In 2012, O-office transformed the top floor of a 1960s silo building in the oldest beer factory in Guangzhou, the central city of southern China.
Silo-top Studio Technical Information
- Architects: O-OFFICE Architects
- Location: 63 Xizeng Road, Liwan, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
- Typology: Commercial & Offices / Studio
- Project Year: 2013
- Structure: Reinforced Concrete
- Area: 621.0 sqm
- Photographs: © Likyfoto
Silo-top Studio by O-OFFICE Architects Photographs
Article by the Architects
In 2012, O-office transformed the top floor of a 1960s’ silo building in the oldest beer factory of Guangzhou, the central city of southern China. The 38-meter-high silo building locates on the south bank of one branch of the Pearl River, confronting the generic housing highrises and looking south to the city’s old downtown. The top floor used to be the inlet level for the wheat berry to be filled in the 12 silo’s below, thus full of square holes. A bridge-building has been connecting the building partly on top of the silo’s, and the vertical transportation tower at the east end.
The 40-meter deep space on top of the silo is converted to O-office’s workshop space. Big openings are made on the side walls to utilize the outer half of the top surface of the silos as the workshop’s terrace. Working desks are placed on the river-view side, while five wooden utility boxes support the material library mezzanine on the city-view side. The four-floor inlet holes between the working desks are filled with metal plant boxes, which grow four wampee trees, while the ones on the mezzanine side between the utility boxes are covered by a glass table and leave the inside of the silo visible.
A small bar area is set at the entrance next to the entrance door in front of the elevation in the vertical transportation tower. Above is a rest mezzanine where staff can have an informal meeting or rest. A big solid marble table is constructed on the initially elevated bridge hall for formal meetings and presentations. Two large folding doors are built between the bridge and workshop spaces. They can be used to separate the workshop space from the meeting bridge. Therefore the bridge hall can work with the bar area and become one event place for small lectures, receptions, or even exhibitions.
All the plastering on walls and ceilings was cleaned up, and the red brick and concrete work from the original construction was unveiled. Only steel, wood, and glass are used for the new architectural intervention as a new creative mechanism reborn from the vacant space.
Silo-top Studio by O-OFFICE Architects Plans
Silo-top Studio by O-OFFICE Architects Gallery
About O-Office
O-office Architects was established in 2007 by HE Jianxiang and JIANG Ying in Guangzhou, the central city of the Pearl River Delta. O-Office wrote its ambition in its name: returning to the fundamentals of architecture and space to experiment with new design methods in the southern Chinese urban context. O-Office approaches architecture across various fields like technology, arts, and media on the overwhelming background of “production” in contemporary China. Parallel to professional practice, O-Office also uses design as a critical instrument for research on the spatial and economic reality and maintains the balance between practical and research sides.
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