The Plantronics product development and manufacturing buildings in Suzhou, China, are part of Suzhou Industrial Park, which is surrounded by green land and water. The project team worked with the customer to harmonize the complex with its lovely natural surroundings as well as with Chinese culture, and considering that Plantronics makes audio gear, “harmony” was a fitting goal.
A feng shui master analyzed the site, helping balance landform, water, and buildings and provide a beneficial flow of chi, or energy. The president’s office is in the broad east side, where energy is thought to collect.
Many Chinese corporate facilities feature imported landscaping styles, but Plantronics used native or adaptive species that need less water. Trees include camphors, Himalayan cedar, ginkgo, Chinese red bud, and Japanese timber bamboo; shrubs include tea plums, China rose, and winter jasmine; and dwarf lilyturf provides ground cover. A pond is home to waterlilies, fleur de lis, and other floating and submerged plants.
The water-saving gardens reduce irrigation demand by half in midsummer compared with a conventional landscape design, and captured rainwater provides complete irrigation year-round.
The native flora, attractive green belts, and meandering water bodies with fish have made the workplace a “home away from home” for employees, likely boosting retention, productivity, and communication.
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