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GTJA Corporate Office

BNJN design

Interior  /  Completed
BNJN design
Brief:
A comprehensive understanding of the client’s corporate culture was very vital to the project. The spatial design should be married to both the company’s external image and its internal spirit. All the elements of interior design, including VIS, furniture, and lighting, should come together to form a living and breathing organism. The impact of the design would break away the rigid stature of a traditional Chinese company so to open up new possibilities within an international business context.

Project Description:
BNJN’s design for GTJA’s headquarters modernizes the building’s conservative layout to become more open, paving the way for an international style. The palatial ground floor lobby is adorned with marble, mirroring the façade of the building. The classical tripartite wall is inverted and further delineated by metallic strips, integrating Eastern and Western cultures while also representing contemporary influences on a traditional front. The use of different material themes maps out the different areas of the lobby, creating a seamless progression from the waiting room to the hallway, then to the lounge. A traditional Art-Deco motif that was once popular in old Shanghai has been molded into the details of the space, echoing the vicissitudes of Shanghai’s financial history in both the past and the present.

Challenge:
How to create a more efficient, open, and integrated staff-oriented space in a traditional state-owned Chinese company?
How to diversify a 23-story building to represent all its multi-functions while maintaining cost-efficiency?

Solution:
Keeping in mind the varying degrees of light throughout the different spaces, the designers adorned the walls of inexpensive stone with embedded lights to create more elegant surface that simultaneously supplements the flow of natural light already present. The longer strips of light found throughout the north and south wing of the entrance hall further act as visual guidelines of the space. The establishment of this particular order comes from the utilization of the building’s existing system and a consideration for the employees’ experience. In this way, the two-wing design conjoins the external and the internal, both visually and spiritually.

All the design elements present are bespoke, including the design for office furniture, VIS, and even the banisters by the staircases. The designers further appreciate the importance of a comprehensive and efficient management system that lowers the cost as much as possible. And so, through their mastery and understanding of various materials, they are able to maximize the utilization of space in a seemingly impossible manner that further blends practical functions with aesthetic pursuits, going beyond the client’s expectations. A complete VIS system has also been devised to separate the different spaces and to further highlight their individual functions – from license plates in the garage, to the lobby, to the elevator hall, and to each and every department in the upper stories, all of which draw upon themes within GTJA’s logo. Each design is simple, exquisite, and elegant, tying together the entire space with one common language.

Material:
Sandstone is applied to most of the walls to indicate and solid, stable, and trustworthy image for the financial company. Metallic panel strips are further added to provide an unexpected visual element. Using a palette of various fabrics, leather, and wooden materials unifies the whole building while highlighting the individual features of different sections. Additionally, on the typical floors, colors of blue and yellow are featured to relieve the workers of any optical fatigue.

Highlight:
The design of the GTJA headquarters has the following highlights that meet the functional needs of a company in an international context. The north wing of the reception hall enhances the corporate image of a large-scale financial company through the use of solid components with an elegant touch within the entire space. The common areas on the second and third floor have been modified to enhance the workers’ experience while resting. On the typical floors, all spaces have been opened up to promote communication between employees, thus improving overall efficiency and creativity at work, that will eventually culminate to a single corporate cultural change.

Credits

 Shanghai
 China
 Shanghai Guoxiang Real Estate co., LTD.
 08/2018
 30897.56 m2
 Interior: Ben Goh,Jane Chen
 Interior: Lei Liu, ZhengFeng Duan, Yao Xiao
 Lighting-ERCO, Carpet-interface、bolon, Furniture-haworth, Furniture-hermanscale、cassina
 Hai Zhu, YuTao Xue, Wenjie Hu, Seth

Curriculum

BNJN Interior Architecture is a multi-faceted design studio that tailors distinctive workplace solutions for corporate offices and headquarters. Named after its founders, BNJN believes in pursuing design originality and creativity while simultaneously integrating a professional corporate brand image with the present workplace culture in a three-dimensional level to achieve a successful design that enhances overall workflow and efficiency.
In 2014, BNJN Interior Architecture was established in Shanghai by Ben Goh and Jane Chen, both of whom came from a diverse and cross-functional background spanning Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Design, Project Management, Fashion Design, and Furniture Design. BNJN houses a diverse team of experienced designers committed to delivering innovative world-class workplace designs tailor-made for each individual project.

http://www.bnjndesign.com


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