The first office space of LYCS Architecture is a renovation and renewal of an old penthouse space in a building in downtown Hangzhou. The original roof space was a warehouse added to the roof of the building, including an elevator machine room, fire stairwell, and sloping drainage roof. The design concept creates a juxtaposition of the old warehouse space and the new office space by capturing the homogeneity and heterogeneity of the building materials and the spatiotemporally.
The design shows the relationship between standard architecture and "dialects" by keeping and changing some "non-professional" elements. These elements show the original construction. The steel roof is painted white, which keeps the rusty concrete beams and columns as the main structure. The rooms have white raised tiles and five hollow windows in the floor, showing the original rough sloping roof for drainage. The changes from roof to storage, from unused to reuse, and the rain cover and rough mosaic wall suggest the transformation of this space.
In the design of this continued, reorganized and reproduced space, the layers of mosaic and cracked textured materials intertwine with the newness of the white walls to create an ambiguous gaze. The juxtaposition of the old concrete walls, which are faded and show signs of multiple repairs, with the new white walls creates another level of heterogeneity. The heavily industrial elevator room becomes part of the firm's space through a window display, extending the sense of time and space and creating its own context. The damaged orange-red evacuation doors were transplanted as doors to the firm's conference rooms, allowing elements of the old building to be honored and brought to life with vigor.
