Category: Office & Mixed Use
Principal Architect: Zhu Pei, Wang Hui

Design Team: Fan Guoxin, Wei Yan, Li Chun, Zheng Feng, Duan Yunlong, Chen Chun, Zeng Xiaoming, Zhu Qinghui

 

For the 2008 Olympic Games, the Beijing Municipal Government is committed to presenting the world some of the most sophisticated technological feats in Olympic history. The Digital Beijing Building, nearly 100,000 square meters in area, is one of such. As a neighbor to the core area of the Olympic Centre (with the National Stadium, National Gymnasium and National Swimming Center), it will serve secured functions such as being the technical headquarters and data center of the Games, as well as serving open programs like a virtual digital museum and an exhibition center for the latest digital products.

The scheme of Digital Beijing is like a digital bar code, or perhaps an integrated circuit board, emerging from a glassy and serene water surface. Here we are seeking a specific form, trying to reveal a macroscopic view of the micro world (we often forget that microchips power many things in our daily lives). With such an abstracted mass (like the simple repetition of 1’s and 0’s), this building will exhibit an impressive scene of the Digital Olympics as well as a scenography of the Information Era.

The Digital Beijing Building is treated as an object that is continually being renewed as it keeps pace with time.

 

Credits:

Project Location: 12 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang, Beijing
Project Period: 2004-2007
Project Status: Completed
Floor Area: 98,000㎡

Client: Beijing Municipal Office of Information
LDI Collaborator: China Institute of Building Standard Design & Research