When designing a building to permanently house an international conference for innovation and technology, how can a structure’s design example its function? MAD Architects led by principal architect and founder Ma Yansong has crafted a biophilic approach with the city and its inhabitants in mind that reflect their futuristic design for the newly unveiled ZGC International Innovation Center in Beijing. 

Located in the Haidian District in Beijing, often referred to as China’s Silicon Valley, the site sits across 65,000 square metres, taking four years to complete. Organic and sculptural in form, the building features a gently-sloping roof composed of 2,769 fluorocarbon-coated double-curved honeycomb aluminium panels crafted in a ripple-like layering effect. MAD Architects explains, ‘The form floats overhead, providing shade from the sun, shelter from the elements, and a space for social interaction, enhancing the connection between people and the architecture.’

As a sculptural form, the Innovation Center features a clover-like shape, curved and fluid parametric design. Kept within the site’s 12-metre limit, the architect’s succeeded in creating a diverse offering of urban public spaces within the facility. Two large ETFE membrane skylights allow for natural light to fill the and reverberate throughout the building’s white internal spaces. The center’s minimalist interior allows for a visual reset — encouraging the exchange of creative ideas and creating clear navigation for the building’s core internal spaces; central conference space, banquet hall, multi-functional hall and VIP spaces.

Through an expansive overhanging roof that provides generous open-air undercover courtyard space, a wide levelled pond also creates a sense of lightness — offering sunlight refraction into the buildings glass panel windows. The building’s aluminium roof panels also facilitate rainwater collection, utilised for the 17,000 square-metre rooftop green park intended as a continuous green extension to the surrounding landscape. Complete with walkways and sunken auditorium-like seating, the rooftop park offers additional free areas for the public to use and experience. Utilising lightweight soils and low-maintenance vegetation on the roof allowed for a reduction in ‘landscape operating costs while meeting roof loading requirements, landscape appearance, and quality requirements.’

Additional renewable energy sources can also be found in solar photovoltaic systems, ground-source heat pumps and secondary energy-efficiency electromechanical equipment within the building, allowing for the conference room to operate at zero-energy, reducing carbon emissions by over 50% compared to the surrounding public buildings.

The greatest design solutions are always found within nature. The organic form of the building and the advanced technology incorporated within its structure inevitably provides a sense of innovation — a perfect addition to Beijing’s ‘Silicon Valley’ and its latest International Innovation Center.

Discover more Champ-curated global architecture here.

Text: Joanna Kawecki
Images: Arch Exist & CreatAR Images