LYCS Architecture have designed the interior space of the Kano.cn headquarters building, which is a well-known office furniture brand in China. The project is located in Anji, China and is around 7500 ㎡. The global trade order has become significantly turbulent amidst the impact of the epidemic, and the inconvenience of international communication has made the cross -border traders more cautious. It is common to see the salesmen engaged with the live steam for the cross-border clients. Therefore, the standardized, high-end presentation of the industry has increasingly become crucial to fleshing out the corporate brand image and winning the trust of new trading partners. 

As we always keep in mind, what LYCS Architecture has committed to designing is the interesting lifestyle rather than building itself. How to demonstrate Kano’s capacity for integrating the entire industry chain from design and development to manufacturing, while providing high-quality and inspiring working environment for its employees? 

Our design has started from the study of the actual needs of the users, and we extracted two core needs of the users: touring and working. Thus, the design team came up with the strategy of “Promenade Workplace”, an attempt to combine the circular flow of the Guggenheim Museum in New York with the atrium of Hong Kong HSBC Main Building. The office area is arranged around a six-storey atrium, in the center of which the design team has set up a six-storey super-sized spiral staircase, resembling a huge stage. Resembling an extended profile, it passes through the space of reception, conference, sales, design, R&D, training, showroom and the president’s office in turn, sufficiently presenting how the whole headquarters works. 

With the two axes of efficient privacy and open communication, the design team has designed a completely private telephone booth, a partially private glass box office area, a semi-open grille box office area, and an open office area that is completely open and encourages communication. The design with different scales and levels of openness provides an inclusive, equitable, flexible, sustainable and healthy workplace for all employees. Whenever good at social communication or not, they all feel comfortable. Kano workplace proposes a new paradigm of both work and exhibition to the traditional headquarters office model, demonstrating the new concept of “promenade workplace”, where the workplace acts as the sales space, effectively helping Kano attract more customers and stand out in the competitive market.