ARCH5110/6210D Advanced Architectural Design Studio I & II: FRAGMENTS – Workbitat ( ) Headquarters Campus
Target Students MArch1, MArch2
Course Term 1 & 2
Course Type Studio
Venue Studio
Teacher(s) TAM, Nelson
Workbitat
The Greater Bay Area (GBA) is currently driving an unprecedented transition toward a knowledge-based economy. As China’s core engine for new quality productive forces, it concentrates over “60,000 high-tech enterprises”, “50+ national key laboratories”, and 9 national major science infrastructures, forming the world’s second-largest tech cluster (Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou). Amid a wave of “re-industrialization,” GBA cities are leaping into future industries like AI, quantum tech, and bio-manufacturing. Their success hinges on attracting global talent — where the saying “exceptional talents choose fertile grounds” (良禽择木而栖) becomes paramount. To “build nests for phoenixes” (筑巢引凤), the GBA is redefining its urban-industrial ecology.
This is the stage for Workbitat — a concept transcending the dichotomy of “workplace” and “habitat” to cultivate integrated ecosystems that spark creativity while nurturing daily life. As Joel Kotkin observed: “The future belongs to cities that tailor spaces for talent.” While the GBA enhances “hard connectivity” (infrastructure) and “soft connectivity” (policy), architects must translate strategy into embodied experience: using spatial narratives to transform HQs into talent-attracting “microcosms” and campuses into living innovation organisms. Engaging in this course means designing at the center of tomorrow’s competitiveness.
Empower Students
Students independently select aligned tech firms and sites, propose and justify programmatic strategies (not limited to productivity but also including dwelling, recreational, kindergarten, convention & exhibition etc.), and cultivate design agency through "space-as-value-expression" research.
Potential Issues
The campus materializes organizational logics:
1.Individuality/Collective: How do cellular clusters balance openness and autonomy?
2.Agility/Control: How does spatial flexibility empower team working?
3.Hierarchy/Agency: How do shared spaces dissolve departmental segregation?
4.In-Between (Hybrid) States/ Prescribed Functional Spaces: How do hybrid zones create stimulations to innovation?
We are interested to look into this complex, ambiguous and liminal state — fragments coalescing under cultural gravity yet resisting full fusion.
