Award winning British architectural design and engineering company Foster + Partners, have recently unveiled their innovative vision for the new headquarters for DJI, one of the world’s leading drone companies.
The building is currently under construction in Shenzhen and aims to re-think traditional notions of ‘office space’ and create an innovative ‘community in the sky’. This massive construction project in Shenzhen’s Nanshan District, is expected to be finished in 2019.
By building two connected towers, linked by a sky bridge, the designers plan to combine sensitive research and development spaces alongside office and public function areas. Floors are arranged in floating volumes cantilevered from central cores by large steel mega-trusses which in turn creates large, column-free spaces throughout; this provides unique quadruple-height space allowing ample room for drone flight testing labs. The sky bridge doubles as another platform for showcasing and demonstrating the latest drone technology.
The ground floor will provide a public exhibition space acknowledging DJI’s extraordinary reputation for technological development, as well as a theatre for new product launches. This area will also house a wide variety of staff facilities from state-of-the-art gymnasiums to robot fighting rings.
According to Foster and Partners, splitting the space this way will allow “for efficient security and access control.”A series of Zen inspired gardens will feature on the ground level.
Foster and Partners have designed many high-profile projects for major commercial and civic institutions, including Apple in Chicago, Singapore and Dubai, as well as Bloomberg, McLaren, and IBM, along with landmark buildings in Malaysia, South Korea, Switzerland, the UK and China.
The building design is conceptually futuristic and Grant Brooker, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners says their aim is to create a unique workplace environment that embodies the spirit of invention and innovation that has allowed DJI to lead the world in robotics and technology.