Alvaro Siza’s first major project in China floats in an industrial park. The building of the Shihlien Chemical Industrial Jiangsu Co in an industrial park in China's Jiangsu province was inaugurated in 2014. The building’s structure sits on an island in the middle of a 100.000-square-metre artificial lake at New Salt Industrial Park and as a total of 11.000 square metres of floor space across two storeys, with bridges connecting the spaces across sections of the large curved office. The form escapes from convention and contrast with the orthogonal shapes of the factory complex.

Architecture: Álvaro Siza + Carlos Castanheira
Photography: Fernando Guerra