What was the brief?
To design an office space on the mezzanine floor from the existing storage and unused area
What were the key challenges?
To design an architecture with a strong character, but within the original context that is already existing
What materials did you choose and why?
Wood and steel
S-Construction office is an office building located on the mezzanine floor of a building that was initially a steel factory, a manufacturer of steel components for large factory structures. We took the inspiration from the antique smith equipments, ex. hammers, which were always coupled with wood. As you can see, most of the active part of these equipments were made of steel, but the part that was in-touch with humans was made of wood.
We took this concept to develop the design of both the interior and exterior. The office building is in the context of steel, whereas the skin of the building was made from wood. We used black burnt wood as the color of the exterior to represent the sense of usage through time and heat combustion. While on the inside, the natural color of the wood is still there.
This new building is an architecture within an architecture. We have created a space that is connected to the internal court in the middle to allow natural light to travel into the building by opening a part of the skin of the existing building. The details of the design at each point were created with the intention to insert and blend the new building into the existing building. This is to achieve recognition experiencing from the existing context and to create a new experience for all users as well as the visitors.
