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Architects: Zai Yu Space Design
- Area: 350 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:ZETA
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Manufacturers: Acor, Toto
Text description provided by the architects. X-ROOM is the office for the online department of a fashion clothing company, located in Guangzhou TIT Creative Park. The client wants to create a comfortable and relaxing office for the employees. Designers use a lot of fashionable architectural elements such as glass, terrazzo, mirror stainless steel, etc., to solve the problems of small space and poor lighting of the 20-year-old building, and to explore the modern office solutions of harmonious coexistence between human and space, human and environment. The project has successively won the 2019 Architecture Master Prize and the London Design Awards in 2019.
Expansion of the 55 m2 space
The predecessor of TIT Creative Park is the Guangzhou textile machinery factory, which was founded in 1956. It is located in the center of the city. The landmark building "Xiaomanyao" can be seen from its head. The park retains the original textile machinery industry elements and surrounded by natural ecological environment of greens, attracting many fashion brands, designers, artists and innovative enterprises. Wechat Guangzhou Office also chose to live here.
The original site of X-ROOM is a 20-year-old building, with the gate facing the square and the interior space looking to the end. The decoration is old, the interior lighting is insufficient, and there is no sense of design. Engaged in fashion industry, the owner understands the importance of office environment. She believes that "birds of a feather flock together", a fashionable and dynamic office space can attract employees with taste and active thinking mode, and an exquisite environment with high aesthetic level can make users imperceptibly become people with pursuit. In order to live up to the natural and beautiful environment, she hopes to revive the old building and realize the harmonious coexistence of modern office, fashionable lifestyle and natural ecology.
The project changed the direction of the first floor gate. The original door was changed into a glass curtain wall window, a simple and avant-garde grey terrazzo space, which was used to display the company image of the fashion industry and display the latest design works. Through the glass curtain wall and the red brick low wall, the entrance gains privacy.
The first floor area is only 55 m2, which needs to have multiple functions such as image display, recruitment, reception, staff leisure, senior management office, etc. The designer perfectly meets all the "willful" requirements of the owner through a series of smart space planning strategy.
On the left side of the entrance door, the super scale staircase running through the overall space magnifies the three-dimensional feeling of the interior, making the only 55 m2 of the first floor get a high momentum without any depression. The tall floors can occasionally hang huge fashion posters to show the latest trend.
It is worth mentioning that the staircase was originally an outdoor iron staircase, which is neither beautiful nor convenient to go up and down. Rainy days make the whole office in distress.
Through the skillful transformation of the designer, it turns the decay into the magic: building the glass curtain wall, moving the stairs into the indoor, greatly improving the comfort of using the stairs.
The designer used unique and meticulous methods to create impressive architectural design highlights:
The interior stairs retain the overall structure of the original. The handrails and beams of the stairs cover a large area of mirror stainless steel material, creating a complex space illusion, highlighting the visual expansion effect, and "stealing" more areas for the small building, making the space comfortable and open. Glass curtain wall, mirror stainless steel and terrazzo are all basic building materials. Although the materials are simple, they form a dialogue with the three-dimensional structure through ingenious design, give the whole building a sense of avant-garde fashion.
Fashion industry is very sensitive with colors. The main space is beige with light gray terrazzo, which is simple, elegant, classic and durable, it can coordinate with different theme color of different fashion seasons. The selection of terrazzo also considers the demand of waterproof and sunscreen. The material is environmentally sustainable and not easy to age, making the building as new as ever.
One side of the stairs, designer creates a bar with terrazzo, which is convenient for negotiation and staff leisure. It also makes use of the space at the bottom of the stairs to place toilets and mini storage room. The limited space is fully and effectively used.
Behind the glass curtain wall window, there is a 7 m2 mini office for simple reception and company recruitment interview. The open round door is wrapped with stainless steel to add senses of style, forming an open and smooth moving line. A semi open wall is set between the office and the window to enhance air convection and defuse space constraints.
Modern office co-existing with nature
On the second floor along the stairs, there is an opening water bar. The green of the surrounding environment comes into view. After work, employees get leisure and relaxation here. The decoration element points up to avoid visual interference to the employees at work. The three dimensional design of the ceiling, add some avant-garde design interest.
The glass room beside the water bar creates a relaxed and comfortable style, which fits the temperament of the fashion industry. Transparent and open design, keep the whole office bright and clear. The glass room can be used as a rest room or a place to make a phone call. When the guests come to visit, it can be used as a simple reception room. As the transition area between the leisure area and the working area, the glass room also plays a role of space partition.
The office area can accommodate 50 people, using internet open-office structure to facilitate staff communication. A large number of glass and mirror are used as partition to enlarge the space visually. All lighting adopts LED intelligent dimming, considering energy conservation and emission reduction. On the other hand, different lighting atmosphere can be created according to the scene demand.
The meeting room and office area are separated by conductive glass. Open the sanding mode, isolate the vision and ensure privacy; close the sanding mode, increase the transparency, fully reflecting the flexibility of modern office.
The fire stairs at the door of the meeting room retain the original bright yellow color, creating a visual surprise. The fire stairway is directly connected to the independent corridor of the mezzanine, and is arranged as a smoking area. Make full use of the corner space to create a diversified rest area and reserve an "inspiration space" for employees.
Outside the water bar area on the second floor is a small garden terrace. An artificial stone is used to create the installation artwork integrated into the building appearance, and the combination of lighting can add some feeling of fashionable style, at the same time, it has the function of bar. The office of the Internet fashion industry occasionally needs to hold a small fashion conference. The garden terrace undertakes various functions, and it is also the best place for the staff to get together and have fun.
In this case, the designer enlarges the small office through the smart space planning strategy with degree and detail to meet the diversified functional requirements of the owner for the space; through the re-interpretation of basic building materials such as glass, stainless steel and terrazzo, to resonate with the spirit and aesthetic pursuit of the fashion industry; through the response of energy-saving and environmental protection materials and the latest office technology , to create a modern office model of sustainable development; through in-depth insight into human needs, a comprehensive variety of architectural design techniques, to create a harmonious coexistence of human and nature office environment. The combination of various factors has successfully turned the old buildings back to life, transformed the X-ROOM creative office space into a new cewebrity, and won many international awards such as the 2019 Architecture Master Prize and the London Design Awards in 2019, etc.
