Made in China, no question – Invented in China, of course:
BAU588 You-Du R+D Development, Jinqiao, Shanghai

introduction
“Made in China” is rapidly being superseded by “Invented in China”. The vast industrial zones created in the 1990s have only partially filled with industrial buildings. Research and Development (R+D) projects are now taking up the slack. R+D is ideally located close to universities, industry and in countries of rapid change. Jinqiao, Shanghai is such a location.

the pragmatic and beyond
You Du is a speculative R+D development created by the local government, an organisation charged with developing and running this vast middle district of Pudong, Shanghai. The surrounding industrial district is made up of large sites and has a sparse road network.

Two buildings, linked by a bridge with terrace over and entrance plaza under, are designed with flexibility and robustness – in order to meet the needs and space requirements of a range of companies over the long life of the building. The space between the buildings allows for future E-W permeability should the district ever wish to introduce a more connective human-scaled circulation network.

The two buildings are articulated into a tripartite composition. The lower two floors are treated as a podium and as many of the community functions are located in this animated and active base. The upper five floors take the form of an extruded C-section, with their back to the north and their opening sides toward the south for solar gain.

Sandwiched between these two design elements is a floor defined by its colourful planar ceiling and floor and connection via the bridge – a literal and virtual sandwich. Fully glazed between the planes, the floor and soffit run the length of the two buildings, and open at the front to form the double height entry lobby and inside-out stair flights. A wide south facing public balcony off the sandwich connects the development front to back. It overlooks and connects to the landscape via a spiral stair at the canteen bridge and the seating stair to the street.

The front building is designed to best suit a large company. It has a commercial café facing the street and a double-height lobby with amphitheatre stair leading up to the canteen in the bridge. The rear building is suited to smaller companies. It has a smaller lobby on ground floor and shares the canteen. Both buildings have industrial goods-elevators, raised floors and tall floor heights (6.0m, 4.5m, and 4.2m), able to accommodate various scales of machinery and equipment.