ArchShowcase 
Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. New vip.com Headquarters in Guangzhou, China by gmp Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und PartnerJuly 6th, 2016 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: gmp Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner The foundation stone was laid for the new headquarters of the vip.com online group in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Stephan Schütz attended the ceremony as the partner representing gmp, von Gerkan, Marg und Partners Architects. At the beginning of the year, gmp won the international competition for the project and was subsequently commissioned to begin construction.  Perspective Northeast, Image Courtesy © gmp
 Detail of stacked parts of buidling, Image Courtesy © gmp vip.com is one of China’s most successful E-commerce companies. This rapidly growing concern is establishing its new headquarters in Guangzhou’s “Internet Innovation Zone” in the Pazhou district, which is an island in the Pearl River southeast of the city center. This area, which includes the grounds for the Canton Fair, has been designated a new trade and service district dedicated to Internet companies with supplementary leisure facilities.  View from bridge, North, Image Courtesy © gmp  Entrance plaza, Image Courtesy © gmp The corporate culture at vip.com is dynamic with flat hierarchies. Architecturally, this calls for large, flexible spaces that can be diversely populated and rapidly converted while permitting various organizational forms of office use. In terms of design, the building was developed as a horizontally layered office landscape that bridges the streets to connect all three building sites on the angular parcel. With this as the basis, the overall cubature and arrangement of the vertical access points were developed with a view to providing a maximum number of office spaces with attractive views of the river and city.  Image Courtesy © gmp  Arcades, Image Courtesy © gmp The building’s individual functional areas appear as stacked volumes offset by vertical apertures and by floors with special functions that take the form of “seams.” The first of these seams located on the fourth floor signals the interface between external and internal functions, serving as a meeting place for visitors and employees that includes a conference center, exhibition spaces, and catering facilities. This area is open to both the building interior and the platform projecting out toward the Pearl River. As a public space with a welcoming quality, it connects the building to the waterfront via broad flights of stairs and to a park in the east whose design is an integral part of the project.  Image Courtesy © gmp  Image Courtesy © gmp Just above the “meeting zone” in the stacked block are the office zones for the company’s individual teams. Here, another special floor is dedicated to informal interactions, including recreational areas, a library, fitness areas, and planted outdoor terraces. The two slender 130 and 172 meter towers emerging from this base structure accommodate both a hotel for employees and guests and, in the case of the taller tower, rooms for administration and management.  Bird‘s eye view, Image Courtesy © gmp  Entrance lobby, Image Courtesy © gmp The overall character of the architecture is determined by the façade, which is kept deliberately simple and is horizontally articulated with floor-to-ceiling windows. Casement windows that can be opened allow natural ventilation of all workstations. For the predominantly young and creative staff, the result is a variety of work environments that are both interconnected and connected to the outside. In terms of urban design, the building appears as a full-scale composition of individually discernable cubes whose special identity is established by the way it specifically addresses its users and location.  Foundation stone ceremony at vip.com site, Image Courtesy © gmp  Architect, Stephan Schütz, partner gmp, Image Courtesy © gmp  Image Courtesy © gmp  Site plan, Image Courtesy © gmp  Floorplan level 1, Image Courtesy © gmp  Floorplan level 5+6, Image Courtesy © gmp
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