Ideal Gas Lab / Waterfrom Design

Curated by 韩双羽 - HAN Shuangyu

Interior Designers: Waterfrom Design
Area: 270 m²
Year: 2019
Photographs:Kuomin Lee

Text description provided by the architects. With pressure of environment and change of temperature, the substance can be transformed into different states: static solid state, fluent liquid state and gaseous state which is both static and fluent. This is not the opening remark of a physics class. It is the start of design of a brand-new office of Jing He Science, a technology company which sells high-tech gas.

Outline of steel, highlight of the existence of invisibility
When the inspiration is based on “science” instead of “office”, WATERFROM DESIGN aims to reinforce science in industrial attribute to change the public’s stereotyped image of office. We rely on the laboratory which is the most associated with products, factory, daily test tubes, cast iron, black iron, gas pipes and unique steel cylinders which carry technological gas. We apply common materials and modeling on production chain and transforms them into the structure of office.

We collect recycled steel cylinders of different specifications which will be eliminated and apply iron plate glass and iron components which symbolize pipes of the factory to transform idle weighty containers with single function in technology industry into legs of desk, counter of a bar and even matrix domain as pipes of factory under the long desk of 25-people conference room. The desks with ergonomic design become open experimental platforms which break through traditional office circulation and separate blocks. Steel cylinders which are everywhere in the office after the transformation of function visually highlight the invisible gas. Thus, the invisible gas becomes specific corporate identity. By design, we create the decorative role and extend the years of utility.

Ideal Gas Lab / Waterfrom Design - Image 29 of 29 — Concept

Besides transformation, we apply deconstruction in design and intentionally cut and magnify the scale of outline of steel cylinders and reorganize the lines to create interior semicircles of different diameters which are randomly placed on curved wall of the entrance, back wall of kitchen island, section of separate wall and even protective circulation of the supervisor’s office. Intuitive experience of vision and space is based on radian and we tangibly or abstractly simulate the existence of gas in steel cylinders.

Quality of machinery, base of green art
Unified orange on steel cylinders, lake water color on solid flooring and gradient baking finish from bright to dark colors and from orange to black show the existence of gas at different temperatures: expansion and flotation because of heat and congealment and dropping with cold…orange is the common color on the buttons of laboratory and important devices of factories. In users’ work experiences, color is associated with science in the office similar to the laboratory. Gradient colors resemble the cloud-like gas and flowing liquid which cannot be easily grasped. It develops ambiguous visual movement and temporality in the mechanical severe environment.

Although we obtain spatial medium and modeling mostly from factory or laboratory, after changing the pattern and function, we refine the common and rough materials and develop aesthetic value as artistic objects. We reconstruct blast pipes and circuits of different dimensions in the factory by long customized tubes. Three different dimensions with various heights of light show the movement of gas in the complicated pipes. Rust of common black iron in the factory represents time. We intentionally show the large scale in the open space. We transform the solid function into long decorative background and with irregular orange paint and dramatic shadow, we change the users’ vision in the space.

Extension of leaves, observation of rules of cycle
Curved delicate branches and leaves of green plants grow from steel cylinders resembling the tubes. They pass through iron plate and glass desk. Different from elevation lines of regular geometric arrangement, they are lively in the work environment of inhuman color. We consider one stem and one leaf as the micro-world of change of substance. Roots and stems acquire water and nutrients from soil and transform and diffuse oxygen by photosynthesis. The cycle resembles the transfer among solid state, liquid state and gaseous state of substances in nature. By a little plant, we quietly and deeply breathe and change breath.