If Liang Qingfan were designing for someone else, he would hope for his proposal to be approved directly, preferably without any modifications.
As an architect, he had strong confidence in his designs and naturally wouldn’t want the client pointing fingers and ruining the carefully designed aesthetics.
But for Mr. Pei, Liang Qingfan actually hoped that Mr. Pei would provide more requirements.
Because he felt that Mr. Pei had the power to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Even though Mr. Pei’s true expertise was in game design, business, and investment, and he didn’t possess corresponding architectural knowledge, projects like Terror Inn and Sloth Apartments showed that Mr. Pei could often see things from a higher level that Liang Qingfan, as an architect, couldn’t perceive.
And this high-level perspective often gave Liang Qingfan inspiration, allowing him to make greater progress.
Pei Qian briefly looked through the materials and found that Liang Qingfan’s proposal was quite thoughtful: he had only drawn sketches of the building’s exterior shape, simply indicating a few key zones in the building, without elaborating on the details of the internal structure.
Obviously, this was because even if the details were marked out, Pei Qian wouldn’t understand them at all…
Liang Qingfan had provided three different design proposals, and these three proposals had some commonalities.
For example: the main buildings were all very tall, with surrounding open spaces designed with lawns and gardens for beautification;
The buildings all had strong design elements, extensively using glass curtain walls and staggered special shapes, looking very much in line with the style of a high-tech company;
Each floor of the building reserved entertainment spaces, deeply implementing the Tenda spirit.
Considering the location of Tenda’s headquarters, this building would definitely stand out once completed, becoming quite eye-catching and a landmark in the surrounding area.
After reviewing the three proposals, Pei Qian fell silent.
How to put it… from all aspects, Liang Qingfan had perfectly completed the task.
No matter which proposal was adopted, the building wouldn’t feel out of place with the Tenda logo after completion, and it wouldn’t be inferior compared to the headquarters buildings of other internet giants in China.
But… this seemed completely unable to meet Pei Qian’s requirements!
For other companies, two points were most important for a headquarters building: one was functional convenience, and the other was design uniqueness.
A headquarters building integrates various departments, allowing more frequent and convenient communication between them, improving employee work efficiency.
The restaurants, coffee bars, and various entertainment facilities in the building were partly to adjust employees’ work state, and partly to encourage employees to work overtime.
And the unique shape and grand momentum of the building could showcase the company’s strong financial power to the outside world, giving employees a sense of belonging and pride when coming to work, which was also part of brand image building.
In short, for financially powerful companies, building a tower had many benefits.
But for Pei Qian, he didn’t care about these benefits at all!
Making communication between departments more frequent?
Improving employee work efficiency?
Encouraging employees to work overtime?
Pei Qian absolutely didn’t want these situations to occur.
The only aspect that satisfied Pei Qian somewhat was that each floor reserved entertainment areas.
But this approach seemed stiff and cliché, because this was how Tenda currently arranged things, and how other large internet companies arranged things as well.
Tenda’s employees were all battle-hardened veterans; merely arranging a small entertainment area on the same floor was no longer enough to tempt them.
The effort needed to be increased!
So, by the standards of ordinary companies, Liang Qingfan’s proposals were fine.
But for Mr. Pei, they completely failed to meet his requirements!
The needs and proposals were misaligned; even the best proposal would be useless.
Pei Qian hadn’t set specific parameters for Liang Qingfan before, allowing him to exercise his imagination without any restrictions, mainly because he didn’t want a layman directing a professional.
After all, the headquarters building wouldn’t make money, so letting Liang Qingfan freely express himself wouldn’t cause much harm.
But now it seemed that Pei Qian would have to provide some guidance; he couldn’t be lazy about it.
Because the proposal Liang Qingfan had created was still from an architect’s perspective, and obviously didn’t truly grasp the actual purpose of this building.
Pei Qian was silent for a moment, then said, “The proposal is good, and the building’s design is nice.”
“However…”
“It seems to lack a bit of innovative thinking.”
Liang Qingfan wasn’t upset at all; instead, he was quite happy: “Please tell me, Mr. Pei, how should I modify it?”
Innovative thinking—how could it simply appear on command?
As an architect, Liang Qingfan felt he had been very active and open-minded when designing these proposals, but looking at the finished proposals, they indeed lacked that eye-catching quality found in Tenda’s other industries.
One could only say that the ability to come up with good ideas effortlessly, like Mr. Pei, was a natural talent.
Ordinary people just couldn’t do it.
So Liang Qingfan didn’t struggle; he just listened carefully to what Mr. Pei had to say.
Pei Qian sank into thought again.
How to modify it…
For other companies, the functionality and iconic nature of the building were paramount.
For Pei Qian, the functionality of the building was equally important, except that the specific functions should be completely opposite to those of other companies.
The effect of Tenda’s headquarters building should be to make communication between departments as inconvenient as possible, reduce employee work efficiency, and make employees work overtime as little as possible.
Of course, spending more money was also necessary.
So the question was, how should this building be designed to achieve these goals?
Pei Qian cleared his throat and said, “Let me outline a few key points for you to note down.”
“These points are the most basic requirements. First satisfy these points, then slowly consider the specific design of the building.”
“First, Tenda’s headquarters building should be spread out as much as possible, rather than developed upward.”
Pei Qian had thought it through clearly: the taller the building, the more conducive it was to communication between departments, because different departments could reach each other simply by taking an elevator, which was very convenient.
But if the building were spread out, expanding horizontally, then departments wanting to communicate would have to rely on balance cars or similar transportation tools, which would obviously be very inconvenient and naturally reduce the efficiency of communication.
Pei Qian would also arrange related departments at opposite ends of the building, as far apart as possible. Want to collaborate? No problem, prepare to run your legs off!
Previously, although some departments were scattered around other parts of Jingzhou, they could take taxis, which was relatively quick; but if all were placed in the headquarters building, they couldn’t take taxis and would have to walk. As long as the distance was far enough, it would actually become more inconvenient.
In addition, spreading out the building would also occupy as much land as possible.
If they built a tall building with surrounding green spaces or gardens, they might be able to utilize that space for other constructions in the future; but if they spread everything out, occupying all the land, then for future expansions, they would have to buy additional land.
Wouldn’t that mean spending more money?
Liang Qingfan hurriedly made a note.
Indeed, Mr. Pei’s initial design thinking was completely different from mine!
But why flatten the building? Aren’t all companies nowadays pursuing skyscrapers and city landmarks?
Many companies even competed on height, priding themselves on building the tallest structure in XX city.
Yet Mr. Pei was doing the opposite, not caring about height at all?
Truly unique!
Liang Qingfan still couldn’t understand why Mr. Pei wanted to flatten the building—Tenda wasn’t selling pancakes and fruit rolls—but he didn’t have time to think about it now. He would listen to all of Mr. Pei’s requirements first, then combine them and analyze them as a whole later.
Pei Qian continued, “Second, don’t scatter gaming and entertainment areas across each floor; concentrate them instead.”
“Split the entire building vertically, dividing it into two major sections: a work area and an entertainment area.”
“The entertainment area should also occupy half of the building!”
“Furthermore, try to increase the contact surface area between the work area and the entertainment area as much as possible, making it very convenient for employees to cross between areas.”
“Um, to be precise, going to the entertainment area should be very convenient, but returning to the work area should not be so convenient.”
Designating part of a single floor as an entertainment area meant the space would always be insufficient.
Because many large-scale entertainment projects couldn’t be accommodated by a simple floor.
By consolidating the entire entertainment area, employees entering could play one project after another, unable to stop, to the point of completely forgetting that they needed to return to work.
In other words, there would be a stronger sense of immersion.
Actually, Pei Qian had initially thought about creating twin towers, with one building purely for work and one purely for entertainment. This way, once employees mistakenly entered the entertainment building, they would immediately enter an ocean of happiness, finding it difficult to swim out.
But on second thought, with this approach, the connection between the two buildings wouldn’t be close enough, making it inconvenient for employees to go to the entertainment building.
What if they found it too troublesome and didn’t want to go to the entertainment building?
Therefore, it was essential to find ways to increase the contact surface area between the work and entertainment areas, allowing employees to very easily pass into the entertainment area and accidentally forget to come back.
Liang Qingfan scratched his head, feeling that Mr. Pei’s requirement was rather abstract.
Increase the contact surface area?
How to increase it?
Very convenient to go to the entertainment area, but not so convenient to return to the work area?
Would they have to create a one-way passage, where going to the entertainment area was direct, but returning to the work area required a detour?
It became even more difficult to grasp the specific form of this building.
But he still didn’t say anything and continued to record diligently.
Pei Qian continued, “Third, the building should have multiple different entrances, each facing different positions of the building.”
“The entertainment area side of the building should face the subway station and transportation hub, making entry more convenient, while the work area side should require a detour.”
“As for the underground parking garage…”
“If going to the entertainment area, there should be an elevator for direct access.”
“But if wanting to go directly to the work area, one would have to walk through an underground maze.”
In other words, after parking in the underground garage, there were only two ways to get to the work area: either take the elevator and pass through the entertainment area, enduring various temptations; or navigate a maze in the underground parking garage, finding the way and then taking the elevator to the work area.