Lepure Biotech Headquarters is located in Xinxiao Campus, Songjiang District of Shanghai, adjacent to the intersection of Minyi Road and Xinxiao Branch Road. The main building is a 9-story high-rise factory, which is the first M1 (Class I industrial) manufacturing land project in Songjiang District with a plot ratio of 3.0. The total building area is about 48000 square meters.
According to the design commission, it is planned to accommodate mixed-use manufacture&support facilities in a land area of 13800 square meters, which includes not only heavy equipment producing workshops, but also light product manufacture workshops, lab and R&D workshops, as well as offices, canteens, parking, fitness lounges and other ancillary facilities.
In order to meet these needs, the first strategy is to develop vertically instead of the horizontal way which is normally applied in a traditional factory development.
The factory building is composed of a standard column network of 12 * 9 meters, presented as a pure box tower building to avoid unnecessary space waste caused by concavity and convexity. In order to improve traffic efficiency, the site entrances of cargo and pedestrian are set in two different directions, ensuring that each traffic area is relatively independent. The building entrances of visitors, administrative managers and R&D engineers, manufacturing workers are set at intervals on the east and south sides of the building to achieve further subdivision. The loading area is set on the west side of the building, served by three separate sets of goods elevators, which transfer the raw materials and products to and from different floors.
The building is visually divided into two parts : upper tower and lower podium. The lower podium accommodates heavy equipment producing workshops, of which facade is covered by metal cladding due to controllable artificial light needs ; The upper tower serves spaces as administrative offices, light product manufacture, and labs, etc. Glass panels combined with linear shading components are used to reflect the sky and clouds, achieving a sense of suspension and lightness.
The concept of “transparent factory” as well as “industrial tourism” is considered to improve the interaction between the biotech firm and the public. Through several pieces of glazing curtain wall, the internal manufacturing could be “seen” by the people walking outside. On the podium roof garden, an suspended walkway which is designated as an experiential sports device as well as a sculpture has been set up as a landmark to show the unique enterprise culture. The podium atrium allows visitors to spiral up from entrance hall to podium roof garden and explore the production status of each workshop at different levels. Through all the ways mentioned above, a deeper spiritual and cultural connection between the enterprise, the public, and customers is established.