Vivo Headquarters, an Innovation by NBBJ in Shenzhen, China
- Mark Lafond, RA
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
An Innovative Spiraling Smart Workplace for the Next Generation of Technology Companies
Introduction
The Vivo Headquarters in Shenzhen, China, designed by architecture studio NBBJ, represents a major architectural statement for one of China’s leading smartphone and technology companies. Located in Bao’an District, the 32-story, 150-meter tower was conceived as a headquarters building that combines workplace density, outdoor garden terraces, public retail space, and wellness-oriented office planning. NBBJ describes the completed project as Vivo’s first headquarters tower in Shenzhen, with approximately 97,000 square meters of floor area and workspace for about 6,000 employees [1].
Project Background
Vivo’s Shenzhen headquarters was announced in 2020 as a major new office tower for the company’s software service, Internet value-added service, smartphone terminal research and development, and auxiliary smartphone operations. Shenzhen’s municipal government reported that construction work began in Xin’an Subdistrict, Bao’an District, with an investment of 2.8 billion yuan, equal to approximately US$395 million at the time of the public report [4].
The building was planned during a period when Shenzhen was actively expanding its role as a headquarters city for technology, electronics, software, and advanced manufacturing firms. In the same public development context, Shenzhen cited major projects by companies such as Vivo, OPPO, Xiaomi, and ByteDance as part of a broader strategy to attract high-quality industrial and corporate investment [4].
NBBJ was selected to design the headquarters as a “next generation” workplace that integrates nature, health, and equitable access to amenities. The design positions the tower not only as an office building, but also as a corporate environment shaped around wellness, flexibility, daylight, views, and outdoor space. ArchDaily reported that construction began in May 2020, while earlier sources projected completion by fall 2025. NBBJ’s current project page now lists the project phase as completed [1], [2].
Architectural Design Concept
The architectural concept is based on a tower wrapped by a spiraling sequence of planted terraces. NBBJ states that the design was inspired by Vivo’s most recognizable product, the smartphone, which is interpreted as an accessible, versatile object designed for daily use. The building follows this logic by prioritizing user experience, adaptability, openness, and moments of delight within a high-rise corporate format [1].
The tower’s form is generated through an angular shift in the floor plate. This shift creates a continuous terrace that wraps around the building and produces atriums, exterior work breaks, planted gardens, and gathering zones. Instead of treating outdoor space as a rooftop amenity only, the project distributes terraces throughout the vertical section, making exterior access a recurring part of the workday [1].
The building rises 32 stories and reaches approximately 150 meters in height. Its spiral arrangement also helps define the headquarters as a recognizable object within Shenzhen’s skyline, while maintaining a more human-scaled experience at the pedestrian and workplace levels. The result is a tower that balances corporate visibility with environmental porosity, outdoor access, and interior flexibility [2], [3].
Urban Context and Campus Integration
The headquarters is located in Bao’an District, overlooking Qianhai Bay, a strategic area within Shenzhen’s broader innovation and technology corridor. NBBJ describes the site as an urban-coastal condition, and the design responds by engaging both the city and the bay. The building’s rotation and terrace system frame outward views while giving employees access to changing daylight, landscape, and city perspectives [2]. [4].
NBBJ identifies ground-level retail and public amenities as key project features, including a flagship Vivo retail store with a 13-meter-tall glass façade. This public retail component anchors Vivo’s brand presence while activating the pedestrian realm around the base of the tower [1].
The public realm strategy is reinforced through terraces, plaza space, retail entrances, eateries, conference levels, and an employee cafeteria at the lower levels. Rather than isolate the headquarters as a private office block, the first floors create a transition from public use to corporate use. This approach is especially relevant in Shenzhen, where large technology headquarters often function as both workplace infrastructure and visible urban identity [2].
Interior Design and Learning Environment
Inside the tower, the workplace is organized around flexibility, views, wellness, and connection to nature. ArchDaily reported that each floor was designed to support flexible work, creativity, productivity, and overall well-being, featuring extra-large workspaces and relaxation areas. NBBJ’s design avoids concentrating premium views and outdoor access only at executive levels, instead distributing gardens and visual access throughout the office floors [2].
The garden terraces influence the planning strategy. BD+C reported that, because the outdoor gardens shift in location on each level, NBBJ developed a systematic planning approach to ensure work zones could benefit from garden adjacency. Pantries are placed near the gardens, and workspaces shift in response to the changing positions of the terraces. This reverses the conventional logic of beginning office planning only from the service core and instead uses gardens as primary planning anchors [3].
Conference rooms, event spaces, a penthouse amenity zone, employee cafeteria areas, and informal gathering spaces also support the interior workplace. The tower’s middle levels feature a collection of terraces and gardens, described as “The Atrium,” while the upper levels house event and conference rooms with views of Qianhai Bay. These spaces support a corporate culture based on mobility, interaction, and distributed amenities [2]. [3].
Structural Engineering and Construction
The Vivo Headquarters required structural coordination to support large outdoor garden spans, planting soil, exterior terraces, and high-rise wind and typhoon conditions. BD+C reported that some outdoor garden spans are large because the design aimed to minimize the use of columns. The structural engineering, therefore, had to provide enough capacity for planting soil while maintaining clearance in the floor below without introducing additional columns into key garden zones [3].
The project team identified by BD+C included NBBJ as design architect, Atkins as sustainability consultant, InHabit as façade consultant, BPI as lighting consultant, CADG as landscape consultant, WSP as vertical transportation consultant, and Tongji Architectural Design as the local architectural and engineering team responsible for construction drawings, structural engineering, and MEP engineering. This team structure reflects the complexity of delivering a high-rise headquarters with integrated façade, landscape, engineering, and workplace systems [3].
The building’s construction context also includes Shenzhen’s typhoon exposure and coastal urban conditions. BD+C noted that outdoor elements such as plant species and exterior doors must withstand storm conditions. This makes the tower’s terraces more than just a visual feature, as they require technical coordination among structural loads, façade detailing, drainage, planting systems, access control, waterproofing, and building maintenance [3].
Sustainability and Smart Building Features
The Vivo Headquarters is targeting LEED Gold and WELL certification. NBBJ’s current project page lists the project as targeting LEED Gold, while ArchDaily and BD+C both reported that the design aspired to WELL and LEED Gold certifications. These targets align the project with measurable sustainability and occupant health frameworks, although publicly available sources do not confirm that final certification has been awarded [1], [2], [3].
The building’s self-shading geometry is one of its primary passive environmental strategies. NBBJ states that the tower’s form reduces heat in summer and increases daylight in winter. The project, therefore, uses massing and façade geometry as part of the environmental strategy, rather than relying only on mechanical conditioning or applied shading devices [1].
The landscape system also supports Shenzhen’s Sponge City initiative. NBBJ describes permeable landscapes that assist natural stormwater management, while ArchDaily and BD+C report that permeable surfaces and landscaping are used to promote drainage back into the ground. Rainwater is also captured in underground tanks for eventual reuse. These systems integrate the planted terraces and ground-level landscape into the building’s water management strategy [1], [2], [3].
The project’s smart-building potential lies in its integration of sustainability, vertical transportation, workplace flexibility, and user experience. Publicly available sources do not provide detailed information on building automation systems, sensors, energy metering, controls, or digital twin infrastructure. However, as the headquarters of a technology company, the building’s high-performance design framework, WELL target, LEED Gold target, and consultant team suggest a strong emphasis on measurable occupant comfort, environmental performance, and operational efficiency [1], [3].
Architectural Legacy
The Vivo Headquarters belongs to a broader generation of Chinese technology headquarters that use architecture to express corporate innovation, employee culture, and urban identity. Shenzhen has become a major laboratory for this type of high-density corporate architecture, with new headquarters projects for Vivo, OPPO, Tencent, and other technology firms shaping the city’s skyline and business districts [4].
NBBJ’s design advances the typology of the corporate high-rise by treating gardens, outdoor access, and wellness as core spatial infrastructure. Instead of placing landscape only on the podium or roof, the project integrates greenery into the tower section. This gives the building a strong identity while also improving daily work experience through access to nature, informal gathering space, and outward views [1], [2].
For OpDez Architecture, the project is a relevant case study in next-generation smart workplace design. The Vivo Headquarters demonstrates how corporate architecture can combine brand identity, energy-conscious form, wellness-oriented planning, and environmental infrastructure. These themes align with OpDez Architecture’s interest in smart buildings, energy-independent NexGen buildings, integrated digital systems, and design strategies that connect technology with measurable building performance.
Construction Cost and Material Specifications
Reported construction cost: Shenzhen’s municipal government reported that the Vivo headquarters office building was built at an investment of 2.8 billion yuan (approximately US$395 million at the time of the 2020 report) [4].
Broader total project value, if available: No broader total project value beyond the reported 2.8 billion yuan headquarters investment was found in the available public sources. The Shenzhen government article placed the Vivo project within a larger group of 163 projects involving 135 billion yuan in investment, but that figure applies to the broader municipal project group, not to the Vivo headquarters alone [4].
Contract value if available: A separate construction contract value was not found in the available public sources. Public sources identify the design and consulting team, but not the general contractor, construction manager, or the awarded construction contract amount [3].
Estimated cost per square meter if calculable: Using the reported 2.8 billion yuan investment and NBBJ’s listed 97,000-square-meter floor area, the estimated cost is approximately 28,866 yuan per square meter. Using the reported US$395 million equivalent, the estimated cost is approximately US$4,072 per square meter. These are calculated estimates based on public figures, not separately published cost-per-square-meter values [1], [4].
Primary structural materials and systems: Exact specifications for structural materials have not been publicly disclosed. Available sources confirm a 32-story, 150-meter-high-rise tower with large planted terrace spans, structural engineering by the local AE team under Tongji Architectural Design, and garden zones requiring capacity for planting soil and clearance below, without added columns. Based on the building type, a reinforced concrete, steel, or composite high-rise structural system is likely, but the exact structural system should be treated as unavailable unless confirmed by construction documents [3].
Façade materials and systems: Public sources identify a glass façade strategy, including a 13-meter-tall glass façade at the flagship Vivo store, and BD+C identifies InHabit as façade consultant. The tower’s façade is shaped by the spiraling garden terraces, self-shading geometry, and exterior doors and assemblies designed for Shenzhen’s typhoon-prone conditions. Exact glazing specification, curtain wall manufacturer, U-values, solar heat gain coefficients, and façade anchorage details were not found in public sources [1], [3].
Interior materials and systems: Publicly available interior specifications are limited. Sources confirm flexible office floors, extra-large workstations, relaxation areas, pantries adjacent to gardens, conference levels, event spaces, employee cafeteria areas, and penthouse conference and event rooms. Exact floor finishes, ceiling systems, partition types, furniture manufacturers, acoustic materials, and interior lighting fixtures were not found in the available sources [2], [3].
Mechanical, electrical, lighting, and vertical transportation systems: Public sources identify WSP as a vertical transportation consultant and BPI as a lighting consultant. They do not provide detailed mechanical system specifications, HVAC plant type, controls platform, lighting fixture schedule, elevator count, destination dispatch system, or energy metering strategy. Therefore, these values should be listed as unavailable in public documentation [3].
Sustainability materials and systems: Verified sustainability systems include self-shading building geometry, permeable landscape surfaces, underground rainwater tanks, stormwater reuse, extensive planted terraces, gardens on every level, and Sponge City-oriented drainage design. The building is targeting LEED Gold and WELL certification, but the final awarded certification status was not confirmed in the public sources reviewed [1], [2], [3].
Project Images
Works Cited
[1]. NBBJ. “vivo Headquarters.” NBBJ, 2026. https://www.nbbj.com/work/vivo-headquarters
[2]. Harrouk, Christele. “NBBJ Imagines Spiraling Headquarters for Vivo, China’s Growing Smartphone and Tech Company.” ArchDaily, 18 June 2020. https://www.archdaily.com/941948/nbbj-imagines-spiraling-headquarters-for-vivo-chinas-growing-smartphone-and-tech-company
[3]. Caulfield, John. “New HQ for Chinese Tech Supplier Will Feature Gardens on Every Floor.” Building Design + Construction, 25 June 2020. https://www.bdcnetwork.com/building-sector-reports/office-buildings/news/55163445/new-hq-for-chinese-tech-supplier-will-feature-gardens-on-every-floor
[4]. Shenzhen Daily. “Work on Headquarters Building Starts.” Shenzhen Government Online, 30 June 2020. https://www.sz.gov.cn/en_szgov/news/latest/content/post_7829697.html
[5]. Shenzhen Daily. “VIVO深圳总部开建设 新增千亿投资163项.” Shenzhen Government Online, 30 June 2020. https://www.sz.gov.cn/en_szgov/news/infocus/pda/news/content/post_7829801.html
[6]. Stevens, Philip. “NBBJ to Wrap vivo Headquarters in Shenzhen with Garden Terraces.” Designboom, 18 June 2020. https://www.designboom.com/architecture/nbbj-vivo-headquarters-shenzhen-spiraling-garden-terraces-06-18-2020/
[7]. Gooood. “NBBJ Selected to Design New vivo Headquarters in Shenzhen, China.” Gooood, 18 June 2020. https://www.gooood.cn/nbbj-selected-to-design-new-vivo-headquarters-in-shenzhen-china.htm
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