Microsoft Beijing West Campus Competition - Part 1

The Microsoft Beijing Charrette was a one-week effort to produce quick concepts for Microsoft's move to the Asia. Having been in Asia for a few years, Microsoft's vision was to create a new corporate campus to bring their asia staff, which were spread out across Beijing in different locations, to one campus location in order to streamline operations and create a cohesive "team" environment. The following boards are a one-week team effort between nbbj's seattle, san francisco, and beijing offices...24/7. The team consisted of architects and urban/landscape designers and utilized sketching for quick visualization of concepts and Rhino to generate fast building massings of each concept. Nbbj ended up winning the contract and the first buildings are currently in construction.

Option 1: Edge Park

Green setbacks along the major arterial roads for visual and physical relief from traffic. Provides individual active and formal plaza and park areas for outdoor activities giving these spaces a civic feel to different parcels.

Option 2: Urban Greens

Public green open spaces extend between the two office parcels to attain a contiguous connection between office towers. Sky gardens augment these urban greens within each floor providing areas for impromptu meetings and casual gatherings.

Option 5: Sky Gardens

Horizontal and vertical sky gardens fold up and down to visually and physically connect the two building parcels along the ceremonial north/south axis.

The new Microsoft project will occupy two of the twenty office towers on campus. Due to its urban context and density, the two towers will be 15 to 18 stories. They will become the first high-rise project built for Microsoft in the world. My next blog post will feature more detailed concept design of the buildings and open space components.