Located in Jiading, just outside of Shanghai’s city centre, Schindler City is a new 32,5000 square meter headquarters designed by Neri&Hu for the world-renowned elevator manufacturer Schindler. Containing offices, factories, warehouses, research facilities, and a showroom, the architects sought to overcome the sense of isolation and vastness that characterizes many industrial facilities by emphasizing human scale landscape elements and public spaces throughout the project.
The architectural proposal is two-part: a continuous base ground level with floating lightboxes above. As a unified architectural solution, this arrangement challenges the typical office block/industrial park typology of individual buildings loosely bound by greenery.
At the northeast of the site, the unifying base podium rises in height to accommodate the company’s Research & Development department. Dynamic, yet solid, the volume is representative of the innovative, if not private, nature of Schindler’s research arm. At the other end of the podium, contained within three glass boxed, are offices for over 800 employees along with accessory meeting rooms, lounges, archives, showroom and training centre. Each of these three glass boxed includes a multi-storey atrium that encourages visual and physical interaction between different departments.
In terms of materials, the podium is clad in grey brick, a common building material in China that also references the built heritage of the project’s surroundings. The glass boxes are clad with translucent channel glass sections, interspersed with white metal-framed window slots, resulting in a façade that is minimal, elegant and filled with light.
Grounded in local culture and building tradition, the resulting building at the same time celebrates the innovative and forward-thinking culture of Schindler as a brand.
