Bontai Mansion

Location: Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China

Client: Zhejiang Bontai Real Estate Development Co ltd

Building Floor Area:  38,000sqm     Site area: 4,400sqm

Completion: 2011

Design Team:  J Wu, ZQ Wu, W Yin, CK Ma

 

Surrounded by local government buildings, this granite cladded high-rise office building chooses sober Art Deco as styling template, which features upright lines, progressive recessing volume and limited level of decoration in key areas on façade.

Lacking of external space, the building provides basement parking at two levels with provision for mechanical parking system. Its lower 4 levels form a ‘podium’ space accommodating all public functions such as lobbies, receptions, control rooms, cafeteria and canteen etc., and most of the upper floors for rent or sale on non-finished basis are divided into lower and higher zones and served by different elevators. The developers’ HQs sit on top 4 floors, where the building volume is recessed to achieve roof terraces and match the overall style.  Expect the public circulation area that is fully air-conditioned, most part of the building is naturally ventilated and heated/cooled by VRV fan-coil system.

As a relatively straightforward project, the real challenges are to fill in all traffic elements and firefighting space on a small site, to organize two or three entrances and drop-off areas for multi-party users on the ground floor, and to find out a right strategy to allocate A/C outdoor units. Fearing that obvious alignment of the A/C units chambers could override the elevation, the architects staggered them and paint the alloy louvers to match the stone colour, which generates an effect as if they are mixed into the façade grid.