Vanke Sales Office

The city of Dongguan, located between Shenzhen and Guangzhou (Canton), is the scene of breakneck development of late. For my first project as a lead designer, I was tasked with designing a 600 square-meter sales office for a multi-tower mixed-use development in Dongguan for Vanke, one of China’s leading property developers.

 

 

 

 

 

The corner of the site where the office will be situated is surrounded by ongoing or upcoming development, meaning there were very few physical adjacencies to influence the organization of program. In light of this, a loose triangular grid was imposed across the site to form the parameters of a plaza landscape. The center of that landscape grid was then extruded into two levels connected by gentle slopes, to form an active and useable green roof. The two-level portion of the mass takes the form of a  cantilevered box-truss which will house the office’s three model units. The balconies of the model units will face a large glazed-facade looking out to the side of the site that many of the actual tower units will face. Opposite the model units will be a fluid and inviting double-height space for the office’s main sales lounge, which will be bathed in diffuse Northern daylight by a large inverted dormer window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The remainder of the building’s program (staff offices, conference room, and restrooms) are neatly arranged along the underside of the slope that emerges from ground level. The exterior of the structure will be wrapped in tinted glass and a porous-metal paneling that will be backed by an energy-efficient LED array. The same paneling will help accent some interior surfaces, complimented by polished stone flooring and warm wood panels. The truss’s structural members will be cladded with additional metal paneling and exposed throughout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The building was completed in September 2014, with an eye towards future use as retail or restaurant space subsequent to completion and sale of the rest of the tower complex. My team consisted of FCHA’s Chen Zetao and Su Lefu, assisted by Liang Jie and Guo Xusheng.