Phase 3 of the Copycat project: The office
We were assigned to design an office for the architect we worked with. We had to pick a location for the office, I picked Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo; the city undergoing urbanization, there will be materials from the demolished sites from urbanization that will benefit Wang Shu’s style of materiality. Also, culture and traditions will slowly fade following the act of urbanization, this is where Wang Shu’s philosophies really come in to play, doing what he does best which is preserving the culture, only this time, he is not only preserving the culture of China, but also Congo and Africa in general.
The design of Wang Shu’s office is a combination of Chinese architectural style and African vernacular architecture style. Selecting aspects of each architectural style and merge them into a single design. There are similarities between Chinese and African architecture. Based on my research, both Chinese and African architecture had courtyards, enclosed walls, and a neighborhood lifestyle where a lot of people live within the same housing.
Wang Shu’s office is enclosed with African vernacular walls made of soil and topped with Chinese style roofs. So, in a panoramic view, the mosts visible aspect of the building would be the roofs, creating an illusion of floating Chinese roofs. The interior of the building consists of four courtyards; first one located at the entrance, followed by a courtyard in the studio area which is only for light, the third courtyard is located on the center area of the office designed generally for common area where employees of the office can come and hang out, last courtyard is located in Wang Shu and his original employees’ office which is only for light as well. Having enclosed walls surrounding the buildings is quite extreme in terms of light and ventilation, therefore, courtyards and open aired walkways are carefully put into the office to help with light and ventilation.
