Steven Leach Group delivered the multi-faceted and thoughtful offices for Hewlett Packard in Chongqing, China.

The rich and storied culture of Chongqing dates back more than three thousand years to ancient times and blossomed through renowned eras of prosperity, innovation and economic development. Strategically located inland amongst lush mountains and flowing rivers, the city serves as an important connecting hub for a plethora of major modern industries from manufacturing to international transport and financial services. It is not surprising that Hewlett Packard (HP) selected Chongqing to be the home for their 37,000 square feet office and advanced manufacturing complex. HP is a company full of creators, dreamers, thinkers and inventors – imagination is the super fuel of the company brand. Our staff at SL+A wanted to provide an inspiring and contemporary place to foster great ideas in line with HP’s belief that innovation drives extraordinary contributions to humanity.

Therefore, it was quite interesting to combine the HP culture with the historic city of Chongqing to create a wonderfully innovative workplace for the R&D centre. To highlight the beauty and nature surrounding the city, our team incorporated the element of buildings with mountainous structures directly into HP’s neighbourhood concept. An abstract line art mountain motif was used as a design feature painted on accent walls, etched into frosted glass partitions and the pattern was even incorporated into wooden wall slats to create a new and vibrant workplace for all the engineers. The images featured around the office are dedicated to the natural scenery of Chongqing and commemorate how much HP has grown and evolved over the years.

Various workstations were created for the diverse team at Hewlett Packard – modular office furniture can be rearranged to suit the needs of groups working together, while booths, sofas and barstool-type seating is also available for individuals or pairs working independently. Lockers can be found around the office as an easy way for employees to secure personal items while allowing everyone to be highly mobile and flexible in their workspace without restrictive assigned seating. The high and low glass partitions in many meeting rooms are combined with aluminium louvers on the surface for added visual interest. Fun carpet designs give the impression of working out in nature on top of grassy turf. The unique rhythm of mountain towns and the fiery hospitality culture is represented through the use of interesting colour palettes of warm oranges, calm teal greens and bright blues against a backdrop of natural wood floors and earthy neutral hues.

The SL+A design team took care to combine natural and environmentally sustainable elements in the selection of building and design materials to help create a new energy-efficient, low carbon and ‘green workplace’ for HP CQ. The vision of a burgeoning information technology center in the heart of Chongqing has been enthusiastically supported by Hewlett Packard since the company first entered the Chinese market. As the world’s largest technology company, HP is committed to making the world a better place through their efforts in climate action, human rights and digital equity.

Design: Steven Leach Group
Photography: courtesy of HP

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