Community Workplace | Cloister | China | Coffey Architects

An urban masterplan and associated office, catering, research, sports and sales buildings. The Cloister is devoted to workplace community, and links the cluster of departmental buildings. The Cloister is expressed as a striking linear form; joining important spaces such as lecture theatre, library, exhibition spaces and restaurant. Between the buildings are quadrangle gardens, used for quiet meditation or as study gardens; places to meet in the sun or the shade. The main office building sits at the centre of the composition. The Cloister runs through its centre, and is visible in the central atrium space of the building as a dramatic gleaming element spanning through the light falling from above. The cloister is an allegorical production line whose formal section is that is that of a steel ingot, it is also the main services route carrying energy from a local electricity generating plant (run from waste heat off the steel production line) to each of the linked buildings. The cloister glows to express this connection that visually expresses the use of recovered energy from the steel plant adjacent......more