Located next to a reclaimed quarry park, Xingfa Cement Plant is a former factory transformed into a national advanced science research facility, contributing to the establishment of Huairou Science City. The team of landscape architects and architects worked in close collaboration to preserve valuable cement factory buildings, production structures, existing trees, and dramatic site landforms, and studied local precipitation patterns to absorb drainage and protect the site from heavy summer storms. Proposed programs and buildings were considered under local cultural protection restrictions due to their adjacency to the Great Wall across the valley.
Science and research development history resonates throughout the site, unifying this dynamic research campus with cement production and transportation logic represented by the existing railway system and proposed landscape path. Various factory elements were reused at various scales as signage, furniture, walls, paving, and other decorations. A variety of landscape moments and atmospheres are proposed based on their specific contexts, carefully blended with the architectural color system and negotiated within complex hillside conditions.
100 Altair
As an office infill project in San Francisco’s South Bay region, 100 Altair reflects the shift in framing workplace landscapes. The roof deck functions primarily as outdoor workspaces, sized for large team meetings and private one-on-one conversations, amidst a modern, high-design aesthetic. The project design aims to reach out into its surrounding context, wh...
Giant Interactive Headquarters
SWA collaborated with Morphosis Architects on a new ecological park and living laboratory for Giant Interactive Headquarters, a 45-acre corporate campus in Shanghai, China. The design concept blurs the distinction between the ground plane and the structure, weaving water and wetland habitats together with the folded green roof of the main building design. The ...
1265 Borregas
In recent years, mass timber has surged in popularity, combining the unique ability to sequester carbon in a building’s frame with exceptional structural and aesthetic value. For Google’s first mass timber building in Sunnyvale, SWA partnered with a multidisciplinary team to extend these principles into the surrounding landscape, creating a unified identity be...
Viacom Columbia Square
Located on Hollywood’s famed Sunset Boulevard, the new Columbia Square development’s main tenant is Viacom. The company moved its offices for major channels such as Comedy Central and MTV from Santa Monica to the new Hollywood location in 2018. SWA was brought on to work with Rottet Studio in developing design concepts for all outdoor areas associated with the...