Linmon Pictures Offices – Beijing
UStudies Architects designed a sleek and minimal space for the Linmon Pictures offices in Beijing, China.
Linmon Pictures Beijing office space is located in a Soviet building in the 1950s. The three-story single-story building has a strong sense of symmetry. Based on the existing condition, Ustudies Architects creates a corresponding office space for Linmon Pictures, which integrates rhythm and order, and uses natural elements to create a comfortable and pleasant office scene.
The average area of each floor is about 1,200 square meters. In terms of floor planning, according to the degree of privacy, it increases from first floor to third floor; first floor includes reception lobby, restaurant, cinema, gym, meeting room, etc. Second floor is the main open office and meeting area, third floor includes private offices, large meetings room and VIP rooms.
As you walk in, the first space you enter is the main hub of first floor- the reception lobby, soon the cantilevered front desk with a length of 7.2 meters comes into sight. The embedded relationship between stones connects the isolated volumes in the space as a whole, it also weakens the existence of four structural columns. While the 300-square-meter reception lobby is kept blank for future use of corporate image display, the filleted-corner ceiling and lighting of the walls are designed to enrich the sensual of the reception lobby. On the center line of the horizontal ceiling in reception lobby, the symmetrical filleted-corner and light strips are designed to divide the visual relationship and functionality of the space. The front area is mainly used as a display area, while the rear area is a waiting area plus a photo-taking area. The light stripes on the ceiling are visually connected to the stone wall which avoids the space from visual boundary on the north-south direction and creates a sense of transparency on one hand, and on the other hand, the cutting of the wall also brings the light to life.
The photo-taking area is located at the end of the reception lobby which took advantage of the original layout to form a semi-enclosed space. The round light stretch ceiling is designed to provide the soft light needed for taking pictures while creating a secondary visual focus through the front desk when entering. It’s not merely a space for the team to take pictures, but also lays a solid foundation for adding a fixed sofa area in the future.
The reception lobby divides first floor into two parts, the meeting area on the south and the leisure area on the north on the first floor. To illuminate the difference of function on north and south, the choice if lighting fixtures, materials and illuminance of the north and south corridor are differentiated.
The south office area is planned as temporary offices and meeting area which involves external communication nature. The corridor space is the gray space between the meeting area and the office area, it also contains the function of a temporary waiting area. The ceiling of temporary waiting area is designed to be lower than the rest to provide a relatively static division from the dynamic areas.
The second floor is the main office area, with a symmetrical layout on the north and south sides. The structural columns on both sides of the corridor are embellished with wall lamps, which define the space boundary of open office area, at the same time adding a soft atmosphere to the gray space.
The open office area echoes the order and rhythm of the original building structure. The arc shape of the ceiling collocation with the indirect lighting, giving the office area a softer and more suitable working atmosphere. The indirect lighting makes use of the space above the linear lamps above the workstations which illuminate upwards, so that the arc-shaped light is softly blurred from the edge. The design of the arc shape also increases the difficulty of construction to a certain extent. In order to balance between shape and function, half of the arc is adjusted to a straight line in the ceiling area near the aisle where the main line of sight is blocked, so as to facilitate the installation of side air outlets. The construction party also optimized the access panel and designed the inspection port as an arc-shaped access panel.
The material selection of third floor is slightly different from the others two floors. The application of materials is more diverse yet steady. Apart from the purpose of landscaping, the cantilevered water platform in reception area also provides orientation on circulation, which is different from the migration circulation on first and second floor. The cantilevered water platform guides visitors more to the south side, providing a further privacy for the VIP area on the north side.
The large meeting room is behind the reception area. To ensure the hold of large-scale conferences, space is reserved near the window area to ensure that seats can be added to meet the size of a full-crew meeting.
The north and south corridor on the third floor continues the curved elements of first and second floor, but there are differences in design and materials, so that the overall materials of third floor are unified, and different atmospheres are reflected according to subtle differences.
Design: UStudies Architects
Design Team: Qiang Fu, Nora Liu, Zuoning Shen, Xiaoming Sun, Zixuan Zhou
Photography: Arch-Exist, Erik Ho
