Blueprint for Success

 

A night view of the International Broadcasting Center in the Beijing Olympic Green.

    When British architectural firm RMJM was hired to design the media center for the Beijing Olympics, the plans for the building's afterlife played at least as big a role as the structure's ability to house thousands of accredited journalists during the Games.

   A long, sleek building with an undulating tier reminiscent of the sloping roof of a traditional Chinese pagoda, the handsome structure allowed film crews to move equipment easily in and out during the Olympics. It is that functionality which will stand the building in good stead in its next life as China's National Convention Center, welcoming generations of conference goers.

   "Design is a conversation," goes the motto on calfskin notebooks given to local journalists at the architectural firm's recent Beijing press conference. Design is also big business in China, where increasingly international-minded corporations seek buildings to match their ambitions.

   Its handsome Olympics design no doubt helped the Edinburgh-based firm land a slew of lucrative contracts in China, including a 300-square-meter research and development park for Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei in Nanjing.

   RMJM, which previously designed the China Merchants Bank's headquarters in Shanghai, is the design brains behind an astonishing US $8 billion worth of construction projects in China. In the wealthy city of Suzhou, the U.K.-owned firm is building Gateway to the East, a commercial development, as well as the villa project Evian Town. Further south in Xiamen it is designing the Eton Center and the University Town Library in Shenzhen. Another gated community it has designed for China's wealthy is Mont Orchid Riverlet Phase II in Shekou.

   The firm got its first project in China in 1989 when it designed the Holiday Inn in Dalian. The bulk of its work is in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but the firm claims to be active in 46 urban centers and has designed projects in second tier cities as remote as Kashgar in Xinjiang and Baotou in Inner Mongolia.

   The Olympic Games was a catalyst for better architecture in China, explains Scott Findley, design director of RMJM's Asia operations. He points to Beijing's new airport, which he describes as the "most amazing in the world."

   RMJM has learned to combine sustainability with commercial viability and Chinese character. The media center design was stretched to 250,000 square meters of retail space and a hotel when the Beijing government demanded that the complex be sustainable post-Olympics. To satisfy China's promise of a "Green Olympics," RMJM's design included a rain water collection system on the roof to feed the building's flushing systems and irrigate the surrounding landscape. The new Huawei building's green credentials include a similar water and ventilation system which reduces the building's resource and air-conditioning needs, explains Findley.

   One of RMJM's more recognizable designs, the Merchants Bank Building in Shanghai, has an efficient rooftop cooling system which keeps staff comfortable during the city's hot summers. The firm offers three options to customers, each providing a differing level of environmentally friendly features worked into the design. The more environmentally friendly option may be up to five percent more expensive, but costs are recouped in less than nine years, according to Findley. "With rising oil prices, the payback could be even faster," he adds.

   The desire for sustainability does not normally originate with the client, who is typically a real estate developer. Sustainability needs to be explained to Chinese real estate builders, many of whom are first time developers, explains RMJM CEO Peter Morrison. But Chinese clients are interested in sustainability "as much, if not more so," than counterparts elsewhere, he says. "In other parts of the world, it is a harder sell." Middle Eastern gulf cities like Abu Dhabi and Dubai are "playing catch up" to China, says Morrison.

   How long will it be untill local architectural firms can match the work of multinational practices like RMJM, which has 230 local staff in its Hong Kong and Shanghai offices? The company worked with the local Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) on its Olympics project. The key blueprints come from foreign architects, but locals are learning from the collaboration, says Findley. "We bring in expertise and work closely with local design institutes." Local partners "help us to understand and manage local clients' needs and requirements," he adds.

   There will be plenty of opportunities for Chinese talent to shine given the rise of private architectural practices. They're becoming "more prominent," says Peter Morrison, who compares the modern U.K. preoccupation with eye-catching buildings with previous decades, when local authorities cut and pasted designs for swathes of cheap but bland urban housing and office blocks. A similar design revolution is happening in China, which has its own share of buildings built fast rather than prettily. But China's advantage is its booming economy. "In mature economies, it would be much harder to do a building like this," says Morrison of the Olympic Media Center.

   An influx of multinational corporations into China is also forcing design standards up. Although they are much maligned in the local Chinese media, the quality of real estate projects is improving, says Findley. "When I walk through terminal one in Shanghai, the paving is still wavy, but in [the newer] terminal it's 100 percent flat. He credits improvements in technology in China. "Many U.S. companies now send stone to China to be cut."

   One thing is for sure: China will contribute more and more to RMJM's earnings. U.K. friends "can't comprehend the numbers," says Morrison. The scale of China's building boom is "staggering," he adds.