Mayora Head Office Canteen / Lex and Architects

The brief of this project is to create a building that serves as a canteen/cafeteria facility to an existing head office. It needs to accommodate over 800 staff members and board of executives separately.

The main concept for this project is to create an oasis-like structure for the employees to really enjoy their breaks, relax and enjoy the fresh atmosphere within and around the building. We came up with a rather organic design to blend in with the vast landscape garden it sits on and to mimic and compliment the curvy main head office.

This building consists of two wings, a larger canteen for the staff and a smaller one on the other side to accommodate the executives. In between there is a plaza with an island in the middle which features a reflecting pool as well as tall trees towering up to the roof’s skylight.

The staff canteen is larger and features an almost-circular plan of about 40m in diameter. The radial plan is to allow not only a large space for eating, but also to accommodate all the 1,000 employees simultaneously for events and office functions. A small stage is positioned in the front middle section, viewable from every part of this hall. The double height ceiling allows a mezzanine floor for extra dining space. The whole structure of this hall is covered with stretch of window walls and in the middle, there is a huge skylight, thus creating a light and airy atmosphere within. To establish a fresh and relaxing feel to the interior, we opt to use artificial plants and trees spreading from the ground floor, mezzanine floor up to the hanging gardens from the ceiling.

Although the exterior wall treatments for the whole structure are similar (terracotta clad brick facade), the smaller canteen for the executives presents a more formal and elegant interior design. The interior features more sophisticated materials such as marble and porcelain slabs, artistic wallpapers and synthetic weavings. There are three big rooms, each can accommodate up to 12 executives and two rooms can be combined into a bigger hall.

Steel framing and lightweight steel roof sheets were selected for the roofing system because it was possible to taper and curve them according to the design like the shape of turtle shell. Aluminum composite panels were used to finish them off. Steel structure system is also selected to allow larger column-free spaces for the staff canteen. The window walls covering the perimeter of the building were applied in short straight sections to allow overall curvature shape, and parts of them are openable when needed for extra access or ventilation.