Baidu Headquarter Office Building

A Unique Sky Garden System Based on our research of the Internet companies working model, the design team proposed a creative goal, which was to create a unique office building enabling Baidu employees to walk out of the work area at any time. This was extremely challenging to accomplish on skyscrapers of 180m high. To reserve enough space for our idea, we pushed the core to the east, and created a 12x18m sky garden on the west side at each 8 floors. “The green zip” enabling the building to have a unique appearance. between different units, stairs for sightseeing connect the exterior spaces of the building, thus minimizing the barriers, or bounds, between different floors. The stairs provide places for short stays or breaks and for rapid access. On one side of the stairs, there are troughs for green plants and a drainage system, and employees can have short breaks or leisurely chats. Out of the concern for safety, we designed a 2.1-meter-high tempered and laminated glass guardrail on each side to reduce risks of climbing and the wind speed in exterior spaces while ensuring a panoramic view. Through a CFD simulation, the wind speed is reduced to 1.5m/s to enable longer stays. The stairs surround the sky garden, enabling people to walk upstairs or downstairs. elevators are no longer the only ways for people to travel from one floor to another, In addition, throughout the fifth floor there is an overhead construction to provide additional landscaping area, and improve the shortage of space in a densely-populated place. The architects don’t have to explain how to use the spaces, as users themselves can explore possibilities to endow the building with versatility in everyday. We also attach great importance to the efficiency of office space. We cut the plane to make the depth thinner. The maximum depth is controlled at 12m, it can hold up to 160 desks. All the major supporting functions are designed around the core tube. On the west side, there’s the main access closely connected to the “vibrant core”. As soon as one walks out of the elevator, one will be greeted by a sunshine-filled sharing and exchange area, and you can even walk out of the building at any time to enjoy the outdoor spaces. Located just a stone’s throw away from the office area, the sharing and exchange area is yet independent. The bounds of the experience-oriented spaces are connected to the efficiency spaces as much as possible to create daily randomness, and minimize the barriers that prevent people from contact with the outdoor environment. All these spaces make fundamental differences to traditional office behaviors in enclosed offices. The facade design of the building is inspired by the name of Baidu, which converts "poems" into "binary code" computer language become a unique facade of the building.