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

Green Pockets are refuge islands of greenery for resting, mingling, brainstorming and meeting. For the 2,000 high tech workers in the R&D office tower, these informal social spaces provides crucial relieve from the uniform efficiency of cubicles.

Lining the south side of the tower, Green Pockets are vital places for fresh air intake, oxygen production and smiley faces. Expressed as large “flutings” on the exterior, these Green Pockets form the distinctive wavy curtain design of the office tower.

The human-centric wavy form concept resulted in great environmental benefits. As the sun travels across the sky during the day, shifting pockets of shadows are created within the wavy folds of the tower, thereby shielding shifting portions of the curtain wall from direct and continuous solar heat gain. In the winter, the wavy folds become heat pockets. The temperature of the wavy curtain wall thus stays cool in the summer while gaining desired heat in the winter.

The tower houses 16 floors of office and prototype lab spaces. 1F holds a 500㎡ gallery and a cafe, dedicated to the client’s vast collection of watercolors of bird species and habitats native to Taiwan; 2F houses a library, infirmary and a complex of meeting facilities. There is a 300-seat dining hall, gym and yoga room on the 3F.

The highlight of the public programs is 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 GLT and engineered wood. The modernized dougong roof structure resembles a diamond lattice formed by modular 8-point stars nodes with curved ends. These unique star nodes stack and cantilever, achieving greater height and airiness.