Volkswagen/Audi R&D Centre

The project comprises of a series of towers rising up from a narrow, longitudinal plot of only 3 hectares in the West of Changchun, directly beside the Fourth Ring Road. It is only a stone’s throw away from ‘Changchun International Auto Park’, the biggest auto-theme park in the country, but above all a huge and attractive urban green area.
Residential areas are just behind the complex, the district government is located directly beside, and the local factories of FAW-Volkswagen and Audi are nearby.
Brief: an attractive location, in a surrounding rather characterized by car industry and large green areas.

Background

Following an invited design competition in the year 2015, RhineScheme’s design proposal was chosen as the one to be constructed. The main requirements were: Maximizing the office area, due to a lack of office space in the district, and attracting potential tenant companies (envisaging VW-Audi as ideal tenant), while proposing a reasonable design for the commercial areas and avoiding underground parking.
During the further design process it crystallized that the major use of the towers would be that of a “Volkswagen/Audi Brand Market Research Center and User Service R&D Base”, with offices, workshops and conference facilities. The required floor area for these uses alone were more than 68,000 m2.
The construction was planned to be realized in three major steps, with the first two stages (82,500 m2) finished since the beginning of 2019. The third stage in the most Western part of the plot - which should originally host a five star hotel - is still under negotiation.

Building Concept

The long and narrow plot (480m x 65m) and its relationship with Dongfeng Avenue, a major city road with high commercial value, have defined the strategy and inspired the master plan.
The comb-like composition of the buildings creates a series of U-shaped courtyards which are open to the avenue. These half-open courtyards have been designed with care to achieve a comfortable scale and atmosphere for visitors to stay in the area and to maximize the commercial value.
The design solved the mixed-use program by linking 7 buildings – 4 towers + 3 low-rise volumes – to a linear block in their back. That backbone contains mainly the parking. In this way the parking building could have an advantageous direct connection with the towers.
Main design motif has been the break-down and downscaling of the massive program into a series of distinct but interrelated volumes with a variety of public squares in-between, which in their interplay create a dynamic spatial composition.
Functional Planning
The office program has been distributed into four towers (from which 3 have been realized up to date).
The lower buildings, up to 8 stories high, and the lower levels of the towers contain canteens and restaurants, meeting facilities, logistics and call center, retail etc.
All the lobbies are facing the main road; the office spaces themselves are open for future modifications with flexible partitions and a carefully designed core to optimize the usable space.

Architecture

The entire design is based on proportion, balance and serenity, suitable for the North of China and for a city that is obviously marked by industrial production and by an urban structure which are both influenced by Western culture.
Clean geometry and limited material selection were strategic to achieve this goal.
Likewise, the used materials contribute to a certain dignity that fits to the privileged site.
Granite, steel and glass are the major surface materials, chosen with the hope that the years pass by without a significant loss of beauty, giving the buildings a kind of natural permanence that architecture is able to provide.