A workplace open to the city and to nature

Located in the Qianhai District of Shenzhen, China, the 31-story, 140,000-square-meter headquarters of WeBank—the first privately-owned and digital-only bank in China—integrates technology, sustainability, and design innovation to advance the company’s mission centered on inclusive finance and banking. Expected to be completed in 2022, the new headquarters will include a series of flexible workspaces, planted terraces and gardens, blended indoor-outdoor spaces, and a diverse series of high performance design strategies for a healthy, collaborative, and amenity-rich working environment.

Inspired by the regional architectural tradition of the Lingan style, the building is open to the city, with the public spaces of the surrounding district woven into the work environment. Open arcades and courtyards improve access and connectivity at street level. Large floor plates and multi-story, mixed-mode spaces throughout the tower promote interaction, knowledge sharing, and adaptability for future workplace evolution. A series of terraced atria provide rich daylighting and natural ventilation for interior spaces.

Strategies for sustainability and wellbeing

Tuned to the local climate, the design for WeBank Headquarters includes solar-responsive facades and efficient, low-energy systems. Daylight and vegetation enliven the open and connected workspaces, allowing for flexible, indoor/outdoor working. A series of terraced atria provide daylighting and natural ventilation for the interior spaces, while color cycle controls on LED lights mimic circadian rhythms to create a healthy and productive environment.

The natural interior finishes blend into the outdoor terraces and vertical parks, which are planted with native Lingnan flora. This provides ample shading, increased outdoor access, and an overall reduction in glazing, for a window-to-wall ratio of 50 percent. Horizontal shading fins and low-e glass work in tandem with terrace cut-outs to draw in daylight while reducing solar gain. Locally sourced and low-chemical materials are used throughout.

A habitable rooftop garden will harvest rainwater for indoor plant and green wall irrigation, and to control rainwater release into the local aquifer. The garden is designed to accommodate photovoltaic or solar thermal panels to provide supplemental power to the building.