Urban development is shifting from incremental expansion to stock optimization. In this context, how to change the development orientation and design ideas of traditional commercial offices? How to bring vitality to the city through the renewal and iteration of industrial space? Shi Daohong, founding partner and executive director of German FTA Architectural Design, is not only an architect, but also an observer of the industrial real estate industry, who has presided over the design of more than 1,000 industrial parks. It is necessary to shift from focusing on development to focusing on operation, from emphasizing large-scale growth to refined operation, starting with the end in mind, reducing unnecessary vacancies, and revitalizing existing assets through urban renewal.
Shi Daohong, founding partner and executive director of FTA Architectural Design in Germany
The science and technology innovation office breaks the stock era
According to Cushman & Wakefield, the annual net absorption of Grade A office buildings in Shanghai in 2023 was 390,000 square meters, down 38% year-on-year, which is lower than the average annual net absorption level of 720,000 square meters in the market over the past decade. Many companies are leaving downtown business buildings in search of lower-rent office space in the park.
In addition to rent, traditional commercial space is also becoming more and more difficult to adapt to future office needs. In Shi Daohong's view, this change is mainly a change in the industry, he pointed out that traditional industries such as finance and real estate are shrinking, while emerging industries such as technology, media and information are rising strongly, resulting in a huge shift in demand for office space. From a product point of view, the layout of traditional commercial offices tends to emphasize efficiency and functionality, tends to meet basic business needs, and is generally more conducive to internal communication rather than outward contact. Therefore, emerging forces represented by Internet companies have chosen to build their own headquarters and no longer rely on traditional commercial office space. For industries such as biomedicine, which have a very high "PhD rate", the special needs for office scenarios are incompatible with traditional commercial office space.
In this regard, since 2003, FTA has focused on the research and design of urban innovation parks, and has become one of the design institutions with the largest number of design practices in the field of industrial parks in China. Through the understanding of the working methods of innovative enterprises and high-knowledge people, the designers of FTA provide industrial ecology, flexible products and rich and vivid use scenarios that adapt to their innovative development, injecting vitality and emotion into the park buildings.
He said that at present, science and technology innovation has become an indispensable driving force for the development of mainstream cities around the world. In 2015, Shanghai proposed to build a "science and technology innovation center", and a large number of high-tech enterprises have emerged over the years. "The science and technology innovation office of science and technology enterprises has broken through the behavioral boundaries of 'going to work' and looked away from standardization, focusing not only on white-collar workers, but also scientists, experimenters who raise guinea pigs, software engineers, designers, and game practitioners...... We're here to give individuals the space they need. ”
Reuse of space resources in old buildings
In addition to designing and researching urban innovation parks, how to renovate old buildings and revitalize existing assets is also a proposition that Shi Daohong and FTA are concerned about.
For example, the Shanghai Jing'an International Science and Technology Innovation Community, which was founded in the 50s of the last century by Pengpu Machinery Factory, has been built into a vibrant and diverse mixed community designed by FTA, and is infinitely close to the ideal space that is open 24 hours a day, 7 ×. The existing four old industrial plants in the site are the epitome of Shanghai's modern industry. One of the challenges for FTAs is how to develop high-density innovative community projects while preserving industrial sites.
Shanghai Jing'an International Science and Technology Innovation Community
In the design, the four old buildings retain the original architectural features and building materials to the greatest extent, while restoring the original red brick façade, the local façade will adopt modern display techniques such as glass curtain wall, and try to use part of the old factory structure as the base to combine with the new building for reconstruction, the old factory building has been given a different future mission - intelligent museum, convention and exhibition center, community service center, industrial café, using different renewal strategies, reshaping the new urban space.
"In the design of the office space, we create a 'vertical community' that can stimulate the vitality of the enterprise, through detachable floor slabs and multi-storey atriums, breaking through the limitations of vertical transportation modes, making the connection between the upper and lower floors more convenient and diverse. Diversified product types are suitable for the R&D characteristics of enterprises, such as double-storey shared space, roof garden, IT room on each floor, providing rich exhibition space, combined with the roof landscape courtyard to create a 'CEO-BOX' at the top, so that the top floor of the building becomes a bright space and place of communication in the city. ”
He emphasized that when urban renewal has become a national strategy, in this context, industrial heritage is an inseparable organic part of urban renewal as a characteristic urban space resource that witnesses industrial history, transmits industrial culture, records urban imprints, shows industrial changes, and reuses considerable value.
The community changes the way we work
In fact, today's office space has expanded from focusing on area in the past to focusing on space now. Shi Daohong pointed out that while paying attention to space, the future work environment will pay more attention to community and emotional value, which is another meaning of urban renewal. He said: "The community building of the science and technology innovation park is the gathering of outstanding talents and enterprises on the one hand, and the gathering of industries on the other hand. ”
According to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "80% of the world's constructive innovation comes from informal communication", and online communication cannot completely replace face-to-face communication with social feelings, which is also the basis of innovation. It can be seen that in the future, as the way of working becomes more flexible and diversified, more and more people will choose to work from home and in the third place, but the space for community communication is still very important.
Shi Daohong emphasized that their proposal to create a "community" in the science and technology park is based on this trend, hoping to advocate the integration of different departments and different circles within the enterprise through the creation of a working environment. What they value is the connection between people, and an interconnected city is a city with temperature and a truly healthy city, which is not only the guarantee of a better life, but also the premise of sustainable industrial development.
"The spatial transformation of urban renewal is not only a hardware or form renewal, but also rooted in the city's culture and values, creating a dynamic and diverse atmosphere, transforming the traditional way of working into a way of life, and allowing workers to have more creative possibilities. He said.
Q&A
The Paper: In the era of urban renewal, what do you think should be the starting point of industrial office building design?
Shi Daohong: From a macro perspective, in the era of stock, cities need to find their own development vitality, and industry is still a key part of the urban economy. The concept of "location, location, or location" in the traditional commercial office model will no longer be the values that dominate the industrial office field. The design is not only about creating an exciting new landmark, but more importantly about addressing the dynamism of urban development.
At the micro level, about one-quarter to one-third of China's industrial parks are already in surplus. Therefore, what we need is not the area, but how to create a scene and atmosphere that can stimulate the innovation of scientific researchers through the renewal and transformation of space.
Office buildings should be people-centric, and in addition to using green technologies to ensure the comfort and health of employees, the space inside the office building needs to be flexible and variable. The flexible space is like a "sponge" with natural adjustment ability. Can adapt to changes in different teams and workflows. Variable design can help the office environment better adapt to future needs.
The Paper: Urban renewal is inseparable from a large number of space transformation, what kind of space design is more conducive to nurturing innovation?
Shi Daohong: A lot of tech companies started out of garages. A garage means flexibility, freedom and diversity. It is an excellent space to create a platform for entrepreneurs, researchers and users to continuously communicate and inspire, so that their creativity can fully burst out here, and inject lasting vitality into the science and technology community.
A great workplace shouldn't just be considered "work". Spaces conducive to nurturing innovation usually have the following characteristics: high-density mixing, high-frequency communication, high-sensitivity scenes, high-level business formats, and high-agility experience.
The Paper: What is the development trend of the future office?
Shi Daohong: First of all, with the development of technology, the relationship between people and work has changed essentially, and it is no longer an era of "man = machine". It is a "person = creator" era of wisdom. Work has become a way of life, a way of life, a way for people to express their creativity, a tool for people to grow, and a way for people to feel meaning and create value. In order to motivate people to play the side of "people = creators" in the era of Zhiben, it is necessary to match the corresponding physical space. The industrial community, which emphasizes the connection between people and stimulates innovation and collaboration, is in line with this need.
Secondly, the city has entered the era of stock, and it is necessary to transform from the previous construction thinking to the refined industrial operation thinking, and in the face of the strategic transformation of the design market, we are not only thinking about architectural design, but also about the operation of the whole life cycle of the project.