Huawei R&D Campus

The proposed R&D campus for Huawei draws strongly upon the geography and culture of the project site and it’s location in the wider Yangtze River valley. A desire to reinforce this unique sense of place has led the design team to a solution based on a sensitive integration of architecture, topography and landscape.

Structured around a central valley form, the campus offers an environment that is highly secure, efficient and above all, focused upon the creation of a strong sense of community and the well being of it’s inhabitants. With over 270,000m2 of accommodation, the facility incorporates a holistic mix of research offices, specialist IT laboratories, staff training and canteen buildings and will house over 9,000 employees at its peak. Based upon a detailed understanding of the client’s operational needs, the planning is driven by a modular building typology that is repeated throughout the site. This offers a cost effective and flexible architecture that is completely adaptable to the ever changing requirements of future technology research. Whilst resonating with the historic gathering of communities along the Yangtze River, this 21st century campus will now provide a platform to cultivate successful and innovative telecommunications technology.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.