Beijing Yangyang Group Headquarters / BIAD

Curated by 韩双羽 - HAN Shuangyu

Architects: BIAD
Area: 14905 m²
Year: 2016
Photographs:Zhi Xia
Consultants: Beijing Wanxing Construction Group Company

Text description provided by the architects. Beijing Yangyang Group is a privately owned catering enterprise in China that has taken the inheritance of Chinese food culture as its mission since its establishment. Through diligent operation and continued innovation, its scale has expanded substantially over the past years, increasing the need to build production and office buildings of its own. The construction site is located in the Daxing Industrial Zone in Beijing, with an open surrounding environment that is commonly seen in emerging industrial parks in China. The already completed factory area has a clearly planned structure and a simple and industrial style appearance.

Against such a backdrop, the main consideration for the design is how to present the enterprise office architecture with an “oriental touch” which is in the genes of Yangyang Group. Instead of superficial engagement with the space of the site, the building should show certain degrees of resistance, which would demonstrate the aspiration to guard its own sense of cultural belonging in such a large-scale construction of the new industrial park.

Based on the thinking, the question of how the architecture could respond to the question is a key issue in the design. At the same time, the practical functions and processes also influence the way the building is engaged with the site. The architecture is built as a production and processing site for the enterprise, so it contains multiple auxiliary functions, the complexity of which and the limited area of space have imposed constraints on the spatial organization of the building.

The creation of the architecture comes first from the organization of the spatial use. Production and processing space is the main functional space in this building, it is thus designed to be on the first floor of the building to provide the most convenient access. Other subsidiary functions such as office, conference, dish display, and business reception require a relatively quiet environment. To avoid disturbance from the production and processing workshop on the first floor, the roof of the first floor for the processing workshop is designed as a spatial interface that is independent from the first floor. Other functional spaces other than production and processing are uniformly linked to this spatial interface and directly connected to the ground through outdoor landscape steps. This design has not only ensured the independence of the relatively quiet office, display and other functional spaces but also maintained a certain sense of connection with the processing workshop on the first floor.

On the basis of the categorization of spaces, the design has fully considered the spatial relationship of each part of the architecture, in which the relatively independent and individually connected spatial content is reminiscent of the spatial organization of a Chinese settlement - seemingly independent buildings are connected to each other in an intricate way, forming a whole cluster. This is very close to the way we want the building to be presented in the area. We have applied the organization of the settlement space into the building and organized the functional spaces into attractive small-scale buildings according to the requirements for different functions while connecting them in a seemingly spontaneous way. These small-scale buildings form many subtle variations in this natural spatial organization, bringing a sense of living scenarios into this building with rich spatial elements of courtyards, streets, terraces, and bridges, etc., and creating a variety of spatial micro-environments for this enterprise building.

Culture is also a key consideration in the construction of the space. The building of a privately owned Chinese restaurant enterprise intends to respond to the general environment of Daxing Industrial Park in Beijing in a way that can inherit and spread the traditional culture. The architecture as a whole is presented in an off-white tone. The second floor of the building is made of dark gray-black travertine, the surface of which reflects different brightness effects through different degrees of polishing; the part above the second floor is made of white split bricks, the horizontal joints of which are enlarged, while the vertical joints are minimized in the process of splicing so that the whole architecture presents a sense of extension horizontally. As for the roof design, each part of the roof is cascaded towards the central courtyard with the dark gray-green stone slabs being connected to the eaves in an elevated manner, showing the modernity of the oriental style.

Natural light is also a key consideration in the design of this architecture. Through well-managed exposure of natural light in the building, we hope to effectively address the needs of the people in the building on the one hand and to awaken the perception of time for them through the change of light on the other hand. When people walk on the sunlit staircases or rest in the bright atrium, the sense of time and space exclusively delivered in the building will naturally emerge.

With its completion and official coming into use, this new enterprise architecture also starts its life journey in Daxing Industrial Zone in Beijing. The integration of life will help achieve and extend the original vision for the building. We do hope that this enterprise architecture with the integration of cultural elements will diversify the industrial background of the environment. Additionally, we also hope that our design will present some different solutions to the development of the new industrial zone.