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Saturday, January 22, 2011

Giant Interactive Group : By Morphosis

Shanghai, China
Morphosis
Post BY:Kitticoon Poopong
Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan--The executive portion of the office wing cantilevers 115 feet and extends above a lake.
Morphosis engages landform with architecture to create a new kind of workplace for Chinese capitalism. 
Corporate office buildings used to offer architects the chance to tap into fat construction budgets and make serious design statements. Think Mies van der Rohe and Seagram or Eero Saarinen and General Motors. Today, only a few U.S. corporations are investing in significant architecture, and some (such as the New York Times) have been criticized for spending too much on it, while others (such as Bank of America) have kept quiet about their new buildings for fear of being criticized. Corporate China, though, is starting to flex its muscle and sees architecture as a fine way of showing off its bulging profits. Many of the new office buildings rising in both urban and suburban China scream wildly for attention, but a few are taking more sophisticated — if no less bold — approaches to shaping the workplace and expressing the role of capitalism in a nominally communist society.

Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan

Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan--Shared facilities such as a gym, pool, and hotel sit under a green roof (right in photo), while offices occupy an east wing of glass, steel, and fiber cement panels.
Flashy, famous, and fearless, Yuzhu Shi, the chairman and founder of Giant Interactive Group, represents a new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs. With his face on the covers of glossy lifestyle magazines and an executive suite stocked with female assistants who could model clothes in those same publications, Shi had no interest in commissioning dull architecture. So he hired Thom Mayne and his firm Morphosis to design a headquarters for the interactive, online games division of his fast-growing group of companies, knowing full well that Mayne had made even the California Department of Transportation and the United States federal government look sexy in sleek new office buildings in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Although Giant had offices in a number of buildings in central Shanghai, Shi decided to build his new complex on the city’s outskirts where it could spread out.
Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan--A combination of fiber cement panels and glazing offers views from offices while protecting them from the sun. A promenade lets employees walk along the lake.

When Mayne and his team first visited the site, they found farms and a flat landscape. Other architects might have seen a featureless setting, but Mayne envisioned the land playing an active role in the project. Since learning about Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson, and other “earth artists” in the 1980s, Mayne had designed a number of projects — including the Crawford Residence in Santa Monica (1990) and the Diamond Ranch School in Pomona (1999) — that dug into and engaged their sites. “Giant is the culmination of this train of thought,” states Mayne. “In all these projects, we tamper with the figure/ground relationship and turn the land into an active component.”
Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan--The bridge, which curves and slopes, presented an engineering challenge.
Working with the landscape architecture firm SWA, which had master-planned the 44.5-acre site as a parklike setting with a new lake connected to existing canals, Morphosis designed the building as a series of snaking forms burrowing under and through the land. Almost all of the western half of the building (containing shared elements such as an indoor pool, a gymnasium, and a hotel for corporate guests) sits below a 164,000-square-foot green roof, which reads from afar as a faceted hill or folded meadow. The east half of the complex (containing the general offices, executive offices, auditorium, cafe, and library) jumps over a highway bisecting the site and reaches out to the lake. In a dramatic flourish, the east wing cantilevers out 115 feet, hovering above the lake with a glass floor offering views of the rippling water below. 
Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan--A glass-floored conference room adds a dramatic touch to the executive suite.
When we showed the client the design for the cantilever, he asked, ‘Is it big enough?’ ” marvels Mayne, contrasting this bravado with the risk-averse approach of most American companies. “We couldn’t do anything like this in the U.S. today.”
Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan--Conical forms mask columns in the hotel lobby.
While the enormous green roof, the lake, and a series of plazas and courtyards carved into the building offer employees ample opportunities to enjoy the outdoors, Mayne’s approach to nature is anything but naturalistic. “It’s an augmented landscape,” says the architect. He and his team designed the building as a “multiplicity of components” acting on and responding to the folded land, the highway running through the property, and major programmatic needs. The goal, says Mayne, was to “attack singularity” and echo “the messiness, the ad-hoc-ness that we love in cities.” Finding the right balance between “coherence and chance” was critical to during the design process.
Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan--A reception area leads onto a plaza carved from the building’s sprawling form, part of a strategy to link a variety of outdoor spaces with indoor ones.
The 258,000-square-foot headquarters represents a new, magnanimous approach to employee relations emerging in China. Extensive recreational facilities and outdoor spaces reflect Giant’s strategy of using perks to attract talented staff, inspired by the approach used by Google and U.S. software companies. 
Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan--An indoor swimming pool is one part of an extensive fitness center open to all employees.
The steel-frame building took two and a half years to build and required some sophisticated coordination between the Morphosis team generating 3-D computer models and the steel fabricator in China. In some places — such as the curving, sloping bridge that spans the highway and connects the east and west wings — the design borders on the excessive. But the architects kept other parts of the building — such as the area under the green roof — fairly simple, in part to allow flexibility in how it is used. While Mayne’s attitude to landscape began as an artistic concept, it led him to a design that has important green benefits. For example, burying so much of the building in the ground reduces heating and cooling loads. In addition, an enclosed and ventilated (but not conditioned) walkway runs along the south side of the west wing, buffering offices from the sun, and a double skin on portions of the north facade also creates more temperate interior spaces.
Photo © Courtesy of Iwan Baan--A walkway along the office wing connects to a bridge spanning a highway.
Mayne says he didn’t want to design “a perfume bottle,” a building as icon. Instead, he created a sprawling complex that captures the restless energy of 21st-century China — a place that may have too much going on, but that nevertheless impresses us with its daring and its indomitable will to keep pushing forward.
ground floor plan--drawing Courtesy of Morphosis
second floor plan--drawing Courtesy of Morphosis
third floor plan--drawing Courtesy of Morphosis
section A-A & B-B--drawing Courtesy of Morphosis

The People

Project Manager
Tim Christ
Paul Gonzales

Project Architect
Hann-Shiuh Chen
Ted Kane
Mario Cipresso (through Design Development)

Project Designer
Leonore Daum

Project Team
Andrew Batay-Csorba
Adam Bressler
Marty Doscher
Patrick Dunn-Baker
Graham Ferrier
Chris Herring
Debbie Lin
Kristina Loock
Yichen Lu
Scott Severson
Mohamed Sharif
Suzanne Tanascaux
Chris Warren

Project Assistant
Qing Cai (site assistant in Shanghai)
Soohyun Chang
Kyle Coburn
Guiomar Contreras
Laura Foxman
Joe Justus
Michelle Siu Lee
Hugo Martinez
Mark McPhie
Brock Hinze
Sunnie Lau
Greg Neudorf
Christin To
Jose Vargas
Dana Viquez
Mike Patterson
Nutthawut Piriyaprakob
Aleksander Tamm-Seitz
Kuo Wang (site assistant in Shanghai)
Jing Xu
Jian-Jia Zhou

Design Institute
MAA Engineering Consultants (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Local Architect
SURV (Shanghai)
Managing Director: Alexander Moh
Director in Charge: Thomas Chow
Project Manager: Leo Huang, Mel Tang, Jie Zhu,
MEP Coordinator: Hai-Tao Hu

Structural Engineer
Bao Ye
MAA Engineering Consultants (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
Thornton Tomasetti Group, Inc. (concept design)

Mechanical Engineer
IBE Consulting Engineers (concept design)
MAA Engineering Consultants (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.

Electrical Engineer
IBE Consulting Engineers (concept design)
MAA Engineering Consultants (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.

Interior Design
Morphosis

Landscape Architect
SWA Group

Local Landscape Architect
TOPO Design Group


Architectural Lighting Design
Heather Libonati, LC, Luminesce Design

General Contractor
China State Construction Engineering Company 3rd Bureau

The Products

Structural system:
Steel Frame,  Concrete

Exterior cladding:
Description: Fiber-cement Panels
Manufacturer: Swisspearl
Product: Xpressiv
Color: Dark Grey 8220
Area: Office Building Skin

Roofing
Description: standing seam aluminum metal roofing system
Manufacturer: Corus Kalzip
Color: Dark Grey 
Area: Office Building Roof

Door Hardware
Description: Glass door Hardware and closer and locks
Manufacturer: Dorma
Product: Dorma SG

Interior finishes
Suspension grid:
Description: Metal Welded Wire Mesh Ceiling Panel - painted
Manufacturer: DEKO
Product:  Custom
Thickness: 1.5mm diam. Rods
Paints and stains:  
Description: Multi-surface Paint
Manufacturer: Benjamin Moore - ECO-SPEC
Product: Interior latex enamel
Area: Gymasium, Hotel Entry
Plastic laminate:
Description: Plastic laminate
Manufacturer: Wilsonart Laminate
Product: Wilsonart ® Fire-Rated Laminate
Thickness: 0.81mm ± 0.13mm
Solid surfacing:
Description: Solid Surfacing
Manufacturer: Cesar Stone
Product: Quartz coutertop
Color: Blizzard 2141
Resilient flooring:
Description: Rubber Rolled Flooring
Manufacturer: GerFloor
Product: 
Color: Black
Area: Gym, Dance Rooms
Carpet:
Manufacturer: Interface Flor
Product: Menagerie 26Z
Size: 610 x 610mm
Color: Storm #4949
Properties: Antron Lumena solution dyed nylon 23 oz, Tufted Tip-Sheared
Area: Open Office, Private Offices, Conference Rooms
Raised flooring:
Description: Modular Raised Flooring System
Manufacturer: Lindner
Product: Nortec – calcium sulphate panel
Size: 600 x 600mm
Special interior finishes unique to this project:
Interior Ceiling reflective ceiling panels:
Description: Custom light reflectors
Manufacturer: COSA International PTE LTD
Product: Barrisol Membrane
Color: transulcent white
Glass Fiber Reinforce Gypsum Interior Panels
Description:  Wall and Ceiling finish panels
Manufacturer: EGROW International
Product: GFRG
Color: White
Interior Wall Paneling:
Description: Fiber-cement Panels
Manufacturer: Swisspearl
Product: Carat
Color: 7090 Ivory
Properties: Integrally colored fiber cement panels
Area: CEO Office

Furnishings
Manager Office furniture / seating:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Zody
Color: Black
Open Office furniture / desks:
Manufacturer: Plan Moebel
Series: m-pur / custom
Color: White
Open Office furniture / storage:
Manufacturer: Onlead
Private GM  Office furniture / manager seating:
Manufacturer: Vitra
Serie: Meda
Color: White
Private Office furniture / secretary seating:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Zody
Color: Grey
Private Office furniture / lounge seating:
Manufacturer: Vitra
Serie: Monopod (leather)
Color: Avocado
Private Office furniture / desks:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Allways
Color: White
Private Office furniture / desk storage:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Allways
Color: White
Private Office furniture / office storage:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Equipe
Color: White
Conference rooms furniture / seating:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Very
Color: White
Conference rooms furniture / tables:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Planes
Color: White
Break rooms furniture / tables:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Premise
Color: White
Cafeteria furniture / lounge seating:
Manufacturer: Quinze & Milan
Serie: M2 Straight, M2 Corner and M2 Flat, Round
Color: Lime green and Anthracite
Cafeteria furniture / tables:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Premise
Color: White
Cafeteria furniture / chairs:
Manufacturer: Vitra
Serie: Tom Vac
Color: Translucent
Library furniture / tables:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Planes
Color: White
Library furniture / chairs:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Very
Color: White
Library furniture / lounge:
Manufacturer: Quinze & Milan
Serie: Round Cake
Color: White
Auditorium furniture / chairs:
Manufacturer: Hayworth
Serie: Very
Color: White
Exhibition room furniture / seating
Manufacturer: Quinze & Milan
Serie: Infinity Straight XL
Color: Lime green and Anthracite
Reception furniture / seating:
Manufacturer: Vitra
Serie: Meda
Color: White
Hotel lobby furniture / lounge seating:
Manufacturer: Quinze & Milan
Serie: Round Cake
Color: Anthracite
Manufacturer: Quinze & Milan
Serie: Round 2
Color: Custom (Benjamin Moore Tawn Day Lilly - 2012-10)
Hotel bar furniture / seat pads:
Manufacturer: Quinze & Milan
Serie: [custom pads]
Color: Custom (Benjamin Moore Tawn Day Lilly - 2012-10)
Hotel room furniture Sofa/chairs:
 Manufacturer: BoConcept
Color: White
CEO private hotel suites and loft / Lounge, tables and lighting:
Manufacturer: B&B italia
Manufacturer: MDF italia
CEO private hotel suites and loft / desk and side chairs:
Manufacturer: Vitra

Lighting
Downlights, Task Lights, Exterior lamps, pendants and soffit lighting
Manufacturer: Thorn

Conveyance
Elevators/Escalators:
Manufactuerer: ThyssenKrupp Elevator

Plumbing
Toilet, Urinal
Manufacturer: Duravit
Product: Starck
Faucets, Showers fixtures
Manufacturer: TOTO
Hand dryer, towel dispenser
Manufacturer: DLINE

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