Located in HuaiNan city, AnHui province in China, this project mainly is the headquarters for the park that is going to be built. The building consists of 2 architectural parts connected by a flowing bridge on the 2nd floor: - West part – a 5 storied office building with a height of 23.1 m, total area 5500 sqm. - East part – a 2 storied exhibition center with a height of 18.45 m, total area 2800 sqm. - A public square with an area of 780 sqm and an underground parking space with an area of 3200 sqm, through which people can find access to both building parts.
Building Concept: The idea of the building's massing and spaces comes from the melting ice cubes. Ice cubes tend to creat a soft connection between each other as they melt down. This concept starts with normal boxes through which architects get integrated and fluent spaces by disasemble and reconnect those boxes with curved surfaces. This kind of space organization brings the building much more complexity and diversity.
Ice Cube Pattern: Architects took the cladding gaps as part of the designning elements while they confronted with the cladding division problem, same to the massing, concept for the cladding also came from ice cubes. Ice cubs present an edge-to-center colour gradient due to the refraction happend as light beam comes through. Edges always seem darker and more solid than it appears in the center. Architects tried to get the same effect by controling the gaps' distance and dencity, following expansion images are the final result for claddings.
Surface Optimization : The building is mainly consists of 11 facaded surfaces and 14 curved surfaces that will be covered by cladding. 2 of these curved surfaces will be double curvature surfaces while 12 of them were optimized to single curved surfaces inorder to make cladding division and manufacturing easier to go.
Landscape : Treated as an extension of the building, paving that surround the architecture is designed to embrace the connection part of the building where cladding tries to touch the ground, standing infront of the building, people will find cladding pattern gradiently change in to paving pattern, which makes the building and landscape a integrated whole.
Structure solution : The 2 parts of the building use individual structure system connected by a bridge on the 2nd floor. Both parts of the building use steel structure. The maximum cantilevered part length is 20 meters, where there are enhanced bracing and steel beams for those cantilevers at the end of each part.