Riparia - Golong Offices by PINES ARCH in Hangzhou, China

Project: Riparia – Golong Offices Architects: PINES ARCH Location: Hangzhou, China Area: 17 222 sq ft (building) Photography: Breeze Image – Guozhe

Riparia – Golong Offices by PINES ARCH

Humanity has settled near historical rivers since the earliest days of our lives. The Sumerians used natural forces and alluvial lands from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, creating a irrigation system that led to the emergence of an advanced and well-populated civilization, becoming the first literate society in history. Six thousand years later, human civilization transitioned into a virtual world sustained by science and technology. In their latest project "rīpāria-Golong Offices", PINES ARCH draws inspiration from one of the most emblematic beginnings of human society – river valley civilizations; creating a new office environment for Golong Holdings, an international beauty group focused on quality.

The headquarters is located in Hangzhou, where Golong Holdings is a multinational and multi-brand conglomerate in the online beauty industry. Generation Z represents the largest employee group at Golong, with high expectations for a new office space to meet their complex and multifaceted digital responsibilities. According to PINES ARCH, these expectations foreshadow a shift in understanding office spaces in the internet era: they must expand beyond simple workstations and become a more holistic reimagining of "work" in our civilization. The design by PINES ARCH responds to Golong's horizontal management, providing flexible spaces for effective collaboration and encouraging interaction. Ideas, products, and values grow together here, forming a new understanding of "civilization" unique to Golong's core values.

The "river" represents the main path of movement and also a carrier of flow of ideas and creativity. The bend in the path creates a new spatial structure. It breaks the rigid structural grid, visually dispersing repetitive spatial divisions from columns. The entrance opens a bright reception space, and the journey along the "river" begins with passing through meeting rooms, large lounge zones, open work areas and other functional programs on both sides, indicating the creation of settlements along riverbanks. Semi-private zones such as phone booths and work nooks are placed at key points of the dynamic "river" flow. Functionally, the office represents a self-managing city equipped with various spaces for production and work, as well as a gym and rooftop garden.

The goal of the renovation project is to balance creating lightness and expanding the future. Corrugated glass bends to create a series of curved screens similar to cascading ripples. Through semi-transparent glass screens, the reception space experiences changing light effects throughout the day, creating a sense of renewal and endless exploration in the beauty industry. The lounge zone clad with stainless steel is the central communication area. Concepts collide, disperse and settle, forming a "smart island" that brings new energy to the company.

The conscious design choice by PINES ARCH is to preserve and highlight the original textures of key materials: polished stainless steel, terrazzo, corrugated glass, and concrete. The palette of low-saturation colors solemnly imitates a laboratory environment. The balance between utilitarianism and aesthetics is achieved by keeping materials in their honest state, free from decorations and excess. Natural colors carefully chosen for phone booths and meeting rooms add warmth to the space.

Extreme points can create sudden wonders, but only in balance can things endure. In "rīpāria-Golong Offices", PINES ARCH aims to maintain functionality by designing for current needs and foreseeable future. Returning to "river valley civilizations" as a design stimulus, the redefined office space becomes more open, free, and people-oriented, ready for new opportunities and challenges in a post-information society.

About PINES ARCH

PINES ARCH was founded in 2019 by Shuni Wu (MSAAD, Columbia University) and Evelyn Qingzhi Wong (MSARCH, Illinois Institute of Technology) as an international architectural firm. As a project, PINES ARCH functions in a spiritual order rooted in the traditions of S.R. Crown Hall. As a practice, PINES ARCH continuously explores the contexts provided by its era, striving for the highest mission to be concise, truthful and clear in expressing form, interpreting and reinterpreting what is required for creating "honest architecture".

PINES ARCH understands that as digital natives, most things in the end will be "perfect" but amorphous. Only by carefully responding to the spirit of the times can we architects be part of it. As builders, PINES ARCH is situated in its social environment with critical thinking, consciously and rationally returning much control to the integrity of materials and structures. PINES ARCH avoids unnecessary creation, carefully observing, actively understanding and explicitly responding, striving for only what is necessary. Creating a continuous internal dialogue is fundamental to PINES ARCH as architects, designers, builders and thinkers in our times.

PINES ARCH works in architecture, urbanism and interior design. Projects include a 35-acre master plan, architecture and interior design of the resort complex The Jade Huathai in Hua Hin, Thailand; Golong Holdings headquarters in Hangzhou with 10,000 square meters of office and exhibition space; the first physical store in China for Spanish brand line SEPAI skincare products; a volunteer dormitory and tea room for the 2021 Shanghai International Flower Exhibition; sales zone of luxury apartments by Vailog Group; sales office for Shanghai Galaxy Midtown; soft styling for Guizhou Baohe COSMOS Sales Center, as well as third place in the competition for a new wing of China-Huangpu National Maritime Museum.

- Project description and images provided by PINES ARCH