Chinese Academy of Sciences IOT Center

Jiading, Shanghai, China

Architects: SKEW Collaborative

Year: 2011

The site for this new exhibition center and laboratories was the former 1962 Soviet-designed low-density office cluster sitting amongst a heavily wooded compound. The design sought to minimize the carbon footprint of new construction by retaining as much of the existing fabric, with selective demolition and reconstruction. The newly configured complex possesses a series of intimate courtyards by weaving new architecture through forty-five mature trees and existing building structures. New laboratories, offices and exhibition spaces are organized around courtyards and terraces on two to three levels, each having views and access to the natural environment.

The architecture of this adative-reuse project is predicated on strategic insertions of new forms and voids within the structural framework of the original complex. The dialogue between the new and the old was not just an aesthetic exercise, but also one that is concerned with an enhancement of daylighting, natural ventilation, and the embodiment of new and existing landscape of mature camphor and pine trees. A double skin and a new fenestration system were developed in order to rationalize and produce new envelopes suitable for the new programs and the environment.