The new Beijing Tobacco headquarters will accommodate a wide range of different functions and departments. The client wished as much program as possible to face South; at the same time he wished the building to be as high as possible. These requirements resulted in a rectangular building envelop of 60 x 60 x 26 meter.

In order to increase the diversity of floors, spaces and relationships between program, the envelop is horizontally sliced three times. This slicing creates a building with a solid foundation, middle part and roof, loosely referring to traditional Chinese palace architecture. The middle part is then sliced vertically four times. The middle part follow a series of manipulations in order to guarantee daylight entrance on all floors, to emphasize the main entrance and to create sky terraces.