Ark Associates Limited - Factory 8 SOHO

Ark Associates

Factory 8 SOHO

Guangzhou, China | Design 2004-2011

Like the hotel, the redesign of the factory as SOHO (small office home office) included inset windows – albeit much larger – and contrasting light and dark facades. The overall effect however, befitting a creative space development, was far more controlled, with straightforward rectangular windows and elevations clad in either black or white stone.

An appropriate sense of liveliness was retained, however, by disguising the buildings’ rigid structural grid – achieved by offsetting and varying the width of the window mullions – and using three different types of glass, either reflective gold, reflective silver or grey tinted.

To open up as much of the internal space as possible for deep-plan offices, the main service and circulation zones were pulled to one side, and the windows were enlarged as much as possible to increase the amount of daylight reaching the interior. With their different reflections and tints, the windows give the elevations both a pixilated texture and a perception of depth, which combine to create a distinctive character for the whole development.