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Architects: August Green
- Area: 1050 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Derryck Menere
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Manufacturers: EGE Carpet Textiles, HAY furniture, Kohler Fixtures, Kvadrat, MatzForm Furniture, Muuto, Norman Furniture, Shulin Zhejiang Manufacturing, bolia
Text description provided by the architects. NIO HOUSE is a showroom gallery and members' clubhouse for the Electric Car Brand NIO. The Chinese name for NIO is "WeiLai", which translates to "the future." Our challenge was not to design a space that looked "futuristic" but rather to design a space capable of adapting to the future demands of the brand. For example, the vision of NIO required the space to accommodate the quickly evolving product line and flexibility to hold multiple events at one time with ease.
The objective laid out by the CEO, and NIO client team was to create a new NIO HOUSE aesthetic based on the brand values and identity. Spaces should be flexible, encourage community, provide private and open engagements, and give a sense of luxury that's both high quality and accessible. The design team worked to mirror the client's emotions and words using space and form. We studied and absorbed NIO's key brand elements and used these ideas to ignite the early concepts of the design. The NIO logo orients around a horizontal line, which separates the ark above ("Vision") and the arrow below ("Action").
The project space is divided into two parts by a defining line. By lowering the front portion of the second floor, the mezzanine becomes that horizontal line from which light is cast upward and downward, visually defining the spaces above and below. Level one focuses on technology and advancement through forum lectures and interactive displays. This level distinguishes itself from level two by utilizing the cool tones of terrazzo and steel. Level two aims to draw people together to form a community and conversations.
The 50-meter square living wall activates the senses and refreshes the atmosphere. As people come up the staircase, they are greeted with an open cafe a 16-seat custom-designed community table, perfect for afternoon meetings over coffee. Private workspaces are found in the Labs, which can transform through the motorized moving wall based on guests' needs. The library promotes leisure and learning, capable of displaying 1000 books. Members can grab their favorite read and relax in the wall niche while their kids explore their creativity in the Joy Camp, filled with interactive games.
Guests move through the space seamlessly around the core to experience meaningful moments with the brand. There are several unique features of the NIO HOUSE unobserved to the naked eye. These include an automatic moving wall, automated sliding mirrored glass doors, and custom rolled aluminum ceiling panels designed to match the terrazzo identically. All Mechanical Ducting, Lighting, and fire dropdowns are designed to be hidden within the ceiling. We believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Therefore, as designers, we seek to collaborate with our clients by listening closely and creating space and form that speaks specifically to them. In the case of NIO, beauty resides within the intentional design of each moment of spatial experience. With each step, the users' experience brings together a comprehensive story of NIO's joyful brand lifestyle.
The design of NIO House embodies NIO's ethos of technology and lifestyle together into a consistent story told through space and form. As a guest, one enters the NIO House and immediately discovers NIO simultaneously as a brand and a product; moving through the showroom, you explore the features of the EV car models. The NIO configurator is embedded in a mirrored steel wall, where visitors can customize their car design. Adjacent, one can see the living room transformed into a forum for presentations and gatherings. The secret earth-to-sky staircase behind a sliding mirrored glass wall is at the heart of the project. Once inside, visitors ascend the terrazzo stairs to the mezzanine, where NIO Fellows are waiting to greet guests.
At the top of the stair, the mezzanine balcony hosts the NIO Cafe, living-room lounge, and community table. The journey continues to the library and meeting room labs, which adapt using an invisible sliding wall allowing the two meeting room labs to become one. Meanwhile, children explore the multi-tiered Joy Camp, equipped with toys, drawing desks, NIO TV, and a featured mirror ceiling for explorative play. NIO House Chengdu is a visual sustainability landmark for all who pass by as they look up and see the 50m2 green wall front and center of the project. The green wall cleans the air and symbolizes NIO's brand vision of a "Blue Sky Coming." This design has been created to inspire future dreamers and visionaries, who are tomorrow's inventors, the ones who will one day become the true meaning of the future, carrying on the torch from the generations before them.
