Jiahao Group Shanghai HQ Office | NONG STUDIO

There is no Y in happiness, There is an I. ------ The Pursuit of Happiness

Serious, dull, busy and noisy is the most people’s conservative impression of office space. However, the Jiahao group headquarters office, located in Longwu Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, may be able to change your consistent impression.

Jiahao group is not only a leader in China’s wedding industry, but also a young creative enterprise. At the beginning of designing its headquarters, the design team takes such an idea as “all staff can find a sense of happiness as looking forward to getting married”. So,how to realize this sense of happiness has become the our goal.

The entrance is a around 20 meters long “time tunnel”, decorated by black mirrored stainless steel and entire wall of vertical green, which will enable everyone walking inside the tunnel to feel excited as if they are going to perform on stage. Once you get in, an empty pure white photic atrium is first into your eyes, where we call the “church”, decorated with the golden staircase enables you to feel a sense of invisible sacredness. By each of the corridors’ windows towards the atrium, people can stay, overlook, or sit down on the sofa to have a rest or deep thought. On the contrast, both sides of it are dark leisure space, which brings you the feeling as comfortable as a bar. Besides, four floors of office space are all decorated by different vivid colors to present different departments’ mood.

The warehouse was built in 1966, which was first used by Shanghai Dongfeng Timber Factory . Due to the serious lack of original drawings and interior of building was renovated many times, its structure system was complicated. The whole building was originally a combination of three independent buildings from north to south, which are the  four-story plant on the north, the three-story plant with gable and hip roof in the middle and the four-story annex on the south. The different original functions of the three old buildings resulted in differences in story height, which posed great challenges for design of space and floors to avoid these deficiencies as a whole office building. In order to create the best working environment, the design team has reanalyzed the original relationship between floors to form a half-story spatial organization relationship. At the same time, in order to change the original rigid layout of column rows, the design team has removed some of the original floor in the middle part to build a up-and-down atrium of three-story. Golden stairs are designed to bridge the whole office and are necessary transit hub for people from the town hall to go to the office area of four floors. In addition to traffic function, the town hall is leading the whole space in spirit. In order to create a subtle sense of sacredness, the design team has utilized the lighting method of combining perforated aluminum plate with unique back light, showing a rich and interesting space composition and layering and a sense of ceremony between the dreamy lights. What’s more, different levels of windows have fully transformed the atrium into visual focus of the whole space. When big event is held in town hall, these stairs here can be used as the main stage and the employees upstairs can participate in through “black windows” as well. On the other side of town hall’s wooden platform, people can physically and psychologically communicate with others in different height through the deliberate designed high bar table.

The designers have also put ideas on the bathroom that is easily ignored. Color lump with high purity and large areas of white tiles has been used to create a very bright dreaming atmosphere. The combination of grey and black mosaic and the ornament of brass add a sense of stylish elegance to such a space. Even the brass washing tank is customized for this space. The light emitted from the white globular bulbs on the walls and ceiling, instead of the harsh light of the ordinary spotlights, add a sense of softness and happiness to the whole space.

The whole design is trying to change the traditional way of work and create a new and joyful work environment. According to the site conditions and to reflect the enterprise culture and the care of the staff, all departments have the best lighting, ventilation and vision condition. The workstation area is arranged by the window. Other functional blocks, such as negotiation area, small conference rooms, print room and telephone kiosks, are not arranged in position against the wall in a normal way, but being arranged in the middle of the large space, which is intended to divide the whole space according to these auxiliary functions to eliminate the lack of privacy in open office and achieve the combination of static and dynamic working environment.