Shanghai Cloud Centro de Inteligência Digital by FTA Group

Shanghai Cloud Centro de Inteligência Digital by FTA Group is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 A' Design Award de Ouro in Design de Arquitetura, Edifícios e Estruturas Competition Category.

OuroArquitetura· 2025

Shanghai Cloud Centro de Inteligência Digital

by FTA Group

Client: FTA Group

A' Design Award de Ouro Winner in Arquitetura Category

82,443
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #172077

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Shanghai Cloud Centro de Inteligência Digital

O Shanghai Cloud é um centro de inteligência digital situado no Parque de Alta Tecnologia do Norte de Xangai, na China. O complexo é composto por três torres, com uma área construída total de 270.000 metros quadrados, sendo que a torre mais alta atinge 130 metros. Duas das torres são interligadas no topo por um corredor aéreo com 63 metros de vão. O projeto nasce da antiga Fábrica de Máquinas Pengpu, onde a estrutura original e a fachada em tijolo vermelho foram restauradas e as coberturas substituídas por metal e vidro. Volumes cúbicos escalonados dão origem a terraços, jardins suspensos e pátios ao ar livre.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award de Ouro

Shanghai Cloud Centro de Inteligência Digital conquistou o A' Design Award de Ouro, um reconhecimento imensamente prestigiado atribuído a designs de primeira linha, maravilhosos e notáveis. Os vencedores do Ouro são criações extremamente inovadoras, visionárias e glamorosamente deslumbrantes, que refletem o prodígio, a sabedoria e a proeza dos seus designers. Espera-se que Shanghai Cloud Centro de Inteligência Digital seja uma invenção muito elogiada, pioneira e monumental, que oferece um valor sem precedentes. Este design vencedor do A' Design Award de Ouro é um projeto espetacular e respeitado, que beneficia muito e faz avançar as fronteiras da arte, da ciência, do design e da tecnologia. Shanghai Cloud Centro de Inteligência Digital cria sentimentos intensos de desejo, evoca paixão, incentiva a criatividade e fascina-nos.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

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.
Dimensions & Packaging: 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.
Tags: Industrial heritage, Renovation, Smart city, Industry integration, Superimposedeffect
Production 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.
Design 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.
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.
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.
Project Duration: The project started in April 2021 and finished in June 2024 in Shanghai.
Operation Flow: 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.
Team Members: FTA Group, Architectural design
FTA Group, Planning
Image Credits: Image #1-5: Photographer Ai Qing, CreatAR Images, 2024