Netdragon Commune

At the virgin beach front area where Min River meets the Pacific Ocean, and adjacent to Fuzhou Changle Airport, Netdragon Websoft Company is building their brand new campus. Nearly 700 employees and their families will relocate from the center of Fuzhou city to here. OPEN is commissioned to design a new living quarter for them on a 50,000m² piece of land that used to be an eel farm. This is a very young and interesting community of people. They work to create amazing virtual worlds that entertain millions of people. In real life and on this land of their new dreams, they need a unique living area and a brand new collective life style.

A building with hybrid functions and in the shape of a Hongshanosaurus, 450 meters in length and 30 meters in height (flight path height limit), extends in a gentle curve along the edge of the site, forming the longest possible interface with the ocean front. Almost every unit in this residential building has a great view to the ocean. Structurally and layout wise, this mega building actually consists of 12 effectively independent medium rise residential towers. The towers are linked at the 6th floor and 8th floor, the rooftop by a series of public corridors and walkways. The walkways at the 6th floor connect together 12 public sky gardens. Each of the sky gardens is unique in their spatial characteristic, building material, and also in their functions. In and around these shared spaces, staff may together cook, do their laundry, play and socialize, raise a veggie patch, enjoy an outdoor movie, gaze out to the ocean, and share their thoughts and dreams. On the 8th floor, the roof top, 35 luxury villas are linked together by a street up in the air. Each villa is unique, yet all are derived from 6 basic unit types. Each unit possesses their own roof top garden and balcony, and of course spectacular ocean view.

This type of communal living is, in many ways, a new iteration of the collective housing that was prevalent in China during the 2nd half of the last century, a reflection of the socialist ideals and aspirations from that age. Under totally different circumstances, the Netdragon Commune foresters a new type of communal life style surrounded by nature. This mega building allows the majority of the site to be preserved and cultivated into a sizeable park. Within this park scatter a series of individual follies which provide the daily living and entertainment necessities of the employees. It is here that nature and human habitation achieve the most beautiful balance of co-existence.

The Netdragon Commune project is an architectural experiment investigating how to restructure relationships between people and nature, and relationships amongst people themselves. The project seeks to create a high quality eco community for the future at a comparatively low cost.