Growing Advanced Sino-German Changshu Industry Park
Construction of the Sino-German (Changshu) Industry Park began in March 2021, and in the meantime, most production buildings have already celebrated topping out. Starting from the industrial requirements, VIRTUARCH designed multistory industrial buildings that lay the hardware infrastructure foundation for the aggregation of the industrial chain and met the rationality and convenience of functional use.
The Sino-German Changshu Industry Park mainly targets emerging industries such as new energy, new materials and biomedicine and forms five leading industrial directions:
New Energy Automobile,
Intelligent Manufacturing,
New Material Industry,
Ocean Engineering and
Medical Device Industry.
VIRTUARCH proposed clear zoning of buildings in the park, divided into single-story buildings and multistory buildings, R&D buildings, comprehensive supporting service facilities. The R&D building meets the needs of companies in R&D testing and small-scale production and forms the backbone for the sustainable development of emerging industries in the park. The comprehensive service center meets the business and living needs of companies and executives in the park while establishing economic interaction with the surrounding areas, realizing the proper integration of production and the city and increasing land value.
Architectural design concept
This project starts at the industrial development and embodies three different design concepts of “seed of creation,” “flexibility and immersion,” and “visual dynamism” in building plan and architectural facade design.
Seed of Creation: Seeds represent hope and growth. VIRTUARCH interprets the industrial park as the seed of industrial invention, creation and development. In this design, the concept of seed is expressed in the architectural design, implying that industrial production and technological development are constantly innovating and progressing in the industrial park.
Flexibility and Immersion: Industrial Parks need to be “future-proof”; therefore, VIRTUARCH designs this project full of flexibility and immersion. The industrial spaces are compact, reasonable and efficient. Users can fully immerse themselves in a fair and efficient environment to work and produce. The layout of the pilot R&D building and the multi-function center area is both functional and inspiring. Combined with the landscape design of VIRTUARCH, buildings and landscaping create an atmospheric entrance with a solid urban interface. Roads and green areas form an organic transportation and walkway network in the park, which connects all park areas so that employees can immerse themselves in and enjoy the comfortable working and living environment of the whole park.
Visual dynamism: VIRTUARCH draws inspiration from the appearance of cars and emphasizes streamlined lines in the design of the architectural appearance to create dynamic industrial building facades for the client.
General Layout
The layout of the functional area focuses on production, logistics and transportation. It improves the efficiency of production management and fully considers the surrounding environment of the base: wind direction, traffic, sunshine, ventilation and the comprehensive factors affecting the environment from production. The entrance and exit, flow line, external freight flow line and internal freight flow are separated and do not interfere.
As shown, Tonggang Road is the main direction to reach the Industrial Park. It’s necessary to consider the visual effect of Tonggang Road in the project and focus on the appearance of the display on one side of Tonggang road. On the side of Yantonggang Road, combined with landscape design, the pilot R&Dbuilding and multi-function center are planned.
The main entrance and exit are on the side of Tonggang Road. VIRTUARCH uses the main internal road to create an entrance boulevard. This plan makes rational use of the original internal roads and efficiently organizes the master plan of production buildings. This plan fully considers the smooth operation of the park, considering that it will be built in two phases. Most of the park workshops face north and south, making full use of the site, and the layout of the buildings is compact and efficient. The traffic planning of the park clearly distinguishes between car and freight traffic, with the goal that the two types of traffic do not interfere with each other. A separate freight entrance and exit for the Industrial Park is planned in Xingye Road.
Facade Concept Design
This project combines landscape design with the pilot R&D building and multi-function center along the main urban road. The overall volumes of the buildings are well proportioned, which makes the image of the building more upright and straight. The building bases are connected, which makes the relationship between buildings closer. The facade is enriched with horizontal metallic spandrels, making the façade more dynamic. The whole façade represents an energetic and passionate industrial park.
Building Category
Workshop Buildings：
There are two types of workshop buildings: single-storey and multi-storey workshop buildings. The layouts of all workshop buildings are dominated by flexible spaces of different sizes, which is convenient for customers to transform according to their own needs in the future. Only stairs, passenger elevators, restrooms, equipment rooms and loading platforms are predefined in the layout design. In addition, all multi-storey buildings have an additional office area on a mezzanine floor of their workshop.
The facade is made of horizontal corrugated single-layer steel panels and uses silver and gray colours, giving the visitors a neat and clean feeling. At the same time, as an industrial building, to seek the purity and conciseness of the facade, the horizontal staggered arrangement of material lines makes it more stretched and form a simple and rhythmic effect.
- Pilot R&D Building
VIRTUARCHhas developed ideal layouts for R&D spaces and laboratories, providing flexible and adaptable spaces for customers to benefit from a highly efficient environment fitted out according to their own needs in the future. The utility and support areas are for delivery and transportation. In addition, VIRTUARCHdesigned an internal atrium in each of the R&D buildings to provide a shared space for researchers to communicate.Â
Multi-function Center
The only high-rise building in this project, the multi-function center, is located at the park’s entrance to enhance the overall image. The main functions of the multi-function center are serviced apartments, restaurants and canteens, conference center, etc. The service center is the heart of all community and service functions of the park. Apart from the aforementioned functions, it contains an excellent ballroom for significant events, a business center for the companies settling in the Industrial Park, a fully furnished gym, and an industrial showroom.Â
The facade of this 19-story high-rise building consists of aluminum panels with different widths and generous floor-to-ceiling glass windows, forming a clear but various façade style. The overall light tone sets a sparkling element in the sun. Plentiful, transparent glass curtain walls are used in the lower floors, strengthening the connection between inside and outside of the building and giving the building a concise and atmospheric look.Â
Landscape Design
Between the main entrance of the Industrial Park and the high-rise building, there is a wide-open area. A LED screen is used for publicity so that visitors can fully understand the park’s information. Setting up a landscape Logo-wall,flag-raising platform while retaining the rest function, increasing the use function, improving the park’s international pattern and vision, and creating a global cultural blend.
According to the principles of sustainable development, VIRTUARCH designers use environmental-friendly materials and select plants that adapt to the local climate. Different plants highlight different spaces. Each space is dominated by two or three trees, supplemented by shrubs and ground covers with flowers and leaves. It is creating healthy, artistic landscapes that are in harmony with the environment and at reasonable maintenance costs.
DGNB Certification
This project is in the process of certification for the DGNB Gold Award. All hardware facilities in the park were built according to DGNB standards, with energy conservation, environmental protection and sustainable development as the core concept. New energies and materials are used to create a green, ecological park and a unique, low-carbon experience.
