Caohejing Incubator

SHL have remodelled an existing office building for use as an incubator for hi-tech start-up companies.

A new facade of white, undulating, perforated, powder-coated aluminium envelopes the building. This covers some but not all of the building’s windows offering varying degrees of visibility and shade.

A new central atrium has been created allowing more daylight into the core of the building whilst serving as a central connecting space. Here a mural by shanghai-based artist,the Orange Blowfish, spans three floors up through the atrium along one flanking wall.

Casual seating, a suspended meeting room, and a number of planted outdoor terraces provide alternatives to more traditionally arranged office spaces.

architect: schmidt hammer lassen architects
landscape architect: schmidt hammer lassen architects
collaborating architect: UDG
structural engineer: UDG
client: Caohejing High Tech Park
Location: Shanghai
area: 1977 sqm
completion: 2016
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Tony’s Organic House

Tony’s Farm is a supplier of organic foods. Their Lujiazui clubhouse, designed by Playze, features an organic restaurant (1f ), meeting space (2f ), as well as VIP dining areas, a balcony and show kitchen (3f ). Spaces are arranged within the three storey block with a vertical hierarchy of privacy from public areas on the first floor, through semi- private areas on the second floor and second floor mezzanine, to private VIP areas on the third. Degrees of privacy are also enacted through the shading of windows and accessibility, with the more private areas being shaded on all sides and having no direct access from without the building. This hierarchy is further reinforced by the separation of space – the first two floors share the east glass curtain wall and are connected by a series of boxes running between the two. These connected boxes flow from the first floor restaurant counter, spreading across the wall and ceiling before passing through the space between curtain wall and second floor to connect seamlessly with the central stairwell. This both establishes a continuity between the first two floors and emphasises the distinctness of the third.

Built area: 1230 sqm
Completion: January 2013
Team: Mengjia He, Pascal Berger, Marc Schmit, Martina Knotkova, Mching Wang, Didier Callot, Felix Zheng, Maggie Tang, Benny Hou, Daisy Yuan, James Liu, Chao Yu
Lighting Design: UnoLai

Onehouse Office

The Onehouse have designed a new office for themselves.

The main spaces are finished in an austere palette of black and white, with grey flooring. Planters of greenery, cacti and snake plant, provide a break in colour and form, their rounded stems and pointed leaves contrasting with the simple, rectilinear approach employed throughout.

Moving into more private offices and meeting spaces natural wood flooring and furniture, coloured chairs, and tungsten lighting soften the atmosphere.

Architects: The Onerous
Location: Shanghai
Materials: brushed black titanium sheet, Black Cedar board, self- levelling flooring, stainless steel plate
Area: 480 sqm
Project Year: 2015
Chief designer: Fan Lei
Design team: Ma Yonggang, Geng Yifan
Interior layout: Fan Lei, Li Wenting
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Z58

The Z58 building is primarily a glass box allowing light to enter through three sides as well as through the roof. Internally clear glass walls in many parts of the building, as well as floor panels of translucent glass, add to the variety of light within.

The main building is set back from the street and an expansive lobby is created between it and the outer facade. There horizontal mirrored planters partially hidden by the ivy growing from them lend a subtle sense of invisibility to the street front. The buildings outer wall, one wall of the lobby, is a waterfall of horizontal glass slats leant back slightly from the vertical. In the morning light it projects multiple rainbows into the interior. From the street entrance a series of walkways, flanked by pools of water over black stone, lead through the lobby. A free standing elevator allows access to all floors via a series of glass bridges. Additionally a single. straight stairwell running the length of the building also connects all floors.

The top floor includes a series of glass walled meeting rooms, two apartments with bathroom facilities and sauna, as well as a library and kitchen. The smallest of the meeting rooms extends as an island into an infinity pool running the length of the building and overlooks adjacent gardens.

LXB Noodles

This popular noodle restaurant on a pedestrianised shopping street close to the river in Changsha has been given a facade of moulded concrete and weathering steel.

The form used for the facade, a sheet of vertical split bamboo strips, is used as a front piece for the restaurant’s service counter.

Space within the restaurant is divided by gridded metal frames which rise from the floor to a high ceiling. Suspended here are steel cable ‘noodles’ hanging in deeply looping rows forming a sculptural ceiling. Bare bulbs suspended within the form defined by these ‘noodles’ provide a soft, warm light in the interior.

In good weather the front of the restaurant can be opened up softening the divide of interior and exterior as seating is moved onto the street and light and breeze are allowed to enter.

Architects: Lukstudio
Location: Changsha
Project team: Christina Luk, Alba Beroiz Blazquez, Cai Jin Hong, Pao Yee Lim
General contractor: Shanghai MaiChang Construction Project Co., Ltd.
Area: 50 sqm
Completion: 2015
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Lukstudio Office

Lukstudio have completed this new office for themselves. Wrapped around a glass walled courtyard with a tree at its centre, the office emphasises flexibility in use and is amply lit with natural light.

Architects: Lukstudio
Location: Shanghai
Design Team: Christina Luk, Wesley Shu, Scott Baker, Mavis Li
Area: 133 sqm
Year: 2014
General Contractor: Shanghai Dong Yuan
Furniture Supplier: Hay, Paustian, Fermob
Lighting Supplier: Tons
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Pantry’s Best

Lukstudio completed three stores for the cupcake brand, Pantry’s Best, in Shanghai

Client: Pantry’s Best
Scope: storefront design, custom furniture & lighting design
Area: L’Avenue 53 sqm / K11 Art Mall 14 sqm / Jing’an Joinbuy City Plaza 14 sqm

L’Avenue / K11
Design: Nov 2014 – Jan 2015
Construction: Feb – April 2015
Design team: Christina Luk, Cai Jin Hong, Pao Yee Lim, Wesley Shu, special thanks to Lexi B and Mama Irene

Jung’an Joinbuy City Plaza
Design: 16 March 2016 – 16 April 2016
Construction: 16 April 2016 – 29 April 2016
Design team: Christina Luk, Cai Jin Hong, Ma Kun
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JW Office

JW & Associates is a multidisciplinary design firm whose practice includes interior design, product design and architecture.
The initial concept of this design was to create an office environment accommodating diverse emotional and working states from the calm and solitary to excited group exchanges.
The first stage was the abandonment of excessive ornamentation in favour of function and practicality with a simple colour palette of white, grey and warm, natural wood.
The design’s primary feature is a meanderous central island which, running the length of the office’s central space in a series of waves, provides desk space and varied seating, as well as dividing the room. In addition the incorporation of stands of bamboo creates a soft and naturally varied form of division between the room’s two halves. Its continuous curve divides the space without creating discreet segments.
A connecting corridor runs the full length of the office joining closed offices at the far end via the central working area to a kitchen and snack bar adjoining the reception area immediately before the main entrance. A separate conference room further divides the kitchen area from the main office. Double doors at either end of the main office area can be used to isolate each area as required.
The reception desk utilizes off cuts leftover as waste material from the construction of the remainder of the project. A counter running the length of the kitchen area is coated with TK PET resin which runs down its side to form a continuous surface with the floor of the reception and kitchen area. The clear resin is marked with large brush strokes of Chinese ink and flows over the floor’s boundaries into the central office area and meeting room giving the impression of standing water.

Architects: JW (SHANGHAI) ARCHITECTURE DESIGN & CONSULTING
Location: Shanghai
Area: 390 sum
Design: Yao Jun
Completion: 2013

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