Huawei OX Horn Campus - Creating New Corporate Values. Huawei Has Built a New One-of-a-kind Research Center in Shenzhen
With more than 180,000 employees and more than 170 representative offices in over 170 countries, Huawei believes that the key to success is the growth of the company and its employees together, as well as the opportunity of continuous professional development of employees.
The new research center of Huawei is located in China, in the city of Shenzhen. 39 years ago that territory used to be a commercial town, and now it has become a metropolis, the population of which, according to official data, exceeds 12.5 million, and unofficially - 20 million. Huawei decided to keep up with the city in which its headquarters were located, and built this research center next to it.
The campus was built in Dongguan, on the shore of Lake Songshan, on the border with Shenzhen. Construction of the center began in September 2014, and in July 2018, it welcomed its first employees.
Huawei Values Its Employees
The company plans to transfer about 25,000 employees from its headquarters in Shenzhen to this campus.
The company has invested about 10 billion yuan (about $ 1.45 billion) in the construction and infrastructure of the center, which also includes investments in administrative and medical institutions in the region of Dongguan.
The company believes that most of its employees will move from Shenzhen to this campus, because the distance between the headquarters and the new research center is about 50 km, and it’ll take them about an hour to get there. The construction of new houses has begun and they can be bought only by Huawei employees.
It is planned to provide employees with free buses to move from Shenzhen to the campus during the year, since not all employees will be able to find apartments near the center in a short period of time.
Architectural Style and Infrastructure of Huawei OX Horn Campus
The campus covers an area of 1.4 million square meters and is divided into 4 zones, each of which is divided into 12 blocks. There are 108 buildings in the territory of the campus.
Every block of the campus is dedicated to one European city, for example Paris, Verona, Freiburg, Granada, etc.
Huawei explains this approach by the fact that modern megacities in China, such as Shenzhen, are overloaded with skyscrapers, while the company wanted to create a completely new environment for its employees and focus on contrast and architectural diversity.
The creators of this idea believe that this approach will contribute to the development of employees' creativity, which is very important for a research center.
There are no highways on the territory of the center - employees move on foot or by small electric buses.
It’s important to note that the campus has a railway, which is the best way to move from one part of the campus to another. The total length of the railway is 7.8 km, which includes 12 stations. The traffic is ring-shaped, since there is only one railway line in the area. The train, which consists of two cars, passes through the station with an interval of 10 minutes.
Is the Campus Open to Public?
The campus is not open to public, however the company allows its employees to invite their family members and their partners for tours.
Although most of the buildings of the campus look like typical residential buildings of European cities, they are actually office areas with many meeting rooms.
Even giant castles are also office and administrative areas. It looks like they are built just to create a beautiful scenery, but in fact, they are fully functional as offices.
Huawei's new R&D center is thoroughly designed. In addition to the offices, there are also various leisure centers, as well as various shopping stores and cafés. All of this is built so that employees living and working there won’t feel isolated from the urban life.
