Enjoy 2 free articles a month. For unlimited access, get a membership now.

Zhiwai

DSArchstudios

SAVE SUBMISSION
Bronze
Exterior elevation of the office - STUDIO TEN / Tan Xiao
The rooftop garden offers city view - STUDIO TEN / Tan Xiao
Detail - STUDIO TEN / Tan Xiao
Exterior elevation of the office - STUDIO TEN / Tan Xiao

1 / 15

Sponsor
Comments
Innovation
Functionality
Creativity
Eco-Social Impact
Total
JURY VOTES
Small Office
6.47
5.62
6.58
5.25
5.98
Client
DSArchstudios
Floor area
260 ㎡
Completion
2022
Furniture

Zhiwai is a unique presence that meets the needs of everyday office space functions, while also infusing vitality into the urban community.

As DSArchstudios' new office, Zhiwai creates a new kind of work-life balance in the commercial area. The designer uses height differences between the original building and the new elements to surround a sunken hub for rest and socializing -- the rooftop garden. The space is an extension area of the indoor office space, used to express the designer's personality and specific spatial attributes, while inadvertently providing a great place for the city to relax.

With the height difference of the site, the “bridge” appears at a certain angle, acting as a medium of transition between the indoor and outdoor spaces. Walking along the “bridge”, people pass an open bar area and pass through the door to reach a corridor that connects the various internal functional spaces. To define the difference in space, two new irregular boxes have been placed on the original building frame by the designer to ensure that the living room area protrudes from the building's exterior wall. The bar area is composed of eaves, exterior corridors, and semi-open enclosures, combining to form a soft visual entrance.

The square-shaped facade of the office includes a diagonal section, which intentionally forms an angle echo with the "bridge" road at the entrance, connecting the spaces and increasing interest by ensuring that the window can see the "bridge", and the "bridge" can see the window. The circular window openings transform light into columns, with tremendous light and shadows wandering along the ground and wall, rendering the lines of the space three-dimensional and transforming the interior into a "container of light".

The design of the living room facade window provides a glimpse of the city landscape, while also leveraging the dynamic light and shadows of the outdoor water to its fullest, thus eliminating the necessity of its physical presence. Due to height differences, the prominent living room creates an overhanging structural form, thus forming an intimate relationship between interior and exterior.