The Dave & Bella office headquarters in Hangzhou Binjiang is an open, multi-functional space. It meets the brand's new needs after transforming. The design uses an abandoned factory to create a versatile office with additional spaces. It is a typical example of urban renewal and space regeneration in China, transforming old factory buildings into office spaces.
The original building was a 50-meter square embroidery factory from 2003. Its traditional design, excessive depth, and column layout caused poor lighting and limited flexibility. The facade uses large, rotating floor-to-ceiling windows to expose the original wall. The floor-to-ceiling windows add light and give a livelier architectural image.
The designer added three single-column atriums in the center to solve the lighting problem. This brings natural light and fresh air to the large, confined space. Core open office areas are near the atrium's glass curtain walls, providing indirect light for the office.
The presence of three atriums, especially the placement of six full-height glazed interfaces on either side of them, creates a sense of spatial order in a hierarchical fashion. This sense of order is further reinforced by the system of ramps, corridors and staircases that run through each floor of the building. It sometimes enters the high atrium, sometimes enters the narrow semi-private open space, and at the same time connects the flow between floors. As people follow the designed flow lines perpendicular to the interface, the cyclic appearance of the single-story office space and the elevated atrium creates a sequence of cascading spaces on a near-human scale, inducing people to communicate and interact with each other within the different spaces through these paths, stimulating the creativity of the users and their desire to explore the space.
