The client - a successful manufacturer of glass products - asked the architects to find an appropriate design response for upgrading his production facilities into a one-stop arts production and innovation centre. Struggling with rising production costs, many Chinese companies are upgrading their businesses from mass production to design, marketing and cultural services. In this context, the brief included four components: glass art production facilities (the "arts factory"), an innovation and auction hall, a small museum, and a boutique hotel for VIP clients. >>>

The project is conceived as a stack of individual rooms, where each room is unique and identifiable within the overall stack. A careful investigation of local construction methods revealed the possibility of shifting and varying floor-slabs to create corners, cantilevers and balconies – all welcome strategies for providing individual and different conditions in each apartment. At the base of the tower, the stack reacts to the scale and specific local conditions on the street, while the top staggers and shifts to engage with the sky. In-between, the staggering and variation in the... >>>