DUTS Design Shanghai Office

Renovation Project of Building 8 in Happiness Dock

DUTStudio completed an old factory space renovation project in Huangpu District, Shanghai. The renovated building No.8 is located in the No. 1029 of Zhongshan S. Rd Happy Harbour, which was founded in 1969 and formerly known as the school bus workshop of Shanghai Happy Motorcycle. This building area is 2,022 square meters.

The project owner, who is a sports-loving youth born after 1980, hopes that there should be an indoor football field and a complete set of the fitness space in addition to meeting the needs of office with the old factory’s large space and great height. It poses a higher demand for this old building.

The structural system of the whole building is a typical double span triangular roof structure one-storied factory with a span of 15 meters. The original concrete triangular roof truss is connected with horizontal steel cables, which is unfavorable for utilization of space. The designer replaced the original T-shaped truss with steel-structure herringbone truss and removed the horizontal steel wire rope, providing the owner with 1.7-meter indoor ceiling while meeting the security needs of roof without removing the roof, with duration and cost reduced greatly. Its successful renovation has rendered interior space design with necessary conditions as a decisive factor for this project. Taking advantage of structural reinforcement, the designer suspended the two-story office under the reinforced roof truss. It is precisely because the two-story space is suspended in mid-air, the bottom is column free with either basic costs such as piling saved or permeability and flexibility of underlying office space ensured.

A part of the underlying space is taken as an open office area by subsidence with the floor elevation, and the other part is the indoor football stadium and staff recreation area. The large conference room and executive office are on the second floor. Top wooden structure of the roof is reserved entirely with the walls painted white. The ground is covered with white matte glazed tiles. For visual effects, the entire second-floor office area is against the main entrance like a suspended "battleship", with ascending steel structure stairs complementing the black perforated steel grating, dark red steel beams and roof plank, highlighting the grim temperament of industrial style.

For the interior and furniture design, the designer creates comprehensively with integrated design approach and space design. A steel table in the second floor office is about 3m long with a suspended bottom. It takes advantage of wedge-shaped visual deviation for the façade with the steel beams hidden from the sight cleverly, so the visible place is only 6 mm thick like a paper. A gravity pool is designed right below the suspended conference room of the office space, with only 150mm distance from the thin water surface to the stairs of the floating office, meeting the height requirement of a step rightly. Stepping on the first step is out of the ground, expressing the concept of suspension in a perfect manner. Together with the dynamic light on water surface and the steel reflection, the charm of design is embodied perfectly.

The original style is retained in the facade design of the building, with only a slim steel canopy designed at the entrance as the main entrance of the entire office space. The simple and stylish design of entrance shines with the interior part, playing a role of finishing touch for the original pediment of the old plant.

For this improvement of Happy Pier No.8 Old Factory, the ultimate steel amount for truss transformation is 30kg/sqm with reasonable program and great economy. DUTStudio integrates structural reinforcement and the concept of floating office smartly, creates a new space of office + sports + creativity that meets needs of the owner and endows the old plant with new vitality.