Design Vanguard 2015

O-Office Architects, Guangzhou, China

A love of China's abandoned industrial heritage inspires the bold work of a rising firm.

By Laura Raskin

**Silver Tower**

Tired of homogenous skyscrapers, Jiang and He designed this 330-foot-tall office tower in Nanning as an antithesis to the generic architectural character of most Chinese development. Efficient in form and plan, the typical office floors were separated by the architects into two sections sandwiched between three layers of panoramic glass. The rest of the facades are clad in a screen comprised of 9½-inch-by-9½-inch aluminum crosses, inspired by traditional window lattices in southern China.

*Photo © Liky Foto*

**Silo Reconversion**

For the 2013 Shenzhen\Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, O-OFFICE installed a series of ramps, walls, terraces, and glass floor panels in a Shenzhen industrial silo that was part of the former Guangdong Floating Glass Factory, one of the main sites of the three-month-long event. The installations provided unusual and hair-raising views through a rugged emblem of the region’s not-so-distant industrial past.

*Photo © O-OFFICE Architects*

**GZ Specimen Gallery**

Working again in a former factory, the architects designed an art gallery in Guangzhou, China, for EMGdotART Foundation, which has locations also in Peking, Shanghai, and Venice. Respecting the rectangular Brutalist concrete building, O-OFFICE inserted a cross-shaped public space for exhibitions and performances. The ceiling above is clad in translucent polycarbonate panels, with LEDs inside, making a clear distinction between old and new and balancing the factory’s heavy materials with something light and ethereal.

*Photo © Liky Foto*

**Silo-Top Office**

The architects converted the top of a 1960s silo structure at a former beer factory in Guangzhou, China, into their own studio. The office has views of the Pearl River, generic high-rises, and the city’s old downtown. The upper portion of the building was pocked with square holes (for dumping wheat berries into the silos), so the architects filled most of these openings with metal planters. They also built a bridge connecting the top of the silos with a vertical-transportation tower at the east end.

*Photo © C. Zhao*

**iD Town Art District**

O-OFFICE converted three former dye-factory buildings in Shenzhen, China, into a museum, gallery, and hotel for a new “tourist district.” For the gallery, the architects left an industrial workshop untouched and inserted a set of steel boxes that can rotate to maximize airflow and handle different needs. They also transformed an open concrete pavilion that was the packing area into the main exhibition space for the museum. For the hotel, they framed windows on an old workers dormitory in pop-out black-steel boxes and reconstructed dorm rooms on the ground floor to create a pair of large public spaces.

*Photo © Liky Foto*

**iD Town Art District**

*Photo © Liky Foto*

**O-OFFICE**

*Photo © O-OFFICE Architects*

Art museum in Ruin — **Art Museum in Ruin**

iD Town Art District

*Photo © C. Zhao*

**Youth Hostel**

iD Town Art District

*Photo © C. Zhao*

**Z Gallery**

iD Town Art District

*Photo © C. Zhao*

**GZ Speciman**

GZ Specimen Gallery

*Photo © Liky Foto*

**Urban Hamlet**

This unbuilt project envisioned a high-density, residential and commercial development in Beijing that would provide an alternative to typical high-rise buildings.

*Image courtesy* *O-OFFICE Architects*

In 2005, architects Jianxiang He and Ying Jiang were working on the Guangzhou Baiyun International Convention Center, a project by the Chinese-government-run CITIC ADI and its design partner, Belgian firm BURO II. At the time, He was the chief architect for CITIC ADI in South China and Jiang was working for BURO II. While the enormous project taught the two architects much about design, construction, and even their own society, they were left “feeling disappointed about the situation,” says Jiang, specifically about issues relating to “speed, quality, quantity, and powerful clients.” She adds: “Very few people care about the quality and cultural value of architecture. That’s really sad for us.”

So, He, 43 years old, and Jiang, 39, who are married, decided to open an independent studio in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and find private clients—no small feat, considering that so many projects in China are sponsored by the government. But the architects have developed a steady stream of work that allows them to tackle some of the most pressing problems facing their region, from its abandoned industrial sites to the lack of affordable housing to a skyline thick with anonymous skyscrapers.

The couple met through mutual friends while they were studying in Europe (she in Paris, he in Belgium); even though they both received their B.Arch. degrees at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, they didn’t cross paths there. Each grew up in Guangzhou and has powerful memories of it as an industrial hub and the communal living and working that came along with that. “After the reform policy, everything changed rapidly,” says He, referring to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms of the late 1970s and early 1980s. “A lot of this old industry went bankrupt. The city grew really fast, but within the city center, there were a lot of ruined conditions and vacant factories.”

Jiang and He have a fondness for these vacant factories. They’ve made their office at the top of a silo building in the city’s old downtown. For the 2013 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, organized by Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China, the architects inserted new paths, stairs, and walkways into a former glass factory in Shenzhen. Many of the walkways were made of glass, allowing visitors views of different levels above and below them. And at an abandoned dye factory on a 20-acre site in Shenzhen, the architects converted three buildings into galleries and workshops, a museum, and a modest hotel. This was an unusual project, says Jiang, because most developers want to demolish these kinds of sites. Even though a conversion takes more time and effort—for both the developer and the architects—it is worth it to O-OFFICE and the client, who gets a distinctive property that stands out from the rest of the market. “There is something really special about these sites—the history, the people who used to work there,” says Jiang.

“We see these historic industrial buildings as a new opportunity for the city,” adds He. “Outside of this area, the city is generic—skyscraper housing, offices, shopping malls without real context. We try to keep a critical distance from that.”

O-OFFICE Architects

FOUNDED: 2007

DESIGN STAFF: 12

PRINCIPALS: Ying Jiang and Jianxiang He

EDUCATION: Jiang: Ecole d’Architecture de Versailles, D.P.L.G., 2004; South China University of Technology, B.Arch., 1999;
He: KU Leuven, M.Arch., 1999, M.E. in Arch., 2000; South China University of Technology, B.Arch., 1996

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WORK HISTORY: Jiang: BURO II, Belgium and China, 2005–07; AAUPC, Paris, 2004–05;
He: CITIC ADI, 2003–07; VK Group, Belgium, 2001–03.

KEY COMPLETED PROJECTS: iD Town Art District, Shenzhen, 2014; Silo Reconversion, Shenzhen, 2013; Silo top office, Guangzhou, 2013; EMG Art Gallery, Guangzhou (all in China)

Key Current PROJECTS: Silver Tower, Nanning, 2016; Tian An Cloud Hall, Shenzhen, 2017 (both in China)

www.o-officearch.com

KEYWORDS: architecture firms international architecture

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Laura Raskin, a former RECORD editor, writes about architecture. She recently moved with her family from Brooklyn, New York, to the Green Mountains of Vermont.