Changqing Horticulture Link Between Old and New Factories

The middle section joining an existing old factory to a new one. The dimensions and levels at both ends were fixed, so the new section had to fit the old.

Technical highlights

• The section joining old and new — This steel structure is not a stand-alone new building; it joins the existing old and new factories on the site. Both ends are finished buildings that stayed in normal use during construction, so column positions, levels and openings were all fixed conditions. The new section had to meet them, not the other way round. The aerial overview shows the new volume squeezed between the two factory buildings, with the short side facing the road as the only way in and out.
• An irregular form, with no section copied from the last — The roof beams are curved and the plan is not rectangular. Every beam is a different length and every connection has a different angle, so layout marking, fabrication, assembly and site work all had to be handled member by member, unlike the repeatable approach of standard-span portal frames. Cutting and drilling positions had to be fixed in the shop, because with existing buildings on both sides there was no room to back off on site. In another corner of the same site stands a triangular steel frame, and the two forms together say the same thing. No part of this project repeats.