Ascentage Pharmaceutical Headquarters is a new 1,580,594 ft2 modern R&D and manufacturing complex in Suzhou, China for a young Hong Kong listed pharmaceutical company. Symbolizing the aspirations of Ascentage’s culture, whose cutting-edge research in biotechnology has developed promising new cancer drugs to improve the lifestyles of a future generation afflicted with diseases once thought untreatable or incurable, the state-of-the-art campus was realized using some of the most technologically advanced digital design and fabrication tools.

Open, clean, and modern, the public and employee programmed volumes of the new campus’ seven buildings are discrete curvilinear shapes, soft in nature, elevated above a glass base in a floating composition over a black granite clad reflecting pool facing the main Xinqing Road. The 262ft tall R&D and Administration building, the new iconic symbol of Ascentage, sits proudly at the intersection of the busy southwest corner of the site on Xinqing Road, in proximity to a new mass transit subway station.

Inspired by the benzene ring of the chemical molecular formula used to annotate the planar bonds of the six carbon and hydrogen molecules, each building volume’s façade is carefully designed using the benzene ring hexagon as the source form, which is then engineered to fold parametrically bonding around the seven different building volumes. These parametrically modeled facades using adaptive BIM families were then digitally fabricated using Ultra High Strength Concrete panels and custom anodized aluminum nodes and extrusions affording distinct façade designs for optimal balance of visual transparency and privacy.

Together with new high-tech research labs and an expansive advanced manufacturing fit out bathed with ample diffuse natural light filtering from its translucent roof, the distinctly programmed composition of the projects’ buildings on the 15 acre site, create a singular campus and new identity for Ascentage’s promising future.

Project Details:

Address: 68 Xinqing Road, Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou City, China

Client Name: Ascentage Pharma

Design Architect: OLI Architecture PLLC

Design Leads:
Hiroshi Okamoto, AIA, LEED A.P., Design Partner
Lin Bing, Managing Partner
Design Team:
Dongshin Lee R.A.
Marcus Colonna AIA
Maher Tarakjian R.A.
Hector Arenas
Michael Yin
Sanghoon Seo
Xiaoyu Wang
Alara Akiltopu
Amanda Chin

Local Design Institute: AEPA&TSC ARCHITECTS ENGINEERS INC.

Curtainwall Consultant: Talweg Engineering Studio D.P.C.

Sustainability Consultant: QNP Building Engineering Consultancy Firm

General Contractor: Nantong Wujian Construction Engineering Co., Ltd.

Photography: Xiaobin Lv; Shen Zhonghai