Shenzhen, China
Gregory Kovacs, Design Director at the Hong Kong-based studio of Benoy, led the overall vision for Houhai Center; and together with his team, he created the architecture and interior design for this dynamic headquarters tower for one of the world’s leading social media companies.
Located in the newly-developed Houhai District in Shenzhen, Houhai Center is a new 62,000-square-meter headquarters tower for a leading tech company in China.
Surrounded by other soaring office buildings, this headquarters tower is an unmistakable icon rooted in its urban environment that seamlessly blends work, social, and creativity into a cohesive experience.
The tower integrates a series of floorplates that can seamlessly shift functions from being a completely private office space, to a collaborative working environment, communal break-out space, a rented-out space to other partnering businesses, or public areas comprised of cultural, entertainment and retail spaces.
The future-proof design reinvents the podium and turns into vertical elements that merge public and private spaces, vertical circulation, sky gardens and atriums, flexible spaces and recreational amenities—all sheathed by an interactive façade that broadcasts dynamic content to the city.
“Do office towers have to be generic? How could a skyscraper represent its owner even without any signage? How could it be inseparable from the culture of Shenzhen and build a local community? Our design attempts to answer these challenges,” states Kovacs.
“We envisioned a tower that reflects the company it houses—dynamic, inclusive, communicating with its context, and just like the online platforms of the firm, broadcasts interactive media.”
“It brings people together, building communities within the company and its local users.”
Gregory Kovacs Benoy Houhai Center
Architects: Benoy
Client: Houhai Center
