UAO Power Office
Images: Yilong Zhao
UAO moved its office from the riverside
to a single small building in the Liangyou
Hongfang art community in Wuhan; the
predecessor of the Liangyou Hongfang art
community of was the supporting factory
of Wuhan meat joint factory in 1960s -
bristle factory and feather factory., and the
buildings in the factory are old industrial
buildings with production properties. UAO is
responsible for the landscape design of the
plant area, as well as the core architecture:
the architecture and interior design of ADC
art design center.
Continuation: design from the perspective
of planning and landscape
Liangyou Hongfang art community, formerly
known as Wuhan bristle factory and feather
factory, was used as a building material
market in the 1990s. With the development
of the city, the building material market is
also declining. Due to the change of the
use function, the buildings in the factory
are built in different years, including the
red brick single-storey wood truss tile roof
factory in the 1960s, and the multi-storey
brick concrete structure factory in the 1980s
with terrazzo on the outer surface. There
are also buildings with exterior tiles or small
mosaics in the 1990s; the overall planning of
Shanghai Shuishi keeps the basic structure
of the original small building, with exterior
materials, so that historical traces can be
expressed and continued from different
architectural forms;
4 - www.refurbandrestore.co.uk
In the process of design, it is found that
there is a single small building with a
high void in the core area of the plant,
which is located next to the tall red brick
chimney and water tower. The former is the
distribution motor room of the industrial
plant. The towering interior space, the sun
pouring down from the skylight on the top
and the window on the mezzanine, is shining
on the smoky and burning old wall, which is
full of historical traces, with a strong sense
of space; the founder and chief architect
of UAO, Li Tao, decides to rent it as his own
office space.
Towering: carry forward the characteristics
of the original space
The original generator room has a total
height of 8 meters, The towering space
like a church is very shocking. The original
starting point of the design is to retain and
carry forward the high-rise space sense,
so the new design is very restrained, only
a small space volume is implanted into
the large space, and the final decision is to
rely on the original two-story side to design
a new column span width mezzanine to
retain most of the vertical of the hall. The
spatial pattern makes this new implant not
only not change the original characteristics
of the space, but also let the sunlight pour
out and fill the whole space; moreover, its
shape strengthens the characteristics of the
towering Space and gives an intuitive scale
to the viewer.
The purpose of designing the mezzanine on
one side also makes the sense of sequence
of the long axis obtained by the skylight
retained. The mezzanine is only supported
by a 200mm diameter column in the middle,
and the folding staircase strengthens the
weight and floating sense of the mezzanine.
It strengthens the independent supporting
function of the structure through the
expression of the building, similar to the
column in the center of Xiaoyuan’s White
House. The light and ingenious central
column contrasts with the thick and historic
wall around - the new volume is reflected by
pure white. , the old wall is only painted with
curing agent after cleaning, which keeps the
original trace of smoke, fire and even dirt,
thus creating a new dialogue and contrast
with the old. This kind of “dirty” is also the
characteristics and history of the original
space. The white volume extends to steel
bookshelves, cabinets and tables, and the
hall is decorated with a small amount of red
furniture.
Function: service and served space
In determining the form and location of
the mezzanine, at the same time, the use
function of UAO is combed. Combined with
UAO’s working process and mode over the
years, our office functions are divided into
three parts: Office + supporting services +
exhibition forum. The office includes two
partners’ offices and office halls; supporting
services include: model room, printing room,