Chinese architecture firm ZAO/standardarchitecture - also the winner of Aga Khan Architecture Award for 2014-2016 Cycle - has transformed an old factory building into its own design studio in Beijing. The firm preserved the industrial-looking façade of the former factory building, which faces the north gate of the Youth Lake Park in Beijing.

The studio's basic design approach was to create a "building within building" by adding several facility rooms. ZAO/standardarchitecture's design studio includes reception, toilet, and storage, floating and scattering within the gross prevailing interior environment to create the free flow movement of the space.

The building presents an elongated structure with deep and dark horizontal windows and doors on the façade, with the volumetric extrusions from the exterior. The roof of the building is supported by the prefab timber and makes it possible to increase the height of the space and shorten the construction time remarkably. 

The building takes sunlight through the skylights, which are gently opened above every corner of the building. The main structure of the building is made of a thick concrete slab and walls that stand as a base for the wooden roof structure to get rid of the columns and maintain the purity and integrity of the interior space.

In the interior, the architects use grey tones resulting from the use of the Venetian plaster and the Danish self-leveling screed - the interior space is open and flexible for architects, which makes it easy to move and make models or even exhibit. 

The studio uses polished Venetian plaster finish in the interior and it is also quite common to be seen in many renovation works by Carlo Scarpa.

All images © Marc Goodwin 

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