Unveiling a Gigantic Butterfly Headquarters in Hangzhou Designed by Aedas

The DESMAN (Hangzhou) Headquarters is located in the Binjiang IoT (Internet of Things) Town, a cradle for high-tech industries in Zhejiang, Hangzhou. Covered with advanced transport network and infrastructure, top-notch enterprises have also set up their headquarters in the area to enjoy the collaborative environment and aggregation of talents.

Aedas designs a world-class headquarters for DESMAN in the high-tech zone. The headquarters connects the major public green axis, overlooking the Smart Gate to the north and the landscape park to the south.

Our design breaks the conventional closed layout, optimising the natural topography to create a smart commercial space which integrates the multi-dimensional urban context and inherits the corporate spirit.

Stitches with the surrounding landscape, the concept is set to create a hybrid of smart architecture and ecological landmark. The U-shaped podium faces the nearby green axis, creating a landscape courtyard to provide a serene ambiance and nature connection for social gatherings. Strategically placed in the northeastern plot, the symmetrical L-shaped towers front the ecological park and forms a unique spatial experience together with the cascading terraces.

The design derives from the flapping butterflies, which embraces the nature to integrate green, culture and technology. The architectural form is designed with simplicity and elegance. Tower corners are softened by the horizontally-placed fins, wrapping the towers like a flying butterfly and the twin towers mimic the butterfly wings tilting inwards the courtyard. Glass panels and metal components are adopted to create a bold façade where it further represents the wings through the color variance on the panels under different sunlights. Glass louvers are used in the courtyard to allow natural light penetration and nature connection. Fluid multi-leveled podiums reduces the massing and creates porosity, making the headquarters an efficient mixed-use building with aesthetics in the hi-tech zone.

The design creates a multi-dimensional vertical open spaces, perfectly merging the architecture and surrounding urban texture. The efficient layout creates various sky gardens on the stacked podiums, optimising the space with leisure amenities and forming a flexible outdoor-indoor circulation. The outdoor platforms in the courtyard provide a communal space filled with greenery, delivering a vibrant atmosphere as well as the splendid landscape view.

A humane design approach should be adopted to accommodate contemporary headquarters, which incorporates distinctiveness, efficiency and functionality to support the future high-tech industries. It is slated to resonate with the sustainable urban development and ecological system in the vicinity.