The Huawei Guangzhou R&D Campus occupies the site of a former sugar refinery, once an important component of the city’s industrial economy. Rather than erase this history through wholesale redevelopment, the project chose to retain one of the most distinctive structures remaining on the site: a Grade-1 listed factory hall defined by a powerful concrete barrel-vaulted frame, and it is also a protected historical building.

The Huawei Guangzhou Sugar Factory, spanning 80 meters long and covers an area of 2,118 square metres was built between the 1950s and 1970s. At that time, it was originally used to store raw sugar imported from places such as Cuba. A continuous skylight runs along the apex of the vaulted roof. Raw sugar was transported to the top by conveyor belts and then dropped into the space from above. demonstrating a seamless integration between the building’s function and its spatial form. In January 2014, Huawei Guangzhou Sugar Factory was designated as one of Guangzhou's second batch of historical buildings.

Industrial buildings from this period often possess a remarkable architectural honesty. Designed primarily for efficiency and production, their structural systems tend to be bold, direct and expressive. In the case of the sugar factory hall, this logic produced a structure of considerable spatial beauty. The building is formed by a sequence of concrete arches that create a continuous vaulted roof, generating a large uninterrupted interior volume that feels both robust and unexpectedly elegant.

The decision to retain the building was therefore more than an act of preservation. It recognised the architectural value of the structure while allowing the new campus to remain connected to the site’s industrial heritage. Within the broader composition of the Huawei development, the hall now acts as a central landmark, a reminder that the city’s technological future is layered upon earlier phases of production and industry.

As part of Guangzhou’s second batch of protected historic buildings, the planning guidelines for the sugar factory are as follows:
1. Core Protection Zone
A protected area of 3,603 square meters has been designated, encompassing the building footprint and its external transport corridors. The boundary extends 6 meters outward from the sugar factory walls on both the north and south sides, 5 meters to the east, and 8 meters to the west—this space is both the boundary of history and the starting point for new possibilities.
2. Conservation Requirements
Any work involving façade restoration or other minor repairs must be reviewed and approved by experts, ensuring that the building’s core heritage values are carefully safeguarded.
3. Adaptive Reuse Recommendations
Within the limits of structural, fire safety, and other technical regulations, and without compromising the building’s core heritage values, diverse functions may be introduced. Moderate increases in usable floor area are permitted, allowing the historic building to be revitalized with new life.

The design follows three key principles—harmoniously coexisting with the planning framework, gently responding to the waterfront context, and engaging in an organic dialogue with the new exhibition spaces. The restoration approach is careful and restrained.

1. Façade Restoration: Revealing Texture, Opening Views
The original form and proportions of the sugar factory façade are preserved. Exposed service pipes are reorganized and concealed, outdated materials are replaced, and brickwork details are refined. As a result, the original red brick exterior has been repaired and reinforced, allowing traces of time to remain visible.
Along the waterfront façade facing the Pearl River, portions of the solid wall have been removed and replaced with large expanses of glass and vertical elements, creating a highly transparent interface. This not only maximizes views of the waterfront but also reveals the structural beauty of the factory’s iconic arched space, marking a gentle transition from enclosure to openness.

2. Reinforcement of the Arched Structure: Minimal Intervention, Extended Longevity
Within the building, issues such as concrete spalling, exposed reinforcement, corrosion in the arched components, as well as powdering and cracking of enclosure walls, are addressed. Adhering to the principle of “no alteration to the original condition and minimal intervention,” and based on structural safety assessment reports, a scientifically grounded and feasible restoration strategy is implemented to extend the building’s lifespan.
The renovated concrete arches retain their original structural clarity, and the spatial rhythm of the hall continues to be defined by them.

3. Roof Panel Renewal: Contemporary Materials, Continuing Historic Character
The original precast concrete roof panels were severely deteriorated and have been reinforced or replaced with dark grey metal panels of the same dimensions and proportions but with improved performance. This approach meets modern safety standards while continuing the building’s understated character through a restrained contemporary language.

4. Skylight Restoration: Recasting Light and Shadow
The original form of the skylight is preserved, while being reinterpreted through the use of glass fibre panels in varying colours and metal louvers. The design enhances the introduction of natural light, subtly reinforcing the building’s inherent spatial logic and accentuating the rhythm of the arches.

5. Conveyor Belt: Reframing Industrial Memory as Landscape
The original conveyor belt has been preserved and restored off-site, then reintroduced as a landscape element within the central courtyard. No longer a tool of production, it becomes a sculptural marker of time—quietly narrating the labour and legacy of the sugar factory.

Today the building has been transformed into a flexible venue for exhibitions, gatherings and campus events. Its generous interior volume allows it to function as a collective space within what is otherwise a contemporary research environment.The preserved sugar factory hall therefore performs an important cultural role within the campus. It anchors the development in the deeper narrative of Guangzhou’s industrial past while demonstrating how historic industrial structures can be reimagined for new forms of civic life.

Where machinery once processed sugar, the building now supports the exchange of ideas an adaptive reuse that symbolically links the city’s manufacturing heritage with its future as a centre of technological innovation.