“Pocket Greenhouses” create wavy columns of cooling shadows in the summer and folds of warmth in the winter.

The R&D office tower design for 2,000 high tech workers balances the uniform efficiency of floors of cubicles with informally layout “Pocket Greenhouses” social spaces. “Pocket Greenhouses” are refuge islands of greenery for resting, mingling, brainstorming and meeting. Lining the south side of the tower, they are crucial places for fresh air intake, oxygen production and smiley faces. Expressed as large “flutings” on the exterior, these “pocket green houses” form the distinctive wavy curtain design of the office tower.

The wavy “Pocket Greenhouses” form concept resulted in great environmental benefits. A large, flat, south and west facing curtain wall will get intense direct sunlight throughout the entire day, whereas the wavy curtain wall design prevents any surface from coming under direct solar exposure for continuous and extended periods of time. As the sun travels through the sky during the day, pockets of shadows are created within the “folds” of the wavy curtain design, thereby greatly mitigating solar exposure. The temperature of the curtain wall remains astonishingly cool in the summer while gaining desired heat in the winter.

Apart from 16 floors of office and Lab spaces, 1,200㎡ of public programs of gym, capsule nap lounge and dining hall are housed on the 3F.

GF program planning reflects the client’s long standing efforts on natural habitats and heritage preservation: a 500㎡ gallery dedicated to the client’s vast collection of documentation and watercolours of bird species and habitats native to Taiwan; and a 250-seat auditorium with a unique wooden roof structure that reinvents the traditional Chinese dougong (squared system of stacked and cantilevered timber structure) with CLT and engineered wood. The modernized dougong roof structure has a diamond lattice geometry formed by modular 8-point stars or nodes with curved ends. These unique “star nodes” stack and cantilever with greater height and airy lightness, enlivening the traditional dougong with a new definition of fluidity and spatial freedom.