Defined By Great Divides

In the design of its headquarters in Shantou, China, AD Architecture has abandoned the typical workplace partition system and instead created a series of large-scale monolithic sculptures to separate and define each space.

To further comment on the ‘decaying nature of workplace typologies’, the sculptures have been applied with industrialised steel and iron materials which corrode naturally as time passes.

The design of the space has been driven largely by symbolism – down to the finest detail. AD Architecture selected simple materials, shapes and colours to imbue the space with meaning and ultimately express the functional and emotional purpose of each area, housed within a system of ethereal sculptures.

The ‘small attic’, for example, is a space where the team goes to generate ideas. Here, AD has featured a large-scale statue of a person looking at the door, “as if implying to users that more things are waiting to be explored in this office”, says the firm. If you follow that pathway, you can see a ball constructed by interwoven iron wires. This is intended to express the infinite patterns of their designers’ thoughts. Here, the project team has worked to develop a highly abstract artistic language to create a perceptual and powerful working space for its employees.

At this point you might be wondering if this kind of lofty, almost spiritual design approach is valid – and that’s fair, it’s a little obtuse! But then again... paradigm shifting discoveries aren’t made by playing by the rules. New ideas and models of being (or working, in this case) arise from mutinous actions – like using corroding sculptures as partitions. Surely that’s why a client seeks out a designer: to be challenged, surprised and delighted.