Press Release
FTA Group Is Honored with the Golden A' Design Award for Shanghai Cloud Digital Intelligence Center in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
FTA Group honored for architecture, building and structure design by the international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 19, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Shanghai Cloud Digital Intelligence Center by FTA Group has been granted the Golden A' Design Award in the Architecture, Building and Structure Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Golden A' Design Award
The Gold A' Design Award is granted to designs that demonstrate a high level of innovation and a significant impact on their intended audience. Recognized as a major achievement by the A' Design Awards, these designs are characterized by their visionary approach and the exceptional skill of their creators. Winners of the Gold A' Design Award are noted for their ability to push the envelope in art, science, design, and technology, delivering solutions that not only meet but exceed expectations. These designs serve as benchmarks for excellence, encouraging further innovation and inspiring future generations of designers.
More About Shanghai Cloud Digital Intelligence Center
Shanghai Cloud is a digital intelligence center located in the North Shanghai Hi-Tech Park in Shanghai. The complex consists of three towers with a total floor area of 270,000 square meters, and the tallest tower reaches 130 meters. Two towers are linked at the top by an aerial corridor spanning 63 meters. The project grows from the former Pengpu Machine Factory, where the original structure and the red brick facade were repaired and the roofs were replaced with metal and glass. Staggered cube volumes create terraces, sky gardens and outdoor courtyards.
About FTA Group
FTA entered China in 2003 and has design institutes in Berlin, Germany, and Shanghai, Shenzhen, China. As a design firm specializing in office and industrial real estate, FTA provides integrated services which include urban planning, architectural design, interior design, landscape design, consulting planning, and park operation. We aim to integrate global resources, technology, and teams and create influential industrial innovation zones. Regarding the Chinese Industrial Park, FTA is one of the design institutions with the maximum number of design works. At the end of 2021, FTA had accumulated more than 900 design experiences and completed more than 30,000,000 square meters.
Award Record
With this recognition, FTA Group is a winner of 7 A' Design Awards. The awards span the editions from 2020 - 2021 to 2024 - 2025 of the A' Design Award & Competition.
About the A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award
The A' Architecture Design Award is an international architectural design competition recognizing good architectural designs by best architects worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to architectural design studios, building contractors, structural engineering firms and architecture and design consultants from all countries. Entries typically include skyscrapers, museums, residential buildings, commercial complexes, educational institutions and religious structures. Awarded architectural projects are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/architecture
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/172077
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/172077
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!172077
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/292642
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Shanghai Cloud Digital Intelligence Center
- Function
- Digital Intelligence Center
- Category
- Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture
- Colors
- Light Blue, Light Steel Blue, Dark Slate Gray, Cornflower Blue and Slate Gray
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- FTA Group
- Country
- China
- Recognition
- Golden A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2024 - 2025
- Design ID
- #172077
Credits
- Team
- FTA Group, Architectural design and FTA Group, Planning
- Image Credits
- 5: Photographer Ai Qing, CreatAR Images, 2024
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- Located in the North Shanghai Hi-Tech Park, the project takes the new smart city as the core, and promotes the renewal of the region from industrialization to intelligence. Hundred meters high data center and 5A office building grow out from old Pengpu Machine Factory. The dislocation and occlusion of the architectural form creates more terraces, sky gardens and outdoor courtyards for the community, making the scene warm and allowing creativity to happen anytime, anywhere.
- Inspiration
- "Superimposed Cube", as the motif of architecture, runs through the design. The emergence of a digital intelligence center from the old factory is meant to bring this place the future productivity. In the meanwhile, the design cuts the buildings into flexible and harmonious cube blocks by breaking them into pieces, to avoid becoming isolated islands in the city. Each cube has a vertical community inside with a three-dimensional network, creating more casual communication spaces.
- Research
- Many successful cases in the United States show that the degree of wisdom determines its position in the future industrial ecology. In this case, the design team also regards "wisdom" as the soul of the park. From basic functions to intelligent industrial clusters, the logic of intelligent empowerment is consistent. In the meanwhile, the application of big data is cross-industry, so the project deeply integrates the upstream and downstream enterprises of the capital and the industrial chain, and creates a "high-density, high-level and efficient" innovation experience.
- Challenge
- Land in the key area of Shanghai that can be developed with a capacity of one million square meters is extremely scarce. In the face of the situation that the site is basically occupied by industrial relics, the design team creatively proposed the expansion concept from "square" to "cube". The scheme has been verified and affirmed by many experts such as the Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the Academy of Social Sciences, and the History Museum. As a result, the original structure and red brick facade of the old factory building were carefully restored, while incorporating elements such as modern curtain wall technology and glass roof to breathe new life into the historic building.
- Realization and Technology
- In order to reduce the impact of traffic, the high-rise buildings are arranged along the site boundary to create a complete urban interface and a staggered skyline. Two towers are linked at the top by aerial corridor to enhance the connection of internal spaces. Inside, the comfortable and pleasant street size is used to create a dynamic and warm science and technology community. Besides, for the old factory, the team adopts the scheme of the new into old, including reinforcement of original structure, red brick facade repair, replacement of metal and glass roofs, etc.
- Operation and Interaction
- Based on the different sizes and business characteristics of the enterprise, the design provides flexible and diverse office space to meet the diverse needs of startups to large. At the same time, it provides high-standard laboratory facilities for high-tech enterprises to support the research and development of cutting-edge technologies. In addition, apart from serving industrial development, the project also meets the multi-functional needs of reception, conference, exhibition, brand promotion and so on.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in April 2021 and finished in June 2024 in Shanghai.
- Specifications
- The new building consists of three towers with a total floor area of 270,000 square meters, with the tallest one reaching 130 meters. The two towers on the west side are linked by a corridor at the top of 100 meters, spanning 63 meters. After the completion of the plant renovation, the heavy industry workshop will cover an area of 16,000 square meters. The east side is 72 meters long, the west side is 78 meters long, the overall width is 122 meters, the average net height is 12 meters (18 meters at highest point), the large-scale building facade and the long-span steel concrete structure bring infinite possibilities for the internal space layout.
- Keywords
- Industrial heritage, Renovation, Smart city, Industry integration, Superimposedeffect
