ZAO New work space
Preserving the former industrial looking façade along the street, an old factory building has been transformed into the new work space of ZAO/standardarchitecture, facing the north gate of the Youth Lake Park in Beijing.
The basic design strategy is the “building within building” concept: several facility rooms (e.g. reception, toilet, and storage) floating and scattering within the gross prevailing interior environment to create the free flow movement of the space.
The prefab timber supporting structure of the roof makes it possible to increase the height of the space and shorten the construction time remarkably. Abundant sunlight, coming through the skylights, gently drips into every corner of the building.
A thick concrete slab plays as the main structure of the flat roof, providing the stand base for the wooden roof structure to get rid of the columns and maintain the purity and integrity of the interior space.
Merging into the grey tone resulting from the use of the Venetian plaster and the Danish self-leveling screed, the interior space is functioning with delicate subtlety. The polished Venetian plaster finish is also quite common to be seen in many renovation works by Carlo Scarpa.
