New Publications

Middle of the year and our projects approach in several publications in China. Two new books have been published by artpower (www.artpower.com.cn), a major book publisher from Shenzhen: 'Innovative High Rise Buildings' features our award winning entry to the VNTA Headquarter. 'Inside/Outside Office Design IV' features our project SZXC.

© 2014, ice - ideas for contemporary environments

VIP Club @ SZXC

We recently have been commissioned to design an extension to our office project in Shenzhen SZXC in form of a VIP Club with Wine Bar and Tea area. The project will go into construction early next year. 

The project is sought to be a meeting place for clients beyond the office atmosphere, a more casual lounge for the after business meetings. The project will complete the program of the office as an holistic operational environment - even beyond the working hours.

Team: Ulrich Kirchhoff, Louise Low, Claudia Wigger, Isabella Ducoli, Eugenio Fontan, Jorge Gil Suarez, Satoshi Yamada

© 2013, ice - ideas for contemporary environments

Construction Log March: SZXC

We have announced it before. SZXC, a 1650 sqm office fit out is finally going to construction. With some delays due to Chinese New Year and many other obstacles we cannot control, the project has been out of our heads already. Even more so, we are looking forward to the upcoming construction.

A long term client of ours is moving into a bigger location. Due to the operational specifics of the company, the layout of the office has to be compartmentalized to a very high degree. Other than an open plan office or a combination office (half open plan and cubicles), this project required 36 rooms for not more than 3-4 people each: A huge challenge in terms of orientation and clarity of the space.

The challenge of the planning lead to the design concept of only using floor finish and ceiling lighting to create an orientation system through the office - lines that connect and separate guide the user from the lift lobby through corridors into the offices.

And here we go. Construction started with a kick-off meeting on site - finally! It is less cutting edge technology construction but rather fast and furious. Therefor we are particular curious if the low tech construction approach works on a design like this.

Team: Ulrich Kirchhoff, Claudia Wigger, Louise Low, Matteo Biasolo, Esteban Becerril Pellon, Juliana Kei, Sandy Lee, Olgierd Nitka, Jackey Yp

© 2012, ice - ideas for contemporary environments