AVIC International Aviation Industry City

The AVIC International Aviation Industry City – built for the Chinese aviation group of the same name – consists largely of offices and supplementary commercial premises, and is located in the center of Yizhuang along the Rong Hua Nan road where it has the benefit of excellent infrastructure connections. The urban neighborhood mainly consists of large industrial, office, and hotel developments of various typologies, as well as open parkland. In view of the fact that only part of the new buildings will be used by the client, the brief stipulated that the spaces can be flexibly divided to accommodate companies of various sizes – from small start-ups through to larger corporations.

Based on this requirement, the new business park within the urban patchwork development was designed as an ensemble with ten buildings strung along the northern and southern boundaries of the elongated site – thus creating its own urban parkland area in its center. This inner stretch of landscaping forms the conceptual core of the design, providing space for relaxation and socializing.

To the east, the estate is fronted with an 80 meters high office tower. Together with the three-story atrium building it forms an inviting forecourt and marks the entrance to the business park. The other buildings are linked via colonnades with slender columns or via a shared first floor plinth structure which also provides rooms for canteens, conference areas and retail premises. At various points, the central landscaping extends into pockets in the building ribbon, creating a park-like arrangement within the ensemble.

With their compact cores, the building layouts provide office zones of varying sizes and typologies. In addition, access to the buildings from the roads to the north and south, and from the inner courtyard, allows the option for several users to be allocated their own lobby areas. In the façades, story-high glazing alternates with pairs of vertical louvres either side of ventilation casements which can be used for natural ventilation. The ribbon-like emphasis of the horizontal band at every other floor level visually combines the two stories in between and the three stories at the top that include the attic story. At night, these visually prominent horizontal elements in the façade are illuminated, creating an impressive effect. This design detail continues in the parkland furniture in the form of LED strips that accentuate the contours of the business park.