Robarts Spaces Shanghai

Shanghai | 430 sqm | 2012
The Shanghai design studios for Robarts Spaces occupy 430 square meters in a two-story building, with the reception and client areas on the ground floor and the working studio, materials library, and pantry on the upper, loft-like floor, with pitched roofs, exposed trusses, and skylights. Entering the reception spaces one encounters the striking marble wall, in white, black, and moss green—the control sample for the office color scheme. The overall impression is both contemporary and slick, yet also evoking the culture and textures of traditional Shanghai. To complete the narrative, the studios have also included some interesting contemporary Chinese artwork, whether iconographic (as in the bronze Mao coat and clapping hands, by Daxiang) or abstract (as in the treated aluminium discs in the meeting rooms, by artist Marcella Campa & Stefano Avesani).