Hengqin, China
Gree Electric Appliances has commissioned Yunchao Xu/Atelier Apeiron/SZAD to design its new headquarters on the island of Hengqin as a stacked complex of spaces to be completed in 2023 that will provide a new platform for the diversified development of the carbon-neutral industry.
Gree Electric Appliances is a world-class leader in China’s smart manufacturing industry.
Its 200-meter-high global center will accommodate the group’s major sectors covering the entire industrial chain and becoming a low-carbon ecological innovation space.
Gree Global Centre has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The surrounding buildings are dense, while the plot is long and narrow with many tall buildings around.
It was determined that the traditional mid-tube tower would neither meet the needs of highly a positioned company nor would it achieve the openness of urban public spaces desired.
The team thus decided on a modular space system to decompose the vertical tower into 9 modules and shape the main body of the building with a tree structure.
Facing the marine park on the north side and the high-rise buildings on the south side, the shape of the building gradually retreats, thereby allowing for more open upper space and landscape views.
The center of the building contains a large, shared space marked by its transparency.
The nine modules are stacked and arranged around this central, hollow core, forming a cross-sectional relationship.
An aerial living room for the city is created that also provides staff with collaboration functions such as spaces for communication, leisure, training, and praying.
At the same time, it is also an ecological garden that attracts the public to visit, learn, and consume with an open and welcoming attitude.
The whole building combines Gree Electric’s advanced manufacturing technology and products.
The building is dominated by the central exhibition hall, and the complex of various spaces provides a new platform and space for the diversified development of the carbon-neutral industry.
The exterior skin of the building uses Gree Electric’s patented photovoltaic power generation curtain wall to achieve a zero-power energy-saving air-conditioning system.
The entire complex creates an industrial highland that leads to energy innovation.
Project: Gree Global Centre
Architects: Yunchao Xu/Atelier Apeiron/SZAD
General Contractor: Gree Electric Appliances, Inc.
Client: Gree Electric Appliances, Inc.
Photographers: Yunchao Xu/Atelier Apeiron/SZAD
