DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
H(&PA : Being one of the advance technology grand prize winner in China, subsidised and supported by the Chairman of People’s Republic of China (PRC), Super D has the vision to create a smart working space for the future. A building that is an equal partner to the user and industries it hosts. It began with the user, a future technological innovator, one that require a smart building with energy efficient design, smart grid interface, self-correcting life cycle system, flexible and interactive social spaces that not only serve as an office, but as a community hub that will incubate, develop and springboard new technologies of the future.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
H(&PA : a. Interactive communal spaces
From the traditional means of research where the common behaviour was behind close door studies have now and in the future transformed into a new approach, which is a more open, sharing and interactive collaborative way of innovation. To address such a trend, we divided the building’s mass into 3 components, the podium (GF to 2F), the tower (3F to 13F) and the crown (14F to 16F). At each of these intervals, interactive communal spaces are inserted in to provide optimal socialising space for a new generation of researchers and scientists.
b. Healthy
At the entrance, instead of a traditional design, we merged a new lifestyle concept of the “healthy” ramp (a future projection based on the use, storage and social aspect of cycling within the science park) with the main drop-off. Where users can walk or cycle up the ramp from GF to 2F (communal lounge) seamlessly to store, electric-charge or rest their bikes at the lounge, where semi outdoor space, gym, vending machines and seating surrounds the entrance to office lift lobby. Alongside this “healthy” ramp is a lush of vertical greenery, providing clean air through the well ventilated structure.
At the podium garden and the crown, vertical vegetation and mobile resting pavilions are generously layout to provide an informal and social gathering space to encourage scientists and researchers to communicate and co-create.
c. SMART
The internal control and day to day operational management of the building adopts a SMART system, an automatic feedback system to maintain optimal condition and efficient use of energy and utilities as well as monitoring and maintaining the highest level of security and safety.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
H(&PA : Commencement of this project started in 2008 and it was finished in 2016.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
H(&PA : This project was inspired by our user profile. The project is designed for the company SuperD Technology Co., who wants a smart environment which complements their lifestyle of research and innovation. The users are a group of scientist who are working in the visualization field of VR/AR, thus they have a strong need for many different spaces such as R&D spaces, office spaces, shops, and cafes.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
H(&PA : SuperD Technology Center is designed for SuperD Technology Co., the frontier in developing the visualization field of VR/AR.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
H(&PA : The project is designed & constructed based on the LEED Certificate requirements; every aspect has been calculated and considered, such as the population density, the social connection, pollution and waste from construction and the materials used in the project:
-Transportation system – parking designed for low carbon emitting & energy saving cars.
-Rainwater tank – water volume & quality control, a rainwater irrigation system providing 90% of the total water required for the roof garden & sky garden.
-Urban Heat Island Effect – the sky garden has taken up 50% of the total roof areas to minimize reflective paved surfaces.
-Reduce water wastage – rainwater is used for irrigation systems.
-Façade system – external louvers are provided to minimize any potential gain and merge it with the building design
-Minimum energy consumption standard – premium cooling medium system
-Lighting & vision – a minimum 75% of the façade area receives natural lighting which achieves the government requirement
-Grade 5A facility – top standard commercial building facility designed & used
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
H(&PA : The name stems from our client's brand.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
H(&PA : We have utilized BIM to help visualize design faster and calculate various different costs related to the construction stage.
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
H(&PA : The total typical floor area is 1,360 sq m. With the vertical core located on the north side, the entire south side interior has been left open to maximize the office spaces for end users. This is major layout innovation when compared with the traditional ambient offices where the central core breaks up the floor space in into different sections and creates unusable, wasted spaces.
Offices on the 12/F – 17/F have a 7.5m ceiling height which enhances the spatial volume for users’ needs. Offices located in the West Wing 14/F – 17/F are provided with outdoor sky garden for multi-purpose leisure spaces in garden settings to provide the highest quality standard for an office environment.
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
H(&PA : We have used many different building technologies to achieve the building structure. The curved steel structures around the rooftop garden make the building outstanding from the ambient crowd. Steel and glass construction have been branded as modern day building and design materials, but steel is rarely exposed in its crude form. At the crown, the curved steel structure is exposed with no cladding, only a coat of fire rated paint, to reveal the material texture, I-extrusion and welded joints. An expressive element reflects bare finish nature.
DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
H(&PA : We have researched lifestyle and habits of the future you, in 10 to 20 years. All the design and academic research we have studied point to 3 layers of anatomy. First, what makes up a man from the future; second, the dichotomy a smart city; third, the fundamentals of the future work space.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
H(&PA : As mentioned, we must design for the future and thus we faced the challenge of what were the needs of the "future" instead of designing for the present. By digging deeper in research, we are able to formalise a set of future working habits and requirements:
a. SMART interface (artificial intelligence for an auto-feedback system to manage day to day building operation),
b. SMART grid (effective transport and store of energy production and consumption on/off site),
c. UNIVERSAL flexible space (from layout to M&E provisions),
d. GREEN working (from urban farming to green building standards and materials).
From macro to micro, form to function the design of the building was to target the above parameters, to address the sustainable, smart and interactive component for the future.
