The main staircase sits naturally at an angle where the gate leads the traffic flow to the office area on the second floor. In the course of walking, people make a direct visual connection to the people doing exercises on two intertwined ramps overhead, making communication possible.

Small Sunken Square
In the raised section of the building, we naturally left a small sunken area according to the terrain, and made it the entrance plaza to the exhibition hall for popular science on the first floor. Lowering the ground in effect heightens the vertical space and facilitates the coming and going of vistitors. Meanwhile the height dfference harmonizes the relationship between the sites and the form of the building and encourages visitors to linger.

Office Rest & Relaxation
On the inner side, facing the corridor, of the offices the partitions are alternatively made of ground glass and concrete. You can reach the second floor through the main staircase of the antechamber and through the glass meeting room. At he entrance of the office space, we can see the doors of all the offices, which form a clear streamline avoiding the tediousness feel of a corridor. Meanwhile, the tangled offices and the external wall of the reading room space encloses a rest and communication area within the office space, intended to enlarge the corridor and form an ample space for relaxation. We also installed a large picture windows facing the Dianpu River. The space becomes a good space for communication, private contact and relaxation for the staff.

Ramps
The two ramps are connected with the subsidiary area of the office space and the rest area respectively across the shared antechamber.

Office Space
The design program stipulates six offices, and each of with a 30m2 area. After research, we determined there were some new possibilities: enlarging the area of each office and reducing the quantity of offices to half of the original number, give the advantage of reducing excessive divisions and partitions and further separating them according to users actual needs. We can also integrate several conjoined offices into one large office.

Dining
We didn’t include a restaurant in an enclosed space. In this project, the restaurant can be regarded as an open space for staff dining at any time. The restaurant is located at the end of the ramp leading from the office space to the secondary area of the office space. Its space is only divided by glass, so the space is open, and one’s line of sight can penetrate it thoroughly. There are two reasons for this design. One reason was to increase the usage ratio of the space: generally a single restaurant cannot be used efficiently because of the limited period of time. We hope that the over 100m2 restaurant can also serve as the antechamber of the secondary area of the office area or act as an office tea area where the staff mingle with each other freely; the other reason is that the enclosed space is not in accordance with the emphasized opening. The restaurant we envision is in a transparent space that makes visual connection with the exterior scenery and the shared hall. What is offers to the staff is not only a dinning room but also a comfortable dinning environment.

The Large Conference Room
We laid the large spaces (fro example, the large conference room and the archives room, etc.) with relatively lower use ratio at the end of the building.

The Health Road
We call the ramp to the rest space on the third floor that passes through the shared space “the health road.” The ramp is a necessary path from the rest area to the office space. Considering the fatigue of the persons in the weather industry during their daily scenery outside of the building and the space of the shared hall. On the way to the rest area, they can stroll, thus it provides a little exercise an relieves their work pressure.

Lounges
To meet the needs of the night staff working, we set apart six rooms for their rest, each room has its own toilet. There is a staircase to the first floor in the corridor out of the lounges. The staff can reach the observation site through the staircase, which also facilitates observation.

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