Recycled grey bricks. Schindler City Headquarters by Neri&Hu
05/01/2024.
[Shanghai] China
metalocus, CRISTINA RODRÍGUEZ
metalocus, CRISTINA RODRÍGUEZ
Project description by Neri & Hu
Neri&Hu envisions a 32,400 sqm headquarters for leading elevator manufacturer Schindler, as part of a new corporate master plan including offices, showrooms, factories, warehouses, and research facility. Situated in the developing industrial area of Jiading, just outside of Shanghai’s city center, Neri&Hu sought to overcome the sense of isolation and vastness that characterizes industrial facilities by emphasizing the integration of human-scale landscape elements and public spaces throughout the project.
The resulting architectural proposal is two-part, a continuous base at ground level and floating lightboxes above. Challenging the typical office block typology of individual buildings loosely bound by greenery or paths, the architecture absorbs these elements into a unified podium that not only inextricably ties architecture to the landscape but makes seamless connections between all the various programs. These functions include shared amenities such as a 600 pax capacity canteen, an auditorium seating 200, several lounges and cafes, over 7,000 sqm of occupiable gardens, and a 300m long passageway featuring Schindler’s own moving walks to link it all together.
Schindler City Headquarters by Neri&Hu. Photograph by Annika Feuss.
At the north-east end of the site, the base podium rises and grows in height to form the Research & Development facility. This fortress-like enclosure, with its shifting volumes, is dynamic yet solid, representing the innovative if not private nature of the work conducted here. At the opposing end of the podium, within three glass boxes, 800 employees occupy office spaces on four levels above, including meeting rooms, lounges, archives, a showroom, and a training center. Each of the three buildings features a multi-story atrium that encourages visual and physical interactions between the different departments on each floor.
The two architectural elements that comprise the project are not only functionally unique but expressed in vastly different material palettes. Aligned with the client’s mission to engage with local cultures, the podium featuring gray brick, common building material in China, is a nod towards the material heritage of the project’s locale. For the glass boxes above, translucent channel glass sections, interspersed with white metal-framed window slots, compose a building façade that is bright, minimal, and elegant – a subtle reference to the company’s Swiss background. The resulting design is both firmly grounded in local cultures and building traditions while celebrating the innovative and forward-thinking corporate culture of Schindler.
Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, founded in 2004 by partners Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office is an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Shanghai, China. Neri&Hu works internationally providing architecture, interior, master planning, graphic, and product design services. Currently working on projects in many countries, Neri&Hu is composed of multi-cultural staff who speak over 30 different languages. The diversity of the team reinforces a core vision for the practice: to respond to a global worldview incorporating overlapping design disciplines for a new paradigm in architecture.
Lyndon Neri is a Founding Partner of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, an inter-disciplinary international architectural design practice based in Shanghai, China. In 2014, Wallpaper* announced Neri&Hu as 2014 Designer of The Year. In 2013, Mr. Neri was inducted into the U.S. Interior Design Hall of Fame with his partner Ms. Rossana Hu. The practice was the 2011 INSIDE Festival Overall Winner, won AR Awards for Emerging Architecture 2010 by Architectural Review and was selected as one of the Design Vanguards in 2009 by Architectural Record. Mr. Neri received a Master of Architecture at Harvard University and a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to starting his own practice with partner Rossana Hu, he was the Director for Projects in Asia and an Associate for Michael Graves & Associates in Princeton for over 10 years, and also worked in New York City for various architectural firms.
Rossana Hu is a Founding Partner of Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, an inter-disciplinary international architectural design practice based in Shanghai, China. In 2014, Wallpaper* announced Neri&Hu as 2014 Designer of The Year. In 2013, Mr. Neri was inducted into the U.S. Interior Design Hall of Fame with his partner Ms. Rossana Hu. The practice was the 2011 INSIDE Festival Overall Winner, won AR Awards for Emerging Architecture 2010 by Architectural Review and was selected as one of the Design Vanguards in 2009 by Architectural Record. Ms. Hu received a Master of Architecture and Urban Planning from Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and Music from the University of California at Berkeley. Before establishing Neri&Hu with her partner Lyndon Neri, Ms. Hu worked for Michael Graves & Associates, Ralph Lerner Architect in Princeton, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in New York City, and The Architects Collaborative (TAC) in San Francisco.