Gianni Botsford Architects’ first project in China forms a dramatic focal point for the new Singapore Sichuan Hi Tech Innovation Park in Chengdu.
Gianni Botsford Architects has completed its first project in China: the Oppo Technology and Research Centre Tower for the titular Chinese mobile phone manufacturer. Won in competition with Taiwanese practice RJWu & Partners, the 206-metre-high structure forms a focal point for the new Singapore Sichuan Hi Tech Innovation Park to the south of Chengdu.
“The Oppo Technology and Research Centre Tower is conceived as a vertical village,” explains Gianni Botsford. “To this end, its volumes are shifted both horizontally and vertically to achieve diversity in both plan and skyline, and to ensure unusually high levels of daylight for all users. A typical floor plan benefits from a series of ‘rooms with a view’ staggered around the perimeter.”
Full-height vertical recesses combined with triple-height ‘lantern’ spaces articulate the exterior of the tower, helping to break up its massing and dissolve the structure into the sky. The dynamic, filigree effect of the glazed façade has been achieved using a unitised curtain wall system comprising deep, continuous vertical mullions set out at different widths to provide varying ratios of solid to glass. The depth of the mullions also provides a degree of solar shading across the façade.
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Capable of accommodating more than 5,000 engineers and support staff, the interior is intended to be calm, discrete, and serene. There are quiet spaces for independent working, as well as lively communal areas for staff to interact over a meal, event, or training session.
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