Location: Beijing, China.

Architect: Within Beyond Studio.

The project is located in Hengtong Business Park, Beijing, China, and involves the renovation of an old factory warehouse with a steel structure, 400 sqm area, and 4.2m floor height. The client, WMY, is a young advertising agency that requires a bigger and proper space to work. The client’s requirement for the workplace is that it needs a space highly suitable for its enterprise spirit, which is creative, independent, and open-minded. The designer found the client’s black motorbike parked in the space during the site survey, which inspired the designer to create a space containing the original site spirit and let the client’s lifestyle, which has some inner coherence with the raw material of the factory, continue in the space. As a result, the theme of this space is industrial style. The designer chose concrete and metal as the major interior material to respect the original spirit of the factory warehouse. The material of the floor and wall finish is cement paint with raw concrete texture, which shaped a basic industrial atmosphere. The ceiling and partition wall besides the working station are made of black metal mesh to maintain the space transparency and sense of sequence and ceremony. The material of customized furniture made of cement panel and black steel remains the same taste with the whole theme. To make full use of the space’s characteristic, several featured nodes were inputted in certain places in the office. The rotatable concrete screen in front of the entrance lobby serves as a partition wall between the lobby and pantry as well as a background screen for the client’s mascot motorbike when in closed mode. When in opened mode, the lobby and pantry connect together to serve as a whole big space for a party. The big meeting room is lifted onto a seat-like stepping to create a focal point in the first station of this journey. The stepping can be worked as part of the seminar space. In the meantime, the stepping extended into the pantry and served as its seat, which creates a space continuity in public space. The main circulation space set beside both sides of the lobby possesses different space experiences. The one close to the exterior wall, with seminar space aside, shares plenty of daylight through the French window, and the one in the middle of the space serves as an exhibition space surrounded by carved concrete culture wall and featured lights.

Photo credit: Wutou.